South Africa Last 3 days at Welgedacht Game Reserve

So the last three days have been pretty spectacular. There are seriously no words to describe the actually feelings I have. 

Friday - We started off the day feeding the lions, hyenas and leopards. Fed them horse legs! Then cleaned the enclosures while they were eating. Also deticked the lions by using a spray and spraying them through the night pens. We then helped water some plants and went to cut down some alien vegetation. Friday night was spent by the fire. 

Saturday - A morning bush walk followed by meeting up with Lozanne and Dee and the black leopard Duke! He is so beautiful and I got a chance to pat him and walk with him! So amazing! 

Saturday afternoon we went for a game drive with Vian. He certainly knows his stuff. Lots of fun. Saw every antelope possible I think! 

Sunday - Today was incredible!! Almost beyond words but just a few... We headed off early up to the striped hyenas, these boys are a bit shy so we waited until they came to us. Which Dhuba eventually did. There is a video on my Facebook. :) Such a great experience. Then we headed out to Mongena Game Lodge to have lunch and join them on a game drive... I will let these photos do the talking but one thing... I SAW WILD CHEETAH!!!!!!

 Won't be able to update blog for a little while as heading to a place that doesn't have wifi available to me all the time. So I hope you've enjoyed this one and I'll update when I can. Tomorrow I head to the Cheetah Rehabilitation Project at Modgaji. :) More adventures await. And I praise God for all of these amazing experiences! 

South Africa Days 5 and 6

Days 5 and 6 – Welgedacht Reserve

What an incredible two days!! I can quite honestly say that these have been two of the best days I have ever experienced.

Wednesday we headed out to the north and south enclosures and did animal checks and filled up some water and watered some plants and gave fresh water to the lions and hyenas. Then we met up with Kevin Richardson. Kevin is the man who runs this place. He is known as The Lion Whisperer. Kevin has a unique relationship with the lions that he looks after. Most of them he has known since they were cubs. There are many you tube videos about Kevin and he has appeared on Nat Geo and other such doco’s. I had a chance to ask Kevin many questions yesterday and today and boy have I learnt a lot. I’ll get more into that later.

In the afternoon we walked Thor. And by we, I mean Kevin walked Thor the white lion and we sat in the game truck away from harm. While Kevin has this relationship with the lions, the lions don’t know us and this is definitely for safety reasons. These lions could see us as a threat and attack. Mind you, there wasn’t much separating us from the lion… Here are some pics from our walk.

In the afternoon we planted trees and burned some off meat and insides that couldn’t be fed to the lions. We also discovered a hyena had given birth to two pups. Both of which unfortunately didn’t last til today.

Thursday – The morning started out with an animal and fence check. We checked to make sure all animals were accounted for. In the big enclosure there is an extra animal though… Rambo they call him. It is an impala that accidentally got in there and apparently has survived three different groups of lions so far. The impala cannot figure out how to get out of the enclosure and the workers here have had no luck getting him out. He is now in with 5 male lions… will be interesting to see if he survives!

We finished off our planting and then went to prepare food for Friday’s feed. Cutting up a horse is not my idea of fun but you do what you must do when working with animals. Followed by an early lunch and then off to walk Bobcat and Gabby with Kevin again.

This was a thrilling walk. Gabby ventured off and chased after some wildebeest trying to hunt one but was unsuccessful. Bobcat and Kevin just enjoyed each other’s company and I sat in the truck absolutely amazed at what I was watching. Extremely jealous but just in awe as well.

Eye to Eye with Gabby

Eye to Eye with Bobcat

Lozanne and Duke the Black Leopard. Trying to retrieve a chewed up bucket

Kevin and Bobcat

Kevin and Bobcat

Bobcat

Gabby hunting wildebeest - this was spectacular to watch. (PS. She didn't catch any!)

Unloading Gabby and Bobcat with only this one fence between us

A day well spent and a fun evening chatting by the fire with the other volunteers and workers.  

South Africa Days 3 and 4 Welgedacht Game Reserve

And so the real big adventure begins. :) 
I was greeted at the airport by Lozanne. The volunteer co-ordinator with Kingdom Lion Sanctuary. She also was picking up another volunteer Christian from Germany. Driving back to the Game Reserve we got a glimpse of what I hope to be many wild animals on the game reserve. A small family of kudus. We arrived at the camp about 2pm, along the way greeting Kevin Richardson, Lion Whisperer, for the first time. Had the afternoon off but got a small orientation. Days to start at 7.30am and finish around 5ish with an hour for lunch. I also met Daniel from Italy who is the other volunteer. Just the 3 of us this week which is good as hopefully we will get to experience more than what a big group would. :) 
As dusk came we saw 2 giraffes, a mum and her young. Met the rest of the crew and workers and settled in for an early night to get a good rest for the day to come... feeding day! 

Day 2 on the reserve. I arose early, way too excited to sleep. Today was lion feeding day! We had 27 adult lions to feed, hyenas and black leopards to feed as well. I took a couple of early morning photos and took advantage of the early rise with views of zebras, another giraffe and some more kudus. 

Heading out we saw some warthog, waterbuck, impala and secretary bird. Pretty amazing creatures that God has blessed us with. 

We loaded up the truck with the meat for the day which included (and this is not for the faint hearted) cut up horse, cow and giraffe for the lions, hyenas and leopards. Animals were fed in feeding houses so that we could go into the enclosure and clean. No face to face interactions with these big animals, it's too dangerous! Which I completely understand. I enquired about the Lion Park and other such places where you can interact with cubs and other big cats but was warned to stay away as a lot of their animals are used for canned hunting. After doing some research and reading, I have decided to not pay these places a visit and make sure that my money doesn't contribute to this. 

After lunch we went to the south enclosures (these 'enclosures' are huge by the way) and prepared for Kevin's arrival to move 3 male lions from one enclosure into another enclosure where we placed a dead baby giraffe (whole carcass) for their enjoyment and enrichment. Then Kevin moved 5 male lions into that bigger enclosure after we had organised a scatter feed. Watching Kevin work with these gorgeous majestic and powerful animals was just mind blowing. The lions relate to him, they know him and treat him as one of their own. It was incredible to watch. 

The day ended with a bit more cleaning then back to camp where I am now, just relaxing and waiting on dinner. 

Tomorrow we walk Thor...