Not my first rodeo

It’s a bit of an emotional rollercoaster living with fifteen other people and doing everything together, everyday. But you also get to know someone a lot better than you normally would over the course of ‘just’ two weeks. That’s why two weeks can feel like months or years and that’s what makes it so hard to say goodbye. On Friday and Saturday, over half of the group left the ranch and in a week we’ll have to say goodbye to the remaining six. These are the people that make getting up early worth it and who challenge me everyday. It inspires me to see how much a person can grow over a couple of weeks, not just as riders but also in other aspects. I loved getting to know every single one of you, you surprised me and made me laugh (and almost cry) and you’ve taught me a lot about myself. I miss you girls already and I hope to meet you again in the future, whether in Europe or on another continent.

On a less depressing note ;) My boots are in! We went to Boot Barn last week and at first they couldn’t find them but it turned out they were on the bottom of the pile. They are really nice but I couldn’t help but look around the shop a bit and I found another pair that I really love as well. Don’t worry I didn’t buy it! I guess I’m a bit girlish after all, but with cowboy boots instead of pumps. I wasn’t the only one though as almost everyone got a pair, the counter was filled with ten pairs of new boots, quite an impressive sight. With our new boots on we went to the rodeo in Cody. It was just a regular rodeo, not like the championship last year, but it was still pretty cool to see and we had a lot of fun, especially watching the little kids run around the arena chasing calves during calve scramble and of course I loved the barrel racing.

The next day most of the group went to Yellowstone for a roadtrip while Hannah, Paige and I went to a ranch rodeo in Meeteetse. It was very different from the normal rodeo, there was bronc riding but none of the other events at the regular rodeo. This rodeo had events like team trailering, team branding and wild cow milking. While the Codeo rodeo is very touristy, this one was mostly visited by locals which gave it a completely different vibe. We have been practicing our own rodeo skills as well. We tried roping (on the ground, not on a horse) and worked the cows. We rode out one day to find our cows but we couldn’t find them anywhere. Turned out they had escaped and were on the neighbours property. We went to find them and managed to herd them into a corral. We then took turns trying to separate a cow from the rest and led it out. Pirouette (the little pony I’m riding now) was amazing, it felt like she knew exactly what to do as she galloped after that cow.

We’ve done lots of trail rides and arena work with the horses. Because Tucker was a bit stiff I switched to Pirouette, a cheeky little mare, she loves to run and can be bit nervous at times but I feel like we’re getting along better every day. She is very responsive which makes her an amazing horse to ride and she is a great barrel racer! Last week we rode to ‘Cowcamp’ where we spent the night sleeping under the stars. It is so beautiful out there and very peaceful, except for when we woke up in the middle of the night when the cows ran past where we were sleeping, we almost got trampled.. All part of the ranch experience! The ride back over the mountains was amazing! After that we went to the Hotsprings in Thermopolis to relax and recover from all the riding. Our muscles needed that ;)

In which I travel some more

After a couple of days of travelling I always feel like the airport is my new home. For some reason this trip felt longer than normal, even though I spent the night at a hotel instead of on a plane or at the airport. I feel pretty jetlagged right now though. I’m constantly hungry but even thinking about food makes me feel sick (probably because it’s the middle of the night now back home). I’m not really tired. The night in the hotel really helped, my room was huge and the bed was gigantic and so comfy. The hotel also had an indoor pool and hottub where I soaked until I was all wrinkly. I met a nice lady from Florida and chatted with her for a bit. After that I had a salad (all my stomach could manage) and went to bed early.

The next morning I had to leave early for my flight to Denver and on to Cody. Thankfully I had no problems at border control and they let me through without a lot of questions. Hannah, the other wrangler, picked me up from the airport and we went to get some groceries. I also went to Boot Barn to buy a new pair of boots (decided to treat myself, don’t judge!). The pair I wanted wasn’t in stock though and it took them ages to order it: ‘how do you pronounce your last name?’ ‘How do you spell this address?’ Apparantly Dutch credit cards are very different from American ones? After an hour (!) we finally managed. Now let’s hope the boots fit ;)

I’m back at the ranch though! It’s nice to be here again. Everything looks exactly the same and thankfully all the horses are doing good. There are also a couple of really cute new foals! And of course the dogs, cats, calves and chickens. On Sunday we picked up 14 girls for the July session. It’s a really big group but they’re all really nice and eager to learn and get involved in ranch work. It’s interesting to be kind of ‘on the other side’ this year in the sense that I’m not an intern right now but a wrangler and everyone comes to me with questions. I really like getting to know everyone though and I love teaching them and helping them with their horses. It is so cool to see how quickly they improve. After two days of riding you can already see such a big difference, not just in their riding but they also get more confidence.

The horse I’ll be riding for now is Tucker, he is MeaCile’s top horse so I feel honoured to be riding him. So far we’re getting along really well. He is a really nice and sensitive horse. We’ve been taking it easy though, to get everyone used to their horses. We did some arena work and two short trailrides. This morning I took one of the interns to wrangle the horses in. Wrangling means we ride out with a couple of people to find the horses that are roaming around the (huge) property and herd them back to the ranch. It was such a nice feeling to be riding over the hills again, it is so beautiful out here!  

Better late than never

I’ve been putting this off for ages but here it is, my final Africa blog (with the ‘scoop’ on my next destination)! I’ve been home for three weeks now and I finally feel like I’m settling in a little bit (not for long though, more on that later). It’s hard to describe the feeling but the first few weeks it was like I was dreaming and would wake up back in Africa. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to be back and see everyone (and my horse!) but I felt a bit lost without the bush and the daily work with the horses. I know I’m lucky that I don’t have a job right now and can just do whatever I want for a couple of weeks while everyone else is working hard, but trust me, it gets boring. I wish I had something to structure my days a bit more. I also miss the African way of life. Only when you leave do you notice how stressed we all are worrying about silly things.

So the past couple of weeks I’ve been trying to catch up with everyone back home, went on two horse riding weekends, celebrated my birthday, saw movies, had drinks and dinners and sleepovers with friends, enjoyed the lovely (and not so lovely) weather, trained my horse (I think she’s happy I’m leaving again soon) and whatnot. A big thank you to everyone who took the time to see me these past couple of weeks, I know you’re all busy but you made it a lot easier for me to be back.

Let’s get caught up on my last two weeks in Africa. I did lots of riding and training (no surprise there), taught riding lessons, we took out guest rides. One day we had guests who wanted to have lunch at the halfway point so while Sakhile took out the guests on the horses, me and two others took a van into the park to bring the food. They do these kind of things on rides often but had never done it at this particular spot because it’s not that easy to reach by car. The roads were quite bad because of the heavy rains we’d had but we ventured out anyway. Annnd... we almost got the car stuck! Thankfully we had a skilled driver who managed to turn the van around (in a quite dense forest) and we took another way around. Then we had to carry the food to the lake as the car couldn’t get that far. We managed to get everything set up just in time though and the guests loved it.

What else? Heleen came by for another riding lesson and she cantered (on her own!). I was so proud, she had improved so much and I was positive she could do it. She was (understandably) a bit nervous at first but she persisted and she did great! I tried show jumping with Camelot, who seemed really confused as to what to do with her legs when jumping but eventually loved it. Christine and I went on another beautiful ride to Sandy Point. This time I only almost died twice on that narrow, thorny path. Mariska, Christine, Martijn and I also went to St.Lucia for a day where we had the best sushi ever, betted on who could take the most selfies with different animals and took a boat tour with some hippos (and crocs). Ow and on the drive there and back we almost ran over a hippo and an elephant, no biggie.

Before I knew it my time in Hluhluwe was over and we were on our way to the airport where I arrived 15 minutes before take off and still had time to sit down and be bored (that doesn’t mean I wasn’t stressing on the way there as you can probably imagine). I want to thank everyone for making my time in Zululand so special. I feel blessed to have met you all and I’m going to miss you loads! May we meet again ;)

THE END... 

...Ow wait, you’re probably wondering what’s next (at least everybody keeps asking me that). Like I said I’m not home for long because next Friday I’m taking another plane to …*drumroll*…  Wyoming!!! I’m going back to MaeCile and the ranch (where I went on vacation last year, see earlier blog entries) to help out for the summer. I’m going to spend ten weeks riding, training, learning, exploring and whatever else comes along. And of course meeting new people and catching up with old friends. I can’t wait! Of course I’ll keep you posted through this blog so see you soon!

Elephants, floodings and camping trips

I can’t believe it’s almost the end of May. I’ll be leaving this amazing place on the 6th of June, only ten days from now. Time really flew by. It’s like I said in one of my blogs last year, it simultaneously feels like I only just got here and like I’ve been here forever. I do miss my friends and family back home and of course my own horse but I really can’t imagine going back. I’m still having so much fun here!

It has been quiet at the lodge this month, it’s almost weird to have guests around. Now that we don’t have as many guests wanting to ride, we have some more time to train the horses ourselves. I’m still working with the 2,5 year old, he is doing great! He’s a really fast learner and isn’t scared of anything. A couple weeks ago, I put a saddle on him for the first time and he was completely fine with it. No matter what I did, from putting it on his neck to dropping it behind him, he didn’t even blink. Yesterday I lunged him with a bit for the first time and even the steering went great. The only thing we are struggling with is the canter. He’ll just trot really fast but it takes a lot of effort to get him to canter in the arena. I decided to ride another horse around the property and lead him on a halter. At first he almost dragged me from the saddle because he didn’t want to move, but eventually he followed us and even cantered. The camping guests were laughing at me as I kept passing their tent with the horses.

I teach a lot of horse riding lessons at the moment. Mariette asked me if I wanted to do a riding lesson with her daughter and two of her friends’ kids. One of the kids, Evan, has already come back for two more lessons and his mom, Heleen, also wanted to do a riding lesson. She wanted to practice canter, because she had been on a ride with us before, but she still felt a bit unbalanced. We did some balance exercises in trot and she improved so much after that. Attila looked like a completely different horse, he was so much more relaxed and her seat was so much better! I train two or three horses a day, which keeps me busy. It is really nice though, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of the amazing scenery here. Christine helps out with the horses a lot, we get along really well. We’ve got a similar work ethic I guess, same ideas about the horse care and she’s a great person to talk to. We have a lot of fun. Besides all the riding we are still working on a new project concerning the horses as well (more on that soon hopefully).

What else? We’ve been having some cold weather. Two weeks ago it was raining for three days straight. I got so bored because we couldn’t do much with the horses and there was not much else to do either. We all just sat in the bar all day (in five layers of clothing because it was freezing) and watched tv shows and movies. Even in my room it was freezing because I don’t have windows.. The one night I went back to my room after watching a movie in the bar and I heard a weird noise coming from my room, like running water. When I opened the door I saw the bathroom sink had exploded and was gushing water, the whole bathroom was flooded. I ran back to the bar, hoping to catch Michaela before she closed up. I think she thought I was under attack with the way I was yelling. She helped me look for the switch to turn the water off, which was somewhere in the bush, in the middle of the night. I couldn’t use the bathroom for two days. We’ve also had a lot of power outages, especially in the evenings. That’s life in Africa I guess ;)

We went on another game drive in the Hluhluwe Park. We were having a braai at one of the picnic spots in the park when we suddenly heard a growling noise. At first we thought it might be a lion so I walked back to the car to get my camera when I saw it was a big group of around 25 elephants bathing in the river. They were having so much fun swimming and playing, it was an amazing sighting. We also went camping in Ithala, a nearby reserve. It might be the most beautiful park I’ve seen so far. It had some amazing viewpoints, beautiful hills and it was a bit more open than the Hluhluwe Park. The campsite was next to a river where we had drinks in the afternoons, we did a couple of drives through the park, had a braai, did some stargazing, talked around the campfire. It was really nice to be away for a couple of days and just relax.

That’s it for now, I’m going back to denying the fact that I have to leave soon, if you don’t hear from me again I decided to just not get on the plane and stay here forever ;)

Follow the sun

It’s been awhile since I last wrote, and no that is not because I was eaten alive by mosquitoes. There actually haven’t been as many mosquitoes now that it’s getting closer to winter. There aren’t as many guests either (not that the two are related ;). April was a busy month with both guests at the lodge and horse rides but now we have two days where there are no guests. It is really quiet around here, especially at night. The animals have been acting a bit strange as well. We are all sleeping with radios next to our bed so we can inform each other when we hear something. It is making me a little paranoid to be honest. Yesterday evening I thought I heard gunshots while it was actually just Nathan slamming his car door shut..

Last week (or the week before? I can’t keep track of time) we went on another beach trip. This time to 9 mile beach (not to be confused with green mile ;). To get there, we had to drive over a sand road for about an hour. It sure was an experience, bouncing around in the car, with seven people in one vehicle. I think some of us might have gotten a mild concussion that day ;). The beach was worth the trip though, it was beautiful. It was very secluded so we had it to ourselves for most of the day. The waves were pretty strong though, after every wave I had to check if my bikini was still in place. On the way back I got to drive, I’m still not sure whether that was because people actually trusted my driving or just didn’t want to be the designated driver. It was my first time driving on the left side of the road (for longer than five minutes) but I got everyone home in one piece. We even saw a rhino on our drive home, quite surprising considering there was a party going on in the back seat and they could probably hear us coming from miles away.

Yvette, Rick, Wesley and I also did another trip into the park, the Imfolozi side this time. We left at 5.30am because it’s a bit of a drive. Unfortunately we had had a party the night before, which Yvette and I left quite early, but *some people* had only had 2.5 hours of sleep. Thanks again Wesley for not crashing the car and Rick for grabbing the wheel every once in awhile ;) We saw a lot of animals (a group of zebra that seemed to be following us around) but sadly no wild dogs (the one animal I still really want to see in the wild) or lions and leopards for that matter. I did see a giraffe! That made me ridiculously happy as I hadn’t seen one here yet. Also more rhino’s and a lot of elephants (in the middle of the road..). The scenery that side was great though! The only downside of that part of the park was that there was no restaurant so we had to survive on cookies that day :P

Since we were used to getting up early anyways we decided to do a sunrise ride with the horses the next morning. This time we got up at 4.30am to get the horses ready and ride out to False Bay before 6.15am. We arrived just in time to see the sun rising above the mountains in the distance and then disappearing again behind a cloud.. We did see the sun rise a second time that morning as it came out from behind the clouds ;) It was beautiful, really the perfect spot to watch and the horses were great even though it was still dark out when we left. Thanks again for getting up that early Yvette and Wesley! At least we got loads of beautiful photos ;) Hopefully we can offer these rides to guests in the future as well.

Sadly, Yvette, Rick and Wesley went back home last week. It was great meeting you guys, see you again here next year?!

Singing in the rain

*warning* this post may cause jealousy when you live in the Netherlands (or another country where it is currently raining or freezing)

I know it’s probably around 10 degrees in the Netherlands (I even hear they predict temperatures below zero at night) but I’m still going to say it: it has been cold here! Well I shouldn’t overreact, it has been around 19 degrees at night, but still it’s a nice change from the 36 degrees we had to suffer through last week. We’ve even had rain, Martijn and I were still out feeding the horses and were drenched in under a minute. It’s funny how quickly you get used to the higher temperatures. For the first couple of weeks I’ve been wondering why on earth I even brought a pair of jeans but now everyone is wearing jumpers and jackets in the evenings and I’m actually sleeping under a duvet instead of just a sheet. You see how hard our life is here ;)

More proof of how busy we are: on Tuesday we went to the beach near St. Lucia. It was a bit ‘cooler’ (but still around 25 degrees) so it was nice and quiet. The water was a bit cold though, plus there’s always the risk of getting eaten by sharks (or hippos or crocodiles) so I didn’t actually swim but it was nice to sunbathe for a bit. We decided to include sunbathing for 40 minutes in our daily schedule from then on (it hasn’t happened yet). On the way back we took a shortcut through a reserve belonging to a five star lodge and were lucky enought to find a (five star) lioness in the middle of the road. We didn’t even see her at first as we were all looking at the car behind us. When Martijn said there was a lion in front of us we thought he was joking, we almost ran her over. When we were watching her, a male lion came walking up to the nearby fence, later followed by a second one. They were roaring at each other, it was really cool.

We spend another afternoon at Eric and Gina’s. Nathan took Mikaela and me to shoot the pallet gun. I had done it before but I’m not a very good shot. Imagine my surprise when my first three shots all hit their marks (a tin can 150 metres away). According to Nathan the gun was skew (he kept missing the cans). We were so focussed on the shooting we didn’t realize Martijn and Eric lit some fireworks behind us, my ears were ringing all night.

Yesterday, Yvette, Rick, Wesley and I went to the Hluhluwe Park in another attempt to find a leopard (or wild dogs, I still haven’t seen them in the wild). Unfortunately the ‘interesting’ animals seemed to be on strike. We saw a lot of zebra, nyala, warthog, waterbuck, buffalos and a rhino but that was it. Funny how easy it is to forget how amazing it actually is to get to see this. We are spoiled with all the rhino in the park and we consider the buffalo the impalas of the big five (you see them everywhere).

I know it sounds like we’re nog doing anything here but we actually do work. I got up at 5.30am three days in a row to get the horses ready for rides. We have had rides every day for the last week and a half and I even guided two myself because our guide was off. I was a bit nervous about that as I don’t know a lot about the park, plants and animals but I think I did alright. I hope the stories I told were actually true and not me mixing up all the facts and making up new trees and animals that don’t actually exists. Ah well, the guests had fun and they were all really nice. At least we didn’t get lost.

Meanwhile in Africa

I haven’t been eaten yet! The mosquitoes sure have tried though... Both my arms are covered in bites and rashes and other marks. I fear I might be allergic to something here. I now know that it’s the tiny animals you should fear, not the big ones.

Speaking of large animals, we went on a game drive last Sunday! The Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park is really beautiful with it’s rolling hills and winding rivers. The scenery in itself makes it worth the trip but we had a couple of great sightings as well. I was really happy because there were lots of Rhinos! I’d only ever seen them from kilometers away in the Krueger so I really wanted to see even just one… Instead we saw two in the distance, a mother and baby next to the car, two adults drinking 3 metres away from us, two adults lounging by a river with a herd of buffalo, and a group of rhinos grazing on a hillside. I still cannot believe how lucky we were to see all that. We also saw loads of buffalo and an elephant emerging from the bushes right in front of our car. That gave Nathan, our guide, a bit of a fright as he wanted to back the car up to give the elli some space but some idiot had parked right behind us.

Of course we also saw impala, warthog, zebra, nyala and lots of birds but sadly not a single giraffe. As it was Maaike’s last game drive she really wanted to see a lion but unfortunately we didn’t find them either. They are hanging out close to the gate apparantly so maybe on my next gamedrive. This morning I went on a horseride with two friends of Martijn and one of them told me she lives in the Hluhluwe Park as her husband is the head ecologist there. She told me that she was annoyed because she could barely get out of the park this morning as the road was blocked by a group of lions and a bunch of people in cars watching them. How rude of those lions to block the road like that ;)

What else have I been up to? All the days seem to blend together here and time flies. This is already my third week. Three new volunteers have arrived from the Netherlands: Yvette, Wesley and Rik. They were supposed to help Nathan out but him and Mikaela have a couple days off so they are just hanging out and helping with the horses. Yesterday we all went to False Bay to have drinks and watch the sunset and afterwards we had another braai (fifth braai since I arrived!). I went on a couple of rides, did some training with the horses, hung out at Eric’s. A couple days ago Maaike and I helped Eric and Gina in ‘the Nut House’ roasting, seasoning and packing (and eating!) macademia nuts. Their daughter and son in law also came over with their grandkids and brought a quad bike so of course we took that for a spin as well!

Now I’m hanging out at the bar with Yvette. It is really quiet at the lodge as there are no guests, Maaike and Maarten have left, Nathan and Mikaela are off and Martijn, Wesley and Rik went to Richardsbay. Apparantly another lady is coming soon to help out with the horses, she has been here before and I have heard some wild stories about her, we’ll see how that goes.

 To be continued…