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...

South Africa Blog 1. Jo'burg and Soweto 31st Aug and 1st Sept

Days One and Two – Johannesburg, Soweto and Boksburg

Saturday - I arrived at roughly 7am in Jo’burg to 0 degrees Celsius. Tired, with jet lag and with sexy cankles. Got my first stamp in my new passport and picked up and taken to my hotel. Along the way my hotel manager convinced me to do the Apertheid and Soweto tour instead of the Jo’burg tour. In all honesty I think she was trying to save herself money as she had another girl booked that day for that tour. I went with it and glad I did.

I got an hour to shower and relax before heading off. Best way to overcome jet lag is to stay awake all day if you can so this was a good way to do that.

First stop Apertheid Museum. Very eye opening… They had a temporary exhibit on Mandela there. Here are a few pics.

Next stop Soweto. Short for South West Township. This is where Nelson Mandela resided before he went to prison for 27 years and then for 11 days after he left prison. His house has been turned into a museum. This was my favourite museum of the day. Soweto was definitely the kind of place that I have never been to before. Poverty was very evident and people would do anything for a bit of money. There was a contortionist, a rapper, carwashers (that would wash your car while you were in the museum and then charge you when you got out even though you didn’t ask for the car to be washed), and many street venders aiming to make money off the tourists visiting the museum. I bought a couple of small things.

Hopping back into the car we headed to Hector Pieterson Museum. Hector Pieterson was among the first children to be shot and killed at a rally on June 1, 1976. This was an awakening for the people.

At the end of the day we passed Soccer City where the FIFA World Cup was held only a couple of years ago. Its HUGE.

You can bunji jump off the walkway up in the middle there on this power station... crazy... 

These are 'kit' homes. For sale. 

Original piece of furniture in Mandela's house

These boys asked me to take a picture of them... so I did... :) 

Soweto markets

Soccer City

Jo'Burg

Sunday -  After a long sleep, I woke and had brekky and pondered what to do on my free day. Eventually I decided to go for a walk. I walked to the closest mall which was about a 15 min walk. Not a lot was open and I really wanted to buy a zoom lens and a lens shade for my new camera. So I asked how to get to a bigger mall and was instructed to stand on the side of the road and put my hand out spreading my fingers like I was showing the number 5 and that would hail me a taxi that would only cost 6 Rand (about 70cents) to get to East Rand Mall. Sceptical about this I decided to walk and see just how far the mall was as I was told it was on that same road… I got sick of walking after 10 mins. LOL. I asked again at a local petrol station if they could call me a taxi. Instead the petrol attendant asked one of his customers who kindly offered me a lift. (Mum if you are reading this, don’t worry, I did a risk assessment first and decided the risk was low.) The man Patrick and his wife Precious gave me a lift to the mall which was a good 5kms so I’m glad I didn’t walk. I spent the day walking around the mall and making sure I had all the necessary things I needed for the two weeks ahead. I got my lens and saved a good $200. J I went to a flea market and got a few souvenirs and there was entertainment there (which was really bad singers) and I found the culture much like Australia really but still very interesting. I decided to spend the afternoon walking home and I’m so glad I did. On the way I stumbled across a Pet Market. But this was no ordinary pet store. It had a Bird Park attached to it which was free to enter… so enter I did.

It took me a good hour and a half to casually walk home and along the way I discovered that you can buy just about anything at a set of lights or on the side of the road. From sunglasses to furniture to even puppies (which made me quite sad).

It was a great day and being in Africa is gradually becoming real… 

The Animal World

So over the last 12 months my life has changed dramatically. In some ways for the better, in others ways not so much and its been a hectic rollercoaster however I'm doing my best to move forward and remain a positive person. I've decided its time to do some more blogging. 
I'm not even sure who will read these, whether it be my family or just a few of my close friends or a wide selection but I hope that you will find it of interest. 

Before reading/viewing on, I will warn you, there are lots of photos on this particular blog! Lots of photos of awesome animals! Just so you are aware. 

A year and a bit ago I embarked on a new adventure. I undertook a Certificate III in Captive Animals at Ultimo Tafe. I volunteered at Featherdale Wildlife Park during that time and I went on many exciting journeys. Here are a few pics to showcase some of my experiences rather than write all about it, you can view it! 

Feeding a white lioness!

Witnessing a lion get a root canal!

Playing with small clawed otters!

Hanging with dingoes!

Feeding red pandas! 

It's certainly been an amazing experience working with animals and following a new dream. At Featherdale I was able to have many more hands on experiences such as holding koalas, holding snakes, feeding ghost bats, and much much more, however I'm not allowed to post photos of that so I will honour Featherdale by not doing so. If you would like to see photos I'm happy to show you in person. :) But here are some photos I took as a member of the public at Featherdale that I can share. 

Though Featherdale has sadly ended, I have started a new journey at Taronga at the Bird Show. I am thoroughly loving it there. Behind the scenes of the bird show I get to release birds and hopefully soon catch them when they return after their performance. I love it! I get to work with a wide variety of birds, from the common pigeon to wedge-tail eagles, to black breasted buzzards and major mitchell cockatoos. 

So I will leave you at that with a rough idea of what the last year has been in regards to chasing a dream to work with animals... next stop is Africa! That's right, I head to South Africa in just 12 days and I hope to post something every couple of days. So keep an eye out!