Getting to know my little roommates

Hello, Bonjour and Salibonani from Cawston Wildlife Reserve, Northern Matabeleland where I stay for about 2,5 months and help with the horses. By now, I am getting much better along with all of my little roommates, such as spiders, moths, lizards and other little funny looking animals. They all have their favorite spots, the lizard for example inhabits the little place behind my mirror and the spiders just love the ceiling. They actually protect me well against the mosquitos!

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I have also found my happy place on the ranch, which is the veranda overlooking the plains and a waterhole where some wildlife come to drink. I love to sit here and watch the animals drinking during my lunch break. Occasionally a green snake would join me and relax on the wooden floor.

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Taking care of the 12 horses here, brings me as close as I could get of being a vet as we got 4 injured patients on the ranch, 3 horses and 1 donkey – being said that this number can increase on a daily basis. One horse got bitten by a snake, another got hip problems and an injured fedlock and the other horse has an injured fedlock and a thorn just above where her hoove starts. No vet is close by, so Google and I become close friends to find out special treatments. However, since no city is close by either one must be very creative and water with ice or salt with soap becomes the most important ingredients for treatments here.

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We finally finished to repair the lunging arena, where my help was rather limited as this was hard work and I believe my muscles were still to weak. But I am happy that two guys were strong enough to make it look perfect now. Meanwhile, I used the time to ride one of the safari horses, Donha in the riding arena. Donha is one of the three pregnant mares, at least we believe three of them are pregnant as they grow bigger each day. If I would be lucky enough, one of these foals may be born by end of June, let’s wait for this surprise!

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During another morning we decided to go on a real bush ride, deep into the bush! I can’t guarantee that you might see any wildlife, even though we saw 6 giraffes including a tiny baby, but I can guarantee you and your horse will be covered in ticks for sure! Never in my life did I see sooooo many ticks, unbelievable. A bush ride may seem to be a romantic thing to do, but be prepared for these vicious little and annoying animals that you will find days later still crawling in your pants. For this reason we were dipping the horses including saddle, bridal etc. after the outride, to kill these thousands of ticks.

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When not helping with the horses, there is plenty of other things we work on. During my work in the bush for example, where I helped to clear up a spot for a camp, I was interrupted by a huge swarm of bees passing just next to me. The sound and noise of them was unbelievable and gave me a huge fright. I had to stand still while my adrenaline was on top levels! Good thing, I survived it without any sting.

My new lessons learned while helping at Cawston Wildlife Reserve:

1. Brooming skills are also needed in the bush – If you should ever need a broom in the bush (there might be a crazy reason to clean up the bush), look for a branch of the toothbrush tree that does a good job.
2. The chances are quite high if you hear a loud sound in the bush that it is not a plane but rather a swarm of bees – When a swarm of thousands of bees flies towards you, you must stay quietly and wait for them to pass.
3. Peaceful sleep works also as a tick repellent – Remember to always have sunscreen and peaceful sleep with you, they will be your safeguards in the bush!

Cheers to wandering the world and the wonders of our lives, hope to see you see you soon again – bye bye, salut and lisale kuhle ∞