Settling in to Okonjima Reserve

I am back in Namibia!  If Africa is my favourite continent, then Namibia must be one of my favourite countries.  I am relieved to land at Windhoek airport and see Clive waiting for me on arrival.

Clive and his wife Roma have set up People and Wildlife Solutions (P.A.W.S), the organisation I have come to volunteer with. 

www.pawsnamibia.org

The camp I will be staying at is about a 3 hour drive from Windhoek.   We pick up some of the other volunteers who have also flown in on Saturday and set off on our journey. 

I am really excited to see the wide open spaces of Namibia.  It reminds me of the Outback and the Centre of Australia.  With about 2 people per square metre it has one of the lowest population densities in Africa.  Its landscape varies from rugged coastline, stunning sand dunes & deserts to dramatic canyons.  Cities such as Swakopmund cater to tourists offering everything from sky diving to sand boarding.  But I have come here to get away from it all and enjoy what Africa does best.  Wildlife!

It is spring time in Namibia and the buds of the acacias and other bushes are just starting to bloom.  In a few weeks, this country will be awash with colour and I can’t wait to see the change.

We stop for supplies and snacks on the way and finally arrive at our campsite. 

 

PAWS has set up camp in the Okonjima Reserve.  As it is not the busiest time of the year, I get my own tent.  It is quite spacious and I am really looking forward to spending some time under the stars and enjoying the solitude of life in the bush.  Perhaps, on this my year off, I may finally find some time to chill!

Clive gives us a quick introduction to the campsite.  The toilets are quite rustic and completely open to the great outdoors.  There is really no one out there except perhaps a curious oryx and a few noisy birds!  After a few nervous giggles we adjust to life in the bush and the open air toilets.There are seven of us volunteers and we are all female!  Claudia who hales from Germany has already been here for a number of weeks but the rest of us are newbies.  Sarah, a zoology grad is originally Scottish but now resides in England.  Alice is also a zoology student and together with Pam & Nicola makes up the contingent from England.  Liz who is currently studying conservation is also from Scotland and Katrina an occupational therapist hales from Ireland.  I am the sole Aussie for the moment.  Many of the volunteers are here for a couple of weeks but Alice and I will stay on for 4 weeksWe have a common area where we cook our food and hangout.  At night we light the fire and cook on the open fireplace.  Just beyond the fireplace is a water hole which is flood lit at night. We are often kept entertained by dik dik, kudu, oryx, porcupine and baboons, all of who visit this waterhole for a drink! 

We all take turns to cook for the entire camp, including Rion part of Clive’s African staff with whom we will work closely.

I lie in my tent on my first night excited to be finally here in the largest wild cat reserve in the world.  I listen to the sounds of Africa, wondering if one of the resident leopards in this enclosure is prowling around.  I can’t fall asleep.  The sounds of the bush hint at an exciting month ahead and I lie awake for ages.

On Sunday we start our orientation and Clive informs us about the program ahead.  In the morning, we will be doing a variety of work from bush chopping, alien plant control, fence rolling (more on this later) and picking up cheetah poo!  Our day will start early.  We need to report for brekkie at 6.30 unless we are on duty when we report for work at 6 to organise breakfast for the camp!   Our working day ends by noon, when we come back to camp for lunch and a siesta or a break from the hot Namibian sun.  In the evening we are rewarded for our mornings work by going on game drives that include cheetah and leopard tracking. 

As part of our orientation, Clive takes us for a drive on Sunday morning and introduces us to the problems this reserve has to cope with.  Over grazing by European farmers has decimated the land and resulted in poor soil which has caused the proliferation of weeds such as Sickle Bush and Black Thorn Acacia.

The reserve is home to a number of cheetahs and leopards who go through the welfare and rehabilitation process in separate enclosures and reserves.  Those that have not been brought here from captivity and can be self sustaining in the wild will be released to a large reserve eventually.  The reserves are also home to a variety of other game and on our morning drive we see a huge number of animals including kudu, oryx, giraffe, eland, and dik dik.

 In the future, a number of species that are currently not found here will be introduced including rhino, ostrich and springbok. 

The cats are radio collared so they can be monitored and their welfare and progress tracked.  This work is done by the AfriCat Foundation which was setup by the owners of the Okonjima Reserve.  Some of the cheetahs and the leopards that arrive here have been in captivity elsewhere and they are unfortunately not suitable for release into the wild. 

Cheetahs that have been orphaned at an early age and been removed from the wild have not learnt the life skills of hunting required for surviving in the wild.  The welfare program that is run here enables them to be released into a reserve and monitored to ensure they are able to hunt and be self sufficient before they are finally released.  The cheetah program has been very successful so far with only a few cats that have required supplementary feeding.

In the afternoon, our orientation continues with a a bit of leopard tracking.  Despite their radio controlled collars, finding these cats is still very hard.

We are really fortunate.  On our very first day of leopard tracking, we manage to find TJ, one of the older leopards with a colourful past.  We hear him in the bush and see him through the grass but he doesn’t really come out of the bush into full view. 

He appears to have a kill and is busy eating.  We can hear him but see him through the grass.  As we leave the area we spot a jackal.  He sits in the middle of the road and appears to pose for us.  The light is fading fast but we manage to get a few pictures.  The sun is setting now and it is time to head back.   If this is our introduction to Okonjima I can only guess at what might lie in store during my four weeks here. 

But we are still in luck and the day is not quite over.  Clive stops the car and points in the direction of a tree in the distance. There, lying with his legs dangling down is Shakira, one of the collared leopards that live here!  

The picture is not great, but I am thrilled to have finally seen a leopard in a tree this close!  We head back to camp and dinner.  What a weekend it’s been.

All men should strive
to learn before they die
what they are running from, and to, and why.
~James Thurber

A City Tour and Robben Island

Table Mountain and Devil’s Peak dominates most of Cape Town.  No matter what part of this city I find myself in, the mountain seems to look down on me.  The picture below is is the view I get in the morning when Ed drives me out of their street to the Vineyard Hotel, where I am picked up for my city tour.  The university at the bottom of the hill is where my girlfriend Emma studied and where she met her now husband Harvey.  What a stunning location for a Uni! Our first stop is the District 6 museum.  This was once a lively mixed race area where people of all colours lived together.  During the apartheid area, this was one of the areas that were designated for whites only.  The blacks and coloured people were moved to Town Ships and their houses bull dozed and street names changed.  The District 6 museum tells the story of what happened here and and is intended to be a place of healing for the former residents.

Today, people who are able to prove past ownership of property in this area, are able to  reclaim their land.  People are trickling in although many have opted to move on to other suburbs.  Our next stop is the South African museum.  We walk through the company gardens (another botanical garden) where the Houses of Parliament are to be found. The South African museum is the oldest museum in South African and houses some interesting exhibits of San Rock art and fossilized human footprints.  The tour stops at the Malay Quarter where we are able to walk the streets with brightly coloured houses.  If you wish to live here you must also be prepared to put up with the regular call to prayer from the mosque around the street corner!

Unfortunately we are not able to go up Table Mountain as the cable car has been stopped for 2 weeks for maintenance.  We are taken up signal hill instead for another brilliant view of this city including the new stadium built in Cape Town for the World Cup. Our last stop is a tour of a diamond factory where we are shown how the precious and semi precious stones are set in beautiful trinkets!  I come away with my bank balance intact.

I take Christina and Ed out for dinner in the evening.   We try the local Indian and find it to be very yummy and quite authentic.

I spend my last day in Cape Town on a tour to Robben Island.  This is of course the place where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years.  We take the ferry over and I make friends with a young uni student from England spending a semester abroad.   She too has fallen in love with this city and is wondering if there is a way for her to come back and spend more time here. 

Our guide to Robben Island is a former prisoner.  He leads us to their dining hall and starts to share his story.   He had joined the fight for freedom after witnessing the murder of his girlfriend, who was shot in the mouth.  He tells us how he trained overseas and came back to South Africa to join the fight.  He was arrested after his bazooka misfired and shared part of his time here with Mandela.

We are shown the cell where Mandela was imprisoned and we all line up for the obligatory photos.  The spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness which he preached seems to be the attitude of the former prisoners here as well.

The former inmates now work together with people who were former jailors here.  He explains to us they are all friends now and wish to leave the past behind and move on to a united future.  It is a very special trip down memory lane and I am happy that my visit to Cape Town has included Robben Island.

Friday night is my last evening here.  Christina has invited most of Emma’s extended family to dinner so that we can all meet.  I have an enjoyable evening exchanging stories about their sister/my girl friend (Hi Em!!) and sharing stories about my travels so far and my plans for the rest of the year!  I will leave Cape Town and South Africa in the morning and head to Namibia for a close encounter with the Big Cats.  I have had an amazing week here in Cape Town and a big thank you to Christina and Ed for their very kind hospitality.  I look forward to meeting them again in Sydney next year.  I am also excited and ready for my next adventure. 

 People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself.  But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates.  ~Thomas Szasz,

A Drive to Cape Point

I spend most of Tuesday on a tour to Cape Point.    It is a spectacular day for what must be one of the most dramatic coastal drives in the world, and I have done a few of them!

There are about 10 people on my tour and I make friends with Sonya, a traveller from Manly and a couple of people from the States.  Our first stop is Clifton and Camps Bay where I take pictures of the stunning rocky coastline.We stop at Hout Bay for a boat trip to Seal Island.  Another lovely stop, we take pictures and browse the markets before boarding our boat.

The seals are sunning themselves on the rocky outcroppings but taking pictures is quite a challenge as the seas here are incredibly choppy and I can barely keep my balance!The next bit of the drive is along Chapman’s Drive.  The road hugs the coastline and the views at every corner are stunning.  We stop briefly at an Ostrich farm.  Ostrich meat is a popular red meat here and on my last visit I tried scrambled ostrich eggs, which incidentally I didn’t really relish.  One ostrich egg can feed about 25 people!We then strike another bit of good luck.  Our guide pulls over because we have just caught sight of a number of whales migrating.  I have seen this once before in Sydney but it is always magic to see whales in the wild.  They are a little further out at sea but we are thrilled and we wished we could have stayed a little longer. We have our lunch break at the Cape of Good Hope.  This is the meeting point of the Indian and Atlantic Ocean and the most south western point of the African Continent.  We lunch overlooking the oceans and marvel at the beauty of this spot and the weather in the middle of winter.  After a lovely lunch we make the trek up to the light house and stop often to check out the view points and take more pictures of this amazing landscape.

Our next stop is the Penguin Colony.  Many of the penguins are out at sea but we see a number of them sunning themselves on the rocks.We pass a number of small coastal towns before stopping at Kirstenbosch, the famous Botanical Garden of Cape Town.  Sonya and I spend about an hour walking around and browsing the sculpture garden. The gardens were our final stop.  I say goodbye to my friends for the day and know I will remember the stunning beauty of the Cape Peninsular forever. If you don't get lost, there's a chance you may never be found.  ~Author Unknown

A Postcard from Cape Town

Cape Town is a stunning city.  I am here to spend a week with Christina and Ed, mum and stepdad to one of my close girlfriends in Sydney.  Emma lives across the road from me and we spend lots of time together from bushwalking, to yoga, and  long chats over coffee.  We have a great neighbourhood and spontaneous BBQs over the weekends is one of the ways we socialise!

I have met Christina and Ed previously when they visited Emma and her family and in fact entertained them for dinner once at my place.  I had briefly visited Cape Town previously but having had only a day, never really spent much time exploring.  When I was planning this trip, Em suggested I visit her family here in Cape Town, between my two volunteer placements.  Christina and Ed very kindly extended the invitation to me by email and a few exchanges via cyber space later and here I am!

I arrived in Cape Town Sunday evening and Ed and Christina were there at the airport to greet me and drive me to my home for the rest of the week.   I have not planned my week here but I’ve come armed with information so I can arrange a few tours.  On Monday morning Ed suggests we drive down to the waterfront to book my ticket to Robben Island.  I also call and book a couple of tours which includes a City Tour and a drive down to Cape Point. 

The waterfront is a vibrant place buzzing with life and activity.  Buskers perform for the hundreds of tourists who browse the souvenir shops and enjoy the cuisine of Cape Town.  It is similar to the waterfronts or Piers of Sydney and San Francisco, and I never get tire of hanging out at places like this.  Monday is spent running errands and planning the rest of my week.  In the afternoon, I have my first introduction to Cape Town in the way of a bushwalk. 

Walking is a passion that I share with both Ed and Christina.  They love the great outdoors as much as I do and so we decide to take me & their dogs out for a walk in a neighbourhood park!  The bushland park (Newlands) is beautiful and reminds me of the bush back in Sydney.  Bubbling streams trickle through pine forest and the dogs have a blast exploring once they are let off their leads. 

During the week, Christina and Ed also introduce me to another of their passions – bell ringing. I had no idea that ringing a bell was such an art and could get this complicated!  They explain to me the different sequences that bells can be rung in and invite me to have a go.  I am warned that one of these bells is about seven times heavier than me and if I am not careful, the weight of the bell could see me end up at the ceiling!  I have a go, closely supervised by Ed!  I don’t think I will be taking up bell ringing anytime soon, but it was fun to watch and be introduced to something completely new to me.

Ed and Christina have also offered to spend a day hiking Table Mountain National Park with me.  We are not climbing Table Mountain but hiking the Silvermine trail.  The trail offers great views of both the mountain and the ocean.  I have been extremely lucky with the weather.  Wednesday morning turns out to be a stunning day and we spend most of the day outdoors, stopping often to enjoy the view and take pictures.

It is almost Spring time here and the countryside is already starting to bloom with the promise of stunning colour soon.  I recognise flowers from back home such as the Protea and find the native vegetation very similar to our own bush back in Sydney.

We have brought a picnic lunch with us and stop for a break at the peak for a bite to eat.  Christina has also packed a thermos full of hot coffee!  What a brilliant way to wash down a lovely lunch of bread rolls and apples!

This city is full of beautiful walks with wonderful views.  It is a city that has that perfect mix of culture and the outdoors.  It is a city I could see myself living in!

 "Above all do not lose your desire to walk.  Everyday I walk myself into a state of well being and walk away from every illness.  I have walked myself into my best thoughts and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.  But by sitting still, and the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill ... if one keeps on walking everything will be alright."
-   Soren Kierkegaard.

A Weekend in Durban

Lakshini and Renzo pick me up at the Greyhound Station in Durban.  My bus is late and it is almost 11 at night on Friday, when I finally arrive!  Fortunately, I have called ahead so I have not kept them waiting.

It is more than 20 years since I last saw my cousin Lakshini and more than 35 years since we were childhood friends and she left Sri Lanka for Malawi with her family.  Our dads are first cousins and our families were (still are) close, so growing up we had spent lots of time at each other’s houses.  I know her parents well and they have visited me in Sydney but it is a long time since I spent time with Lakshini.

Those childhood bonds were soon rekindled though and I felt instantly at home when I met her and her family for the first time.  Her husband Renzo is South African and she has a son, Jethro who has grown up here in South Africa and is now at Uni, studying drama and music.  We spend Saturday morning exploring Durban.  I have been here on a past visit briefly but I have not seen much of the city.  We have brunch overlooking the ocean and catch up on the past 30 years of our lives!  After brunch we visit the new stadium in Durban.  Each province in South Africa hosted part of the World Cup and I think all of them built new stadiums. The stadium in Durban is very impressive and we take the sky car up to the top for a brilliant view of the city and a closer look at this amazing feat of civil engineering!

We drive through the bush in Durban and visit the hills for a look at another part of this city.  As we drive through the bushland suburbs I am reminded of home and feel a pang of home sickness for the first time since I’ve been away. 

On Saturday night I take the family out for dinner to say thanks for having me and showing me around.

We have a lazy day on Sunday and after a late brekkie, we visit a few more local sights.  Lakshini introduces me to the neighbourhood they used to live in.  I have heard about this part of town from her parents, who thought it was a really convenient place to live in when they visited, so it is nice to finally see what its like.  We visit the street where they hope to build their dream house and they hope I will visit them one day when their dreams have become a reality. 

It is late afternoon and time to go.  It has been a short visit but a lovely one and I am really grateful for the kind hospitality of my hosts. I have been re-acquainted with a cousin I had not seen for many years and been introduced to another of South Africa’s wonderful cities.  It’s time to move on though. Cape Town here I come!

 It's a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy.  ~Lucille Ball

Goodbye St Lucia

It is that time once again  to say goodbye to a place I have grown to love and to my new friends with whom together I have grown in the art of photography. 

We have learnt lots both about our respective cameras as well as how to compose a picture.  We have learnt from each other’s photographs and in the feedback sessions we had each week.

Megs and I spend our last day editing photos and getting over a hundred images ready for the various conservation organisations they will be distributed to.  We also choose our top 5 photos from our month here which will be judged so the photographer of the month can be chosen.   I find it really hard to narrow down my favourites to choose my top 5 photographs but eventually I narrow it down.

We have learnt some interesting techniques during this month including how to shoot in the pitch dark as well as how we photograph star trails.   I was fortunate once again in the people that I met, especially Megs with whom I shared a room with & hung out at the weekends.  We had lots in common and similar habits so sharing space and time with her was really easy.  Born in New Zealand, like me, she is a migrant to Australia and has lived there for about ten years.  She studied ecology but has never really worked in the field she studied but instead has gone on to do many interesting things in life including working in the mines of north-western Australia in roles as diverse driving those massive dump trucks and running the human resources department! 

She now lives in the hinterland of Cairns  and we hope to meet again once more somewhere in OZ.  We leave St Lucia on the same day.  She is flying out to meet her partner in Athens and they will travel on to Egypt.  I am leaving on a Greyhound Bus bound for Durban to spend a weekend with a cousin I haven’t seen in over 20 years!  Bon Voyage Megs, and goodbye St Lucia!

 If in the last few years you haven't discarded a major opinion or acquired a new one, check your pulse.  You may be dead.  ~Gelett Burgess