Hello, Bonjour and Salibonani from Cawston Wildlife Reserve, Northern Matabeleland where I stay for about 2,5 months and help with the horses. During the early afternoon we finally set up of the safari camp for the upcoming safari. It was quite a hectic day, but we managed to build a bush toilet, shower and set up all 3 tents. It’s finally safari time for the next 4 days!
Bush toilet is ready to be used
Trying to finalize the bush shower
For the next few days I was helping to prepare horses for the bush outrides, getting breakfast ready in the morning and just enjoyed the amazing wildlife encounters during the bush outrides! I have to admit however, that it surely was quite a stressful time with days starting before 5am and finishing after 9pm, which lead to some shortages in sleep that I need to get back soon. But it’s definitely worth it, if you ever want to experience a great horsesafari, come along and join this fantastic place!
Wildebeests ahead of us
Beautiful scenery during the bush outride
Hello giraffe
Going for a sundowner
Enjoying the beautiful end of the day
After the safari days, we washed all the saddle blankets and went back to normal working days. Next task that is waiting for us is to repair the fences of the paddock for the horses. This will be a longer mission… Let‘s see if we will be done before end of May.
Warthog inspecting the horse paddock
I finally could go on a morning drive to fix the pumps for the waterholes all over the ranch. I believe I was a great help watching the guys fixing the pumps and that’s about as far as my help went. It’s really sad to say this as a German but I didn’t even know how the Diesel engine works. The guys did a great job and I might recognize a Diesel engine next time I see it – think that’s already some good improvement. However, I believe I wasn’t causing too much trouble, so I guess that’s a great achievement from my side!
Waterhole Mpofo
My first Diesel engine inspection
Waterhole Ingwe
During the next day, I went back to what I can do a bit better, riding and looking for the donkeys as we have to deworm some of them. We easily found the donkeys in the bush and directed them homewards, where we did the deworming. Another 2 horses needed to be dewormed as well, so that was the work for the day. After working now for about 4 weeks in a row, without any day off, I believe I might need to take a day off soon and sleep, let’s see if this is going to happen.
Donkeygirl
My new lessons learned while helping at Cawston Wildlife Reserve:
- Sleeping time is rare on a safari – you are definitely a safari staff person if you are fine with only a couple of hours of sleep.
- Knowledge about Diesel engines helps to fix the pumps – otherwise you can at least try to not be in anyone’s way.
- Deworming is easier than I thought – the hardest work is to find the donkeys 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 ∞