Week Three

 

The arrival of Jackie and Chloe brought on a new round of luck with animals this week. Hanging onto the land cruiser for dear life as Red veered off-piste we followed a herd of mountain zebra, eland and a couple of gemsbok who were all grazing together. Our camera traps also proved fruitful with over 3,000 photos of a family of leopards (which hopefully can result in individuals being identified) and Dennis the donkey was pretty much demolished! There were also pictures of the cape fox, mountain zebra, mongoose, black eagles, porcupines, the brown hyena and every kind of antelope going – a Namibian Piccadilly Circus at night.

 

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Week One: New set of Volunteers

From aardvarks to herds of 66 springbok, cold showers to Fred’s cooking, the first week at Oana has been a blast. Our mission for the three weeks is to try to capture the enigmatic leopard: so far we have set up 14 camera traps, James has butchered a donkey (its halves affectionately known as Denis and Denise), and the aim is to document the leopards’ identities through photos. We have also joined forces with Kali, an overenthusiastic scat dog, who in the near future will help us on our endeavours.

So far, around Oana we have hiked up volcanos, had sundowners looking across the vast plains, and been (temporarily) abandoned in the dark due to the challenges of driving without a sat nav. Our morning mountain biking proved to be better suited to the adrenaline junkies, whereas our efforts at yoga provided a calming antidote. In camp, the biscuit jar is never full, hakuna matata is sung late into the night, and the bird bath we created is a beautiful rock feature.

Our excursions from the farm have involved creating netball courts for the local school in Warmbad, and we have done a two day trip to Fish River. While there we swam in natural hot springs, saw the largest canyon in Africa, and ate our first gemsbok steak.

Wish us luck for week 2!