31 giants and the deep peace of the wild

Hello, Bonjour and Salibonani from Cawston Wildlife Estate, Northern Matabeleland where I help for about 2,5 months with the horses. During the last few days I did some splendid outrides to new places on the reserve that I haven’t been to yet. I saw so much wildlife from a horse‘s back: a herd of sables with 2 calves, 4 elands, 31 giraffes that were very close and curious, a herd of wildebeests and impalas. Every single bushride has just it’s own magical encounters and I am so very happy to be able to enjoy this journey in the heart of Zimbabwe.

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I prefer the saddle to the streetcar and star-sprinkled sky to a roof, the obscure and difficult trail, leading into the unknown, to any paved highway, and the deep peace of the wild to the discontent bread by cities. . . it is enough that I am surrounded by beauty.

Everett Ruess

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As some of the horses are not fully fit or rideable, I lunge them. Zhovhe for example is a gelding that is apparently not yet fully broken in, so I lunge him with a saddle on and I try to put some weight on him. We will see how it goes for the next few times.

We are still repairing the paddock, remember when I said I am happy if this will be done before end of May (see this blog post) ?.. well.. take your time here. Things are just moving on a bit slower and I definitely get used to it! 

During lunchtime, I enjoy myself at my happy place, watching kudus, impalas, bushbucks, warthogs, monkeys and even a waterbuck drinking and playing around the waterhole. I had the amazing chance to spot 19 eland antelopes during sunset hours at my happy place together with some zebras. I haven’t seen zebras at that spot since I came. They usually like to hang out at other places on the reserve. Such a wonderful experience! I really start to love this fabulous reserve with all its great opportunities and epic sunsets.

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The last weekend, we hosted a group of bird hunters to shoot some guniea fowls. One morning I could join in and watch them shooting the birds and finding them with the help of plenty of dogs. This was quite an interesting process.

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One of the evenings, we prepared a sundowner in the bush for the clients and I drove on my own to the place to bring some food. I wasn’t really sure where exactly the place was and I couldn’t even remember that I ever had been there. So it was definitely a fun drive, where I tried to figure out my way on my own to a place I wasn‘t sure where it is supposed to be.

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A couple of times I thought I was lost, but I actually wasn’t because I found the fireplace with all the chairs already prepared after a 25min drive. This night the sunset was just magical with all the pink, orange and red colors the sun could possibly draw into the endless sky. Perfect evening for a sundowner and enjoying the peace of the bush that I had completely to myself as the clients were still too busy shooting some birds.

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My new lessons learned while helping in Cawston Wildlife Estate:

1. Giraffes are so very quiet – especially if you get very close to them, they seem more and more graceful and silent, you can barely hear them.
2. To get things done in Africa doesn’t take days – always count on weeks or even months!
3. 6 hunters required more than a dozen of helpers – the ratio of staff to clients still amazes me.

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