Working in Zim – Seite 2 – WANDER OUR WORLD

8. Mai 201917. Januar 2020

Between bees, leopards and a horse box

Hello, Bonjour and Salibonani from Cawston Wildlife Reserve, Northern Matabeleland where I stay for about 2,5 months and help with the horses. Before I took my very first day off, I had to accomplish and survive one last task during the evening hours, where it is pitch dark in Zimbabwe: helping to move one of the beehives away from the workshop.

The bees had decided to sattle down in a huge box and now they need to be moved. I have to say that bees are most likely the animals I am the most afraid of, this seemed therefore to be the hardest task to accomplish here. Luckily, I was left in the car, being told to be the driver. I think I can handle that! So all I did was waiting for the bees to be carried out in a box, being put on the back of the truck and drive off. I have no idea how the bees were all put into that box but I guess I am just happy they are. Off I drove, unfortunately I forgot what I was told: should I drive slow or fast? Well, I have this box full of bees in the back of the car with Chris holding tight to them. Poor him, I decided I better drive fast through the darkness on the sand pad so we would reach our goal quickly. This was however not the right decision as all the bouncing apparently made it hard to hold on to the bee box and I was shouted at from the back of the car to slow down. I believe it took me a while and a couple of gear changes until I realized I have to slow down now. We finally arrived at the place where the bees were released into their new home. I just hoped they would please stay outside and not come inside the car. Not quite sure if this was the case during the drive back. Happy I survived this mission, I just had to learn that we will do this for a second time as so many bees are in the workshop. Oh my dear, a second time moving the bees and driving through the pitch dark to find a spot to release the second swarm. Everything went fine, without any troubles or stings. I really think I deserve my next day off to just relax!

And yes, the next day was my day off and I wanted to finally sleep in. That didn’t work quite as good as I wanted, at 5.45am I was wide awake and finally got up a few minutes later. I spent the day enjoying the view on the waterhole from my happy place. Really great!

Next morning, I had to drive into town, Bulawayo for the first time since about 3 weeks to renew my visa. Unbelievable that I am in Zim for 30 days already. It was very easy to get my visa renewed and didn’t take more than 5 min.

A visitor along our way when leaving Cawston

Afterwards, I found myself at the vet in town to drop some blood samplings from wildlife such as wildebeests, Kudu and Impala that needs to be tested. The testing would take about 3 weeks and one of the staff person told me „you know how things are here now“. I was just looking at him, thinking to myself well I just renewed my tourist visa, no I absolutely don’t, but kept quiet and walked on to get the next task done.

Now, I had to get a horse box for a horse to be loaded on and brought to the vet. Getting the box was easy but then 4 days were needed to load the horse that had definitely decided it would never ever get back in this box. Slow progress was accomplished during the next days. Plenty of horse food, cubes as well as grass later we had the horse in the box. However, we didn’t succeed to load her the day we had the vet appointment. So more work needs to be done until end of May. We will see if the horse will be loaded by then…

Stretching the neck but not willing to go in

During the evening, I enjoyed sitting by the fire at my happy place, there were even bushbabies joining me and I heard my first leopard calling. Apparently, there is one walking close by my room during the nights, looking for the ostrich chickens. However, I never hear it. The same with the hyenas that were calling one night close by my room. I somehow always miss these exciting things.

My new lessons learned while helping at Cawston Wildlife Reserve:

You can move beehives even if you are afraid of them – all you need is someone competent who does it for you!
Sleeping in isn’t as easy as it sounds – your inner alarm will tell you early enough when it’s time to get up.
Loading a horse into a horse box that is determined to not go in is interesting – all you need is about 4 days of patience and lots of working time with the horse.

Cheers to wandering the world and the wonders of our lives, hope to see you soon again after my next safari time that will be in Matobo – bye bye, salut and lisale kuhle ∞

5. Mai 201917. Januar 2020

Safari time and Diesel engines

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!

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!

Beautiful scenery during the bush outride

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.

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!

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.

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 ∞

30. April 201917. Januar 2020

Fabulous wildlife encounters

Hello, Bonjour and Salibonani from Cawston Wildlife Reserve, Northern Matabeleland where I stay for about 2,5 months and help with the horses. In the past days I was very often in the bush as I did another game drive with an amazing sunset. Nothing can beat African sunsets, they are just at the very top and never disappoint you! During the drive I have seen sable antelopes, giraffes, a big impala herd that was jumping across the sand pad just in front of us, some shy zebras, wildebeests and kudus.

The next day I wanted to do my first game count in one of the blinds close to a waterhole called Mpafa. I have to admit, it was very scary to enter it, as it was dark and somewhat below the ground. Inside I found some bats but no snakes luckily! However, I decided to get out again as the view was very limited due to high grass in front of the blind. Just when I was getting into my car, 5 giraffes came towards the waterhole and were looking at me for about 30 mins. Afterwards, they decided I might be dangerous and they tranquilly left the waterhole without drinking. I started my car and drove off just to find lots of game on the road leading to the waterhole, plenty of giraffes, impalas and a herd of sable antelopes was waiting for me. Such a fabulous game drive!

Dinner took place at my favorite spot at campsite and I had the rare chance to see a serval from the veranda during the night time that was just walking from the waterhole towards the thick bush. Such a great encounter!

Unfortunately, we have now some other horses with more injuries and one of them had a kolik. Luckily we found her in time and walked her as well as gave her one bottle of beer as this is supposed to relax the stomach. We mixed the beer with some honey and activated charcoal. No vet is close by so we must figure out ourselves what is working and what not. We looked after the horse during the night and made sure she was fine, which she was by the next day and we put her back into her paddock together with the ostriches. We used this opportunity to look for some ostrich eggs as the females should lay some soon, but didn’t find any yet. Let’s see next time, maybe we will find some very soon!

My new lessons learned while helping at Cawston Wildlife Reserve:

Learn how to distinguish between female and male species – if you are doing a game count, you better know which species you see and weather it is a male or female.
You need to act quickly if no vet is around – always be alert and check your animals for any symptoms that might have to be treated quickly.
Ostriches sound like lions – if you hear a calling similar to a lion‘s but you are sure there are none, it will most likely be an ostrich calling.

Cheers to wandering the world and the wonders of our lives, hope to see you see you soon for the next blog that will be about safari time – bye bye, salut and lisale kuhle ∞

24. April 201917. Januar 2020

It‘s all about the game

Hello, Bonjour and Salibonani from Cawston Wildlife Reserve, Northern Matabeleland where I stay for about 2,5 months and help with the horses. Every morning we start working at 6 am, I am however always a bit late as I can’t get up on time, it is just too early. It really gets me sleepy and tired to wake up so early every single day. There is no weekend as the animals are hungry, need exercise or might get ill every day. Definitely harder than I thought at the beginning…

For the first time, I lunged a rescued horse, that can not yet been ridden, in our re-opened lunging arena that we had fixed some days ago. The horse‘s name is Zhovhe and he was doing really well, we had lots of fun together. Maybe we will get to the point that he actually can be ridden by June. We will see what happens once his injured back leg has recovered from a very deep cut.

But I am not only working with the horses here, I also help preparing the food for the ostriches on the reserve, which contains sorghum, maize and millet. We mix about half of a ton for 8 ostriches that should last a couple of weeks. Feeding the ostriches is a special task and I am not yet brave enough to do that. These huge animals get really crazy, so the grooms who feed them, take a long whip to scare them away as an ostrich attack could end deadly.

I also go on game drives through the reserve to look after the game or injured donkeys. During my first game drive, I have finally seen the wild sables antelope for the first time. Magnificent animals with long horns standing in front of the sun setting down! Another time I went with the car to look after the free roaming donkeys, which turned into a game drive as well as I saw a herd of wildebeests just next to a herd of zebras that were really close to 9 giraffes enjoying their afternoon.

During my lunchtime I enjoy to hang out at the deck and watch the waterhole action going on. There is always a party one of a kind, kudus or giraffes enjoying the water, monkeys playing around, warthogs rolling in the mud or bushbucks just strolling the green plain. I have even seen some very shy impalas coming for a quick drink as well as an old, limping sable antelope – beautiful animal! During the evening a fire is set up and I enjoy the marvelous sunset from this fabulous veranda, where bushbabies come to join me.

On the reserve, there is a dairy as well as a butchery and I saw for the very first time a zebra that was being skinned after it got shot on the game reserve. The skinning process takes about an hour, done by 2 or 3 people. Almost every part of the animal is used, the meat to feed on, the skin to serve as a rug and the parts being left over are fed to the vultures.

Zebra being skinned after being shot on the reserve

My new lessons learned while helping at Cawston Wildlife Reserve:

Sleeping until 7 am is heaven – getting up every single day at 5.30 am is really getting hard.
When not vegetarian, one needs to know where the meat comes from – seeing meat being processed, makes it more precious and understandable why this needs to be done in a proper way.
Avoid any sound when enjoying to watch animals drinking at a waterhole – every little click can scare them away easily.

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 ∞

20. April 201917. Januar 2020

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!

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.

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.

Shooky and Fury after being dipped, looking for the best spot to roll on

Power and Sienna being happy to roam freely in the reserve

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!

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.

Giraffe wondering if we might be dangerous

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:

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.
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.
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 ∞

16. April 201917. Januar 2020

European girl trying to survive in the African bush

Hello, Bonjour and Salibonani from Cawston Wildlife Reserve, Northern Matabeleland where I have arrived on the 13th of April. Lots of things have happened since my last blog post and some of them were really heart breaking. Thursday the 11th of April, we had to take the decision to put down the little foal, Bandi. We went to the vet with him and wanted a full assessment of his body and legs. It came out that 3 of his legs had major problems and it was unsure if he could ever walk. This was a very sad day and I miss his little face that got so excited when he saw the blue bucket with milk or his funny attitude of always wanting to drink my tea. He deserves all the best that heaven can offer to him! I hope he canters with 4 perfect legs along the skies.

The day after, I drove to Umguza farm where 12 other horses are based from ridezimbabwe. As it was raining the night before, the last kilometers on the dirt road were in bad conditions. Definitely recommendable to have a 4WD.

The horses here are roaming in a huge place of land that crosses the Umguza river, a lovely place!
The next day I got to ride a young gelding called Cola just before we drove off to Cawston, the game reserve I will stay at for the most of the time here in Zim.

Cawston is about 32.000 acres big and full of bush land with plenty of wildlife and about 11 horses. We did some horse grooming and removed PLENTY of ticks of the horses. On my first outride in the morning, we saw Kudus, impalas, monkeys, wildebeests and bushbucks along with the donkeys and cattle of the farm. During the afternoon ride we saw 4 giraffes before we headed deeper into the bush, where I got caught up in thornes and I was left with a bleeding leg. Hope this is nothing I will need to get used to…

The next morning started with feeding and grooming the horses as usually and afterwards we went to the lunging arena that we want to fix with new poles so we can actually use it for horse training. Quite hard work in the sun.

During lunchtime, I went to see the butchery on the farm for the first time. Pretty scary, a skinned leopard was hanging from the ceiling and lots of pieces of a giraffe were cooling in the cooling room. Every animal that is processed in the butchery is shot on the farm and serves the purpose of being in a dinner plate of the staff and everyone living on the farm including myself.

I have also found the Campground that has a gorgeous veranda overlooking the plain field and a waterhole, where some zebras were just enjoying the water. It was also here where I saw my first snake in this game reserve.

My new lessons learned while helping at Cawston Wildlife Reserve:

You need to be very attentive and careful, riding in the bush – during my first day I got already caught up in the thorn bushes resulting in a bleeding leg, not mentioning the ripped pants.
Learn about the spiders species to know which ones are venomous and which ones aren’t – I got lots of these bigger and smaller friends in my sleeping room but I believe I know by now who is a friend and who not.
The Internet connection can be quite tricky – however, I think I found my favorite spot on the reserve and it has also a decent connection to the outside world.

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 ∞

10. April 201917. Januar 2020

Rehabilitation for little Bandi

Hello, Bonjour and Salibonani from the donkeys ad horse sanctuary of MARESZIM in the suburbs of Bulawayo, where I am staying at since one week, as for different reasons I can’t go to Cawston yet. Making plans in Africa is not an easy thing :)!

MARESZIM is being run by Claire Einhorn who rescues horses that should be put down and donkeys that are being abused or hurt by improper harnesses. She explains to the owner how to treat a donkey and which harnesses are working properly. For this purpose she is producing harnesses that she will sell for a small fee to the donkey owner. In a case of abuse of the donkey she will call the police and fight in court all at the same time while she is running her restaurant Déjà-vu, which is just fabulous and offers very tasty food!

Three donkeys that had severe wounds from improper harnesses but the owner was trained and given proper harnesses

Plenty of things have already happened in these few days. I am mainly helping with the foal at the stables called Bandi, that was injured so very badly by a gelding, who has bitten the foal in the shoulder when little Bandi was just one day old. This wound is really severe and we had to do an OP on the foal last week Friday. The vet had to cut it open and to get scattered bones out as well as bad tissue. But this wound is not the only one, he got lots and lots including 2 legs that were in splints for 3 weeks as Bandis mother stood on him when he was 3 weeks old, causing his little legs to break. Now, he is 9 weeks old and since one week the splints are off.

We are trying to show him how he can walk, as he has lost his sense of balance and his muscles to hold him up. Since one week we are walking him and he has improved a lot already! Hopefully he will learn soon to walk alone as he is also getting heavier each day since he is drinking 12 liters of milk and eating half a bale of gras every day. Unfortunately he has some high temperatures since 2 days (about 39 degrees) that we don’t know where it comes from. This is the reason we have started to inject him painkiller, which should bring his temperature back to normal hopefully soon.

Since a few days I am also lunging and riding some of the rescued horses, mainly a chestnut red gelding. He was supposed to be put down as his previous owner didn’t get along with him. But he has proved to be an outstanding horse in the lunging arena as well as in the riding area and on outrides. I took him for an outride today, which was his first time ever since he is at Claire’s stable. He is just gorgeous and so attentive!

My new lessons learned while being at the sanctuary in the suburbs of Bulawayo:

A little foal can take up lots of time during day and night– we are 3 to 4 people watching after him, taking turns during day as well as nights and sometimes we watch after him all at once if we need to walk him or flush out his wounds.
Outrides during sunset time are fabulous – I was taking Sienna on his first outride and we both adored it!
Taking care of a foal will put you in lots of urine – I have never sat in so much urine as now, which we need to clean, rob off the foal and hose down with water.

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 ∞

P.S.: if you want you can donate to any horse and the donkeys, they would absolutely love it! You will be given an official donation receipt by MARESZIM. Just let me know!

5. April 201917. Januar 2020

Different plans in Bulawayo

Hello, Bonjour and Salibonani from Bulawayo where I have safely arrived 2 days ago. Immigration and customs took quite long and wasn’t without any hustles but I mastered it. Afterwards, I got a new SIM card with a Zim number and internet, which seems to work for now, even though I am still trying to understand the money market to get new internet data.

Plans have changed before I arrived in Zimbabwe and I will not directly stay at Cawston. For the time being, I am based in the suburbs of Bulawayo and helping to workout the horses on a donkey and horse sanctuary.

There is also a little foal that is about 2 months old, which had a tough start into life. Two of his legs were broken and he has lots of wounds to recover from. As he can’t walk, we do some physio on him and try to walk him with 4 persons, each taking one of his legs to show him how he can move. Long way to go for him to recover.

Unfortunately one of his wound on his shoulder was so bad that we had to bring him to the vet today and he got an operation. Hopefully this is now the turning point and he will get better soon.

I will stay here for some days before moving onwards to Cawston. I will see what the next days will bring.

Cheers to wandering the world and the wonders of our lives, hope to see you in a few days again in Zimbabwe – bye bye, salut and lisale kuhle ∞

17. März 201917. Januar 2020

Preparing for an adventurous time in Zimbabwe

Hello, Bonjour and Salibonani to my first blog post about my African adventures. Here, I am sitting in my cosy apartment in Germany counting the days until I will step into the airplane of South African Airlines to fly to Johannesburg for my stop-over and move on to the Airport of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. I will stay at the private game reserve, Cawston Wildlife Estate that is about 70km North of Bulawayo for a period of 3 months. I just can’t wait for the month of April to come, when my airplane will take-off for a magical adventure.

Flight from JNB, South Africa to BUQ, Zimbabwe with a short final drive to the Estate

Sooo I always wanted to live in Southern Africa, where I feel my heart belongs to and I particularly looked for possibilities that would involve horses, as I just love these beautiful animals. Lucky enough, I found a place (following # on Instagram can be quite a good choice) that sounds awesome to me and I am looking forward to start this new adventure in my life. As little as I know today, I will be staying on Cawston surrounded by horses and other African wildlife. The reserve itself is home to game, such as herd of sable, giraffe, wildebeests etc. Right now, I am unsure if and which wild big cats I will encounter on Cawston, but I am keen to find out soon.

So, how would you get ready for this kind of African adventure? First of all I decided to book my flight tickets – Check, so that is done! Then, I started reading and reading lots of travel guides, historical books and economical lecture about Zimbabwe, my new „home“ for April until end of June. Afterwards, I decided to draft a list with things that are necessary and handy for such kind of adventure:

Sleeping bag and Mosquito net
Headlamp and flashlight
A small backpack for short hiking and riding excursions
Hiking and riding boots
My riding equipment such as helmet, riding trousers, chaps, etc.
Sweater and jacket
Chinos and shorts
Binoculars
Camera and gadgets
Plug adapter
The rest of the details I will figure out

Of course, I invested in my riding skills and started to take riding lessons on a regular basis 3 months before my flight would take-off and got physically in good shape. I also checked my passport, would be very stupid to have to return home before even touching the African ground.

But what else? Well, it seems to be a good idea to look for medical advices, just in case and to be prepared. So, I got some vaccination shots (rabies together with meningitis vaccination really got me knocked out) at the tropical doctor, not knowing if these are much of a help and a prescription of Malarone, even if the reserve claims to be Malaria-free. Maybe I will have some time for traveling and then I don’t want to miss out anything because of Malaria endangered places. Finally, I checked with my health insurance what is covered and needed. It’s important that the insurance covers expenses for medically necessary transfers back to the home country in any severe cases. That’s it, I believe! Now, I hope to be prepared for the big unknown that awaits me in a country in need for some economic improvements and stabilization but also home to some of the most magnificent landscapes and wildlife that Southern Africa can offer!

My newest lessons I learned while preparing for these wonderful months ahead of:

Africa is always good for any surprises – shortly after I booked my flights the violent demonstrations in Harare and Bulawayo took place due to the bad economic situation in Zim;
Lots of people appreciate my adventurous time-out and admire my courage to step into the unknown – well, you can do it, too if you wish! Go ahead and make your dreams come true before they fade away and you have to put lots of effort into chasing instead of living them!
Whatever you do, do it with passion and your goals are easily achievable – the effort was little to fulfill my dream: fun times in researching and taking unpaid leave from work, off I go!

Cheers to wandering the world and the wonders of our lives, hope to see you in a few weeks in Zimbabwe – bye bye, salut and lisale kuhle ∞