Zimbabwe – Seite 2 – WANDER OUR WORLD

3. Juni 201917. Januar 2020

It‘s baby season

Hello, Bonjour and Salibonani from Cawston Wildlife Estate, Northern Matabeleland where I help for about 2,5 months with the horses. Every now and then we take the horses and look around in the ostrich paddock for some eggs that might have been layed but still there are none to be found. I am really questioning if it is time for the females to lay some eggs or if this will be later this year, maybe end of winter.

Donha and me looking for some ostrich eggs

We do have a new patient, unfortunately it’s our precious Starlight. She is very likely to have billary, which is the African tick bite fever, as she was shivering one morning, had high temperature and pale gums. So we had to give her some injections with a special powder that is mixed with water. Of course, I was alone at that time and so I had to do the injections by myself. And what should I say, the instructions said that I had to inject at least 2-3 shots. Goodness me that was quite interesting, I have seen it so many times by now but never attempted to do it myself. Not quite sure who was shaking more the horse or me. Luckily, she survived the night but unfortunately I had to find her the next morning with two big lumps on the neck where I injected her. Now, I have to treat them as well, still a long way to go until I am a good vet…

Work starts now at 6.30am so I can finally see again the food I am preparing for the horses. I quite like that extra half an hour of sleep I get now before feeding and grooming the horses. We had some beautiful outrides during the last days and we saw herd of impala and wildebeests very close. Also some eland and tsetsebees crossed our path.

Another little calf was born, this time it’s a male and I got to see it just a couple of hours after it’s mother had given birth. Such a cutie, it could barely even stand yet. And just shortly after the calf was born, the little donkey has finally seen the light of this wonderful live. We were waiting for him quite a few weeks already. I got to see it a couple of hours after it was born during the night, it could already run around in the morning sun! Maybe one or two horse foals will be born soon, that would be fabulous. Let’s see what will happen.

He could already walk in the morning sun

As my second month has passed by, I had to go into town and renew my visa. On my way to town I got the chance to sneak a peak into a clinic close by the reserve and a physiotherapist place in town. It’s very different from what I know back in Europe, but it looked all quite clean.

My new lessons learned while helping in Cawston Wildlife Estate:

Take your time when looking for ostrich eggs – you might be looking for months.
If you want to see a calf or foal being born, stay up during the nights – they always seem to be born during the nighttime.
IV injections need a lot of practice – or your patient might have some lumps.

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

28. Mai 201917. Januar 2020

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.

Looking at the wildebeests just behind the trees

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

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.

Eland, impalas and warthogs sharing the waterhole

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.

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.

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.

My new lessons learned while helping in Cawston Wildlife Estate:

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.
To get things done in Africa doesn’t take days – always count on weeks or even months!
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 ∞

21. Mai 201917. Januar 2020

A special cat‘s visit

Hello, Bonjour and Salibonani from Cawston Wildlife Estate, Northern Matabeleland where I help for about 2,5 months with the horses and have just safely arrived back from Hwange National Park after a great safari. Since I now saw the lions (see this blog post), I thought nothing can bother me anymore in Cawston. However, walking around on the reserve by myself during night still makes me feel uncomfortable. I hear all different strange noises and in my imagination it’s always a leopard killing impalas close to my room.

My torch starts to become my best friend as it is still dark at 6am when I start working and it already gets dark by 6pm. The torch is also my only weapon against any nocturnal friend that might cross my path during the dark hours. As artificial light is a very rare source here, one relies on the cell phone light, torch or the full moon. So you better always carry one of these items in your pockets.

By now, we are definitely heading towards winter, the leaves are changing into beautiful orange shades and the early morning hours are getting very chilly as well as the evening hours. During the day however we can still hit 30 degrees Celsius, hence I dress in many layers.

I am fully back into my working routine in Cawston and love my 6am to 5pm job that doesn’t know any weekends. Incredible, that I just had one day off since the 3rd of April. Time flies! We still often look for the donkeys to check on them and it always turns out to be a gorgeous bushride, where we see kudus, giraffes, tsetsebees and other wild life.

Starlight smelling wild life ahead of us

We have 2 donkey patients at the moment, one of them is the little foal called Style. Not quite sure what she has but I hope we treat her correctly with what she needs. Roiboos tea, honey, hi-tet, vitamin B shots and penstrep are our little helpers here that hopefully will work for these injuries.

We are still waiting for the donkey foal to be born, which should be happening very soon! However, a little calf was just born and it is the cutest little thing ever at the reserve right now.

Little baby cow that is just 2 days old here

And then, during my lunchtime I had finally the privilege to see a leopard laying in the tree in front of camp. Unbelievable! I spotted him from my happy place. So grateful to have had this wonderful experience. To spot these nocturnal cats is not given at all time and I wasn’t sure if I will have this fantastic opportunity here at Cawston. The more I am so happy for this chance. I have heard so many leopard callings during the nights and seen so many tracks on the sand pads, to finally have a face to these signs is just incredible!

As one of the boreholes had some problems and we couldn’t get any water anymore, the guys had to drill a new one. I got the chance to see this process, which took about 12 hours. First, a water source needed to be found underground. A fruit or mopane tree branch is needed for that and it will be bended in a special way to see where its pointing towards. That’s where the source of water should be. After 45m of drilling, we finally found the water around 6pm. Afterwards, it took another 6 hours to get all the rods out and the pipes in. Somewhere in the middle of this process I just fell asleep. Long days.

Getting the pipes ready for the borehole

During this day I also got the chance to hold a rifle in my hand and shoot for the very first time in my life. The sound gave me a fright and of course, I missed the tomato that was just way too far! Maybe the next time will be better.

Last night, a scorpion just marched into my room as if it was open door to everyone. I had to intervene and make sure he is not going to try to come in again. I left the scene like as if it was an accident…

My new lessons learned while helping in Cawston Wildlife Estate:

Always check the tree branches – you might be lucky enough to find a lazy leopard hanging in them during the hot hours.
Water is never granted – it can be quite hard to find this needed resource.
Having a rifle in your hand can be very odd – not only the feeling but also the sound when triggering can definitely be frightening.

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

17. Mai 201917. Januar 2020

A lions roar to the rhythm of hoof beats

Hello, Bonjour and Salibonani from Hwange National Park, Northern Matabeleland where I stayed 4 nights in a proper bush camp and helped with the horses on a safari. We drove from Matobo National Park that is about 1 hour South of Bulawayo to the Northern part in the country and arrived after 6 hours in our bush camp in Hwange National Park. On our way we saw a couple of kudus, hornbills and a roan antelope that is apparently quite rare to be seen.

During the evening hours we set up the tents, prepared food for the horses, dinner for us and enjoyed ourselves around the fire while listening to hyena callings and the rumbling stomachs of elephants. An electric fence is helping to protect the horses from predators such as lions as you get all big fives in the National Park. This is definitely different to Matobo or Cawston, the two reserves I have been to in Zim. Therefore, our guide carried two guns from now on.

Right in the first night one of the cars broke down in the bush. Lucky enough there was a radio in the car to call the staff in the campsite asking for help. Unfortunately, the car couldn’t get fixed that evening as some nuts and bolts were needed to repair it. So, the car had to spent the night out in the bush until the spares could be bought at main camp of Hwange. Luckily, the car didn’t get chewed up by some hyenas during the night.

Our bush toilet had a great view and the waxing moon gave us some light in the bush shower during nights as there was no light or any electricity except for the fence. And of course we didn’t have any phone signal in this remote place. To enjoy a hot shower we heated up the water on the fire, which I was definitely grateful for as the late evening and early morning hours got very chilly in the park.

The next two days were all about outrides and wildlife encounters in the fabulous scenery of thick bushes and wide open plains. We have seen zebras, wildebeests, warthogs, ostriches, jackals, impalas, baboons and even a roan antelope. But no sights of lions unfortunately (or luckily it all depends on the view..). On a short drive to main camp and the stables, I even saw a herd of 9 roan antelopes, which was just marvelous!

For our last afternoon we took the car on a game drive and had a sundowner, which offered fabulous wildlife sightings. We saw elephants, giraffes, kudus, zebras, yellow hornbills and lilac-breasted roller in the marvelous afternoon sunset light, while enjoying our drinks. The following night was quite hectic, lots was going on especially hyenas were calling the whole night until 6am very close to our fence. They were circling our camp but luckily didn’t try hard enough to bother the horses or us.

The last morning started off with a stunning bushride through the pan, along some waterholes, where we saw zebras, impalas, wildebeests, jackals, baboons and some eagles controlling their territory. We trotted along the sand pad that was full of lion spoors, when we heard some bird callings. We stopped and turned around for a couple of meters and there it was: the deep growling of a cat.

Government and Gizmet happy to have each other

We found lions! Three at least, a lioness with her teenage cubs lying in the shade of a bush, barely visible, so well blending in with the scenery. We were definitely a bit too close, the growling didn’t stop and the lioness was surely not happy of our presence, therefore we backed up to put some space between us and the predators. I surely don’t want to be bait! What a special moment to experience. I just enjoyed this fantastic experience until we heard some new bird calling and we saw one of her cubs walking down the hill towards the lioness. This was the moment when the mother jumped out of the shade of the bush and gave all of us a fright. Luckily, she stopped and walked towards her cub before laying down in the shade again. My adrenaline was high up, unsure if we should move away or stay and do nothing. We did the latter until the cub ran away to the spot it came from. The deep growling still continued until we made our way back to camp, cantered along some small path and just enjoyed the rest of this majestic ending of our safari time in Hwange National Park. Just about the most perfect ending I could wish for!

After we packed everything together and had the horses loaded, I drove back to the stables that are close by the main camp. A little surprise was waiting here for us, Lucy the wild zebra was hanging around with her horse friends. Unbelievable, she is so close with all of the horses. She stays around the stable and enjoys their presence. However, it would be important for her to stay with a zebra herd instead. Maybe one day she will be excepted by some other wild zebras. Such a perfect day for this unforgettable horse safari in this very special park. Glad to have had this splendid opportunity of helping out here in Hwange!

My new lessons learned while on safari in Hwange:

Never feel too secure on your horse in Hwange NP – predators can be laying under each bush.
Wild zebras can adopt interesting habits – if they are not welcomed in a herd, they might feel happy to hang around horses.
You should have a radio in your car in Hwange – just to make sure, if it breaks down during late hours, you can call for help.

Cheers to wandering the world and the wonders of our lives, hope to see you soon from Cawston with some incredible visitors – bye bye, salut and lisale kuhle ∞

12. Mai 201917. Januar 2020

With 7 horses in the lorry

Hello, Bonjour and Salibonani from Cawston Wildlife Reserve, Northern Matabeleland where I stay for about 2,5 months and help with the horses. As every Saturday we were dipping horses and donkeys to prevent too many problems with ticks, after we found all 14 donkeys in the bush. Ticks are unfortunately a bad problem here, as there are plenty and they cause severe injuries. But some good news: one of the female donkeys is highly pregnant and we separated her from the rest with her son to stay in the ostrich paddock. We might get a little donkey foal very soon!

During my last days here, I understood much better what it means to live in a country that is economically not stable: Internet prices just almost tripled over night and there is nothing you can do about it. However, I got Ecocash now and can pay with the „Zimbabwean currency“, bonds. This helps a bit to reduce prices as the exchange rate is right now something between 4 and 5 bonds per USD. Again, this exchange rate is very prone to changes on a daily basis, it actually seems to depend on what the other person is willing to pay you.

For the very first time, a groom and I rode the 4 year old stallion, Zambezi in the lunging arena. Afterwards, we went with him into the bush and back to the stables. It was the very first time someone rode him outside the arena. He was doing well, just very lazy and slow. Therefore, we decided to put him on a lunge that I was holding in my hand while riding ahead with Starlight. I believe the 4 of us looked quite funny.

The evenings were full of great fun times, one night we had a braai and roasted a dove that one of us shot during the day while at the same time having some biology class and we learned how the heart, liver etc. looked like. Everything was really small, but the meat tasted so good! Another night, Chris and I drove to the pumps, which supplies Mpofo to change the water, watched jupiter rising in the dark, clear sky before heading to the butchery and getting some warthog and wildebeest meat ready for the delivery to Vic falls. A big truck was waiting for us at the main road to hang up the meat pieces and get ready for the drive up North.

Getting the meat ready in the truck to head up North

The next day, I went to Umguza to ride another 2 horses before driving into town and do some stocking in Bulawayo for the upcoming safari in Matobo.

We left Umguza with 7 horses and myself in the lorry for a 1,5 hour drive southwards to track the white rhinos.

3 nights and 2 full riding days after we couldn’t spot any rhino, only the spoors. Nevertheless, the landscape was just gorgeous here and I enjoyed very much the 5-6 hours riding per day!

Getting up at 5am to prepare breakfast and get the horses ready becomes much more natural to me and I like grooming the horses under the dark sky full of billion little stars. We did a game drive and a short hike to Cecil Rhode’s grave during the last afternoon and here he was the big rhino drinking at a waterhole, what a beauty! So happy to have the chance to see this guy before we packed everything and drove back to my homebase Cawston.

Rhino in the afternoon enjoying some water

My new lessons learned while helping at Cawston and being on safari in Matobo:

Ecocash facilitates your life – it is definitely worth to get an account and trade USD into bonds for payments.
Not all stallions are full of energy – sometimes they need special attention to walk on.
It’s not so easy to spot rhinos in a rocky area – you have to carefully watch for moving rocks.

Cheers to wandering the world and the wonders of our lives, hope to see you soon after next safari days in Hwange National Park – bye bye, salut and lisale kuhle ∞

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 ∞

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 ∞