Category Archives: Volunteer diary extracts

Kingfishers & Lions – Diary extract

A lone male lion laid a few meters away, panting laboriously from the effort of devouring much of a zebra. Vultures waited in the wings perching on termite mounds.

Fencing, aliens and rain!

The Askari team braved the rain this week to continue with the bush sleep out in the north section of Pidwa

Some of our projects this week

While anaethestised, his collar was removed and then a number of DNA samples were taken including blood and hair samples. These will contribute to the EWT database and cheetah metapopulation project. After all the sheets were filled in, we all got a chance to sit next to the cheetah and get hands on while the drugs worked through his system. It was such an amazing feeling to see an animal like this so close up.

The week in view

A walk in Langa Langa for Brown hyaena habitat analysis was successful this week. 8 different points were visited with some points being random and some being taken from the hyaenas GPS collars.

Events at Askari this week

We went via HQ to do this where we measured the python to be a respectable 2.8m!

Action packed day – LION FIGHT – diary extract

How to start the day today?  The day began normally enough by waking up after a night under the stars on the beach at sunrise.  I know this is not a normal start to any day for all people, but at Askari, things are clearly different. After packing up our things and heading back to base camp, we all cleaned… (more…)

A busy day in training week – Diary extract

Wednesday was a crazy day starting with a lecture on the conservation management by Garth and then a tour of HQ. After our tour, Katie then gave us a lecture on alien plant species and we went out on the game viewer to identify a few. We came back for lunch of meat pies and salad. After lunch, Joe drove… (more…)

Amazing nocturnal monitoring drive – Diary extract

  The meal of kudu and impala poikie was amazing, and after things were cleaned up we went out for the nocturnal mammal drive at 7:00 p.m. Within an hour of the drive, we came upon two lions resting on Central cutline road, and were all amazed to see this…little did we know that this sighting was only the start… (more…)

Sleep out experience – Diary extract

I fell quickly asleep searching for shooting stars and orbiting satellites.

So many animals! – Diary extract

On the way home we came across another herd of zebra and while watching them we heard some crashing through the bush. Soon, 4 rhinos appeared!

A very successful day

The afternoon led us back to Buffalo camp to see if we could find the poachers camp, with Joes detective skills and Rachels keen eye we uncovered the camp and bagged up all the rubbish left over.

Cheetah encounters!

We walked into the bush and she jumped from the grass and ran away, but soon slowed down and actually back tracked slightly.

Bush school

Today was quite adventurous…possibly more for Joe and Katie than for the volunteers as they happily taught us how to drive the game viewer up and down a steep hill through the Selati River. We all did amazingly well…even if there were a few stalls initially.

Camp out day – Diary extract

A secluded spot in Langa down to a beautiful section of the riverbed

Elephants & Lions – Diary extract

After supper the roar of lions drew us out again and we had wonderful sightings of two females walking down the road in front of us

Nyala darting day – Diary extract

It is then important for everyone to keep their eyes on the animal darted so its progress can be followed until the drug takes effect.

A chilly but busy day – Diary extract

We headed out for a night drive after dinner

New cheetah arrival – Diary extract

“The Cheetahs are nearly here.”

Whopper elephant sighting – Diary extract

Within half and hour we had a line of about 30 elephants walking just meters away from the game viewer

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