Pat Shuker, 26th September - 20th November 2009
The amazing patience and care provided by the project coordinators to all the volunteers at the project were the biggest highlight, followed by finishing a fence line roll-up of wire. Finally, getting up close, but not personal to cheetahs, leopards, hyenas and other wild life, with fantastic information given to us by one of the coordinators on each species specialities for survival and the fragility of the ecosystem as a whole at Okonjima.
I will have to go back sometime. I really feel privileged to have been a very small part of what the project are trying to achieve. It was also a privilege to work with the tribal Namibians, who were always willing to answer any questions and ask a few themselves. Finally, thank you to Tom and Hannah on the Africa team for sending me to this project.
John Francis, October 2008The best part of my whole Africa trip was the two weeks at the Camp. There was an interesting selection of jobs to do and nothing too onerous, in fact most of the time seems to have been spent enjoying myself. The afternoon game drives were great. We saw no less than 29 different animal species and 50 bird species including several Leopards and Spotted Hyenas not forgetting the Mozambique Spitting Cobra! The swimming pool was good for those afternoon swims in the heat of the day, fortunately no big Cats visited whilst I was swimming! One particularly memorable visit was the trip to pick up a female Cheetah and her two cubs of three months from a farm some three hours drive away. Having darted them with anaesthetic we were able to lift them by hand into their cages for the journey back to Okonjima. It was very rewarding to know they would be released back into the wild in another location the next day. I really appreciated the kind hospitality and the excellent food provided. I was glad to have the opportunity to cook on the brai as well. I hope it will not be long before I can return.
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