It’s on! I’m back in the country I fell in love with two years ago: South Africa. Ever since I came back from Hoedspruit I’ve been trying to find the time to come back and now that I’ve finally graduated (and not planning on starting another degree for now ;) ), it feels like the perfect time to travel.
I’m currently sitting by the pool in 30 degree weather in Hluhluwe, SA. I will be spending the next 10 weeks here as a volunteer. I’m staying at Wildebees ecolodge where I’ll be helping out with the horse safaris. It’s not a big five reserve like Jejane but we’ve got Impala and Nyala (a baby Nyala!), Duiker and we get visits from Janets, Leopards (apparently there is a leopard cub!), Jackals, Bushpigs and lots more. And of course there’s lots of birds and, sadly, insects. When I was in Hoedspruit it was the middle of winter so there were barely any mosquitoes and I haven’t seen a single snake. Here I’ve seen two snakes over the span of one week and I’ve got so many mosquito bites they look like constellations. I’ve found a toad in my room twice and a weird type of hairy caterpillar has given me a rash on my arm. I keep waking up at night feeling something is crawling over me. When I told Maaike about it she told me one of the previous interns who stayed in my bungalow thought there was something in the matrass. Of course that resulted in us giving the matrass a thorough inspection. We were slamming it and even listening if we could hear something moving inside. Nothing so far...
Besides me, there are two other volunteers from the Netherlands, Maaike and Maarten. They are both leaving next week though. There is Nathan, who is the head ranger and Michaela and Mariska who do management. On Saturday, three more volunteers will arrive and one of them will help out with the horses as well. There is also a guide for the horse safaris who helps with taking care of the horses. We let the horses out to graze on the property in the mornings and rake the paddocks, in the afternoon we brush them and feed them for the night. If there are guests we take them out on rides in the morning or afternoon through the False Bay Park, otherwise we can do whatever we want to train them. We went on a couple of rides in the Eucalyptus plantations nearby, we did some jumping yesterday and I did some training with the 2.5 year old gelding. There are eight horses: one is the 2.5 year old and one has a tendon injury but the rest we can ride. My favorite so far is a little mare who apparently gets spooked a lot but has a very nice gait and is quite fast.
When we’re not riding we just hang out, go for walks, read etc. We hang out at the neighbours a lot. They have a Macademia farm where I helped out with moving crates the other day. There aren’t a lot of guests staying at the lodge right now but it’s supposed to get busier next week and over Easter. The owner, Martijn, told me that when the guests go on excursions and there’s a spare seat in the car I can come along. We are also planning on doing a staff gamedrive in the nearby Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park and maybe going to the beach at St. Lucia. Everyone is really nice and welcoming. All in all it’s very nice and relaxed.
That’s it for now, I’ll keep you guys posted!
Read about my adventures the first time around: once-south-africa-back-and-forth.blogspot.nl
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