Okonjima, Namibia: 23rd September 2009

This morning the weather took a turn for the worse and we got stuck in a thunder storm, with lashings of rain. The rains aren’t due until November, so this was unexpected and we had to shelter in a random barn before continuing to the fence-rolling site. After a couple of hours hard graft we completed the stretch of fence we’d been working on – 7 kilometres in total! And as the wires are all in bunches of 5, this means we’ve rolled 35 kilometres of fence! Not bad going, Clive says we’re the best group he’s ever had. Of course!

In the afternoon we went for a drive and stopped at a watering hole to watch the sunset with a few beers.

Today was my (Paul’s) Mum’s birthday, I tried to call a couple of times and left messages. Mum, if you’re reading this, I hope you had a nice time and your flowers arrived!

Okonjima, Namibia: 22nd September 2009

This morning we continued with fence rolling and then went to visit Okonjima’s prized leopard called Wa-hoo. Wa-hoo was discovered by a farmer after he’d shot the mother and sent to the Hanson family who own Okonjima. Wayne Hanson, the father, raised him by hand - having to feed him every 2 hours for the first 2 years, even through the night! Wa-hoo now lives in a large 60 acre enclosure and can never be released into the wild because he is too used to humans, he’s beautiful though, and I managed to get some good shots of him with a Crimson Breasted Shrike sitting nearby! After seeing Wa-hoo we drove around a bit and saw a group of giraffes, which we watched for a while, and then returned to camp. Shortly after dinner, we were visited by Porky, the porcupine, who came into the kitchen to raid the bins!

Okonjima, Namibia: 21st September 2009

This morning we were back to clearing up poo and bones in the Cheetah enclosures. We stopped at 10.30 to join the feeding run, which involved driving behind a truck and watching as the staff lobbed huge chunks of fresh donkey over the fence to the animals. The cheetahs would grab their meat and run off back into their reserve, dragging it along beside them, whereas the leopards were very impressive and actually jumped up to catch the meat mid air, smart arses!

In the afternoon we went leopard tracking – the aim this time was to see TJ, the big leopard who killed 6 cheetahs last year (naughty kitty!). We managed to find another leopard called poo face (not really but I can’t remember his name) and then managed to find TJ just before dark – he’d just killed a wart hog, which wasn’t a particularly pleasant sight with his guts hanging out – hey ho, the wonders of nature!

Okonjima, Namibia: 20th September 2009

We had a new volunteer join us yesterday, Jane, a doctor in her early 50s from Cumbria, who has lived in loads of cool places around the world. Because she’s new Clive decided today should be a day of game drives rather than working – good call!

So in the day we toured the reserve on the jeep and then we had a night drive. We didn’t see much on the night drive except a nocturnal rabbit – but it was great driving around in the dark, the sky was perfectly clear and we’re 45 km from the nearest town so the stars and Milky Way were really clear!

Okonjima, Namibia: 19th September 2009

Today was Saturday, our day off, so we spent the day reading and chilling by the pool of the neighbouring campsite. The bird in the photo is a crimson breasted shrike (in case you’re interested!)

Okonjima, Namibia: 18th September 2009

This morning we were back to wire coiling and in the afternoon we had a game drive and took some beers up to the ‘Zen Garden’ for sunset.

The Zen garden is an area of lawn on top of a hill overlooking the whole reserve. A couple of years ago a friend of the family that own the reserve was told she had three months to live due to cancer, so they laid out this lawn and let her camp on it with a Buddhist monk for her last three months to prepare for the end. They’ve left it as a place for people to come and watch the sunsets as it really is a beautiful spot.

Whilst up there we rang our niece Soraya as it’s her 6th birthday and we all sang happy birthday too her, then returned to the camp where Matt and I cooked a fab chilli con carne on the fire!

Okonjima, Namibia: 17th September 2009

This morning was spent bush clearing – this involved going into the reserve with 2 big chopping machines, one called The Beast, and the other The Bitch. Matt and I opted to work on The Bitch with Felix. The aim was to remove as many sickle bushes as we could. These bushes normally only grow at the bottom of hills where the soil is poor due to water leaching, but because the entire reserve was once cattle farms, the soil is poor everywhere and they have got completely out of control – probably 4 of every 5 bushes are sickle bushes and they are truly the devil’s spawn – they have massive 2 inch spikes all over them, exactly like needles, so we cut our arms up nicely!

Felix operated The Bitch, which chops the bushes down at the lower level of the trunk whilst Matt and I pushed them over and then dragged them onto piles. They’ll be left for a year to dry out and the burnt, leaving plenty of room for the native plants to flourish, and much more room for grass, so more animals can be accommodated in the reserve. The entire process to clear the 55,000 acre reserve will take between 12 and 20 years!

Although it was hard work and we all ended up with lots of cuts and scratches, it really was fulfilling – over 4 hours we managed to clear a large area and could really see we were having an impact on the landscape!

In the afternoon we went to the Africat education centre and Clive told us more about its work, then for a game drive. We ended up in one of the largest Cheetah enclosures with 5 cheetahs, all brothers and sisters. Got some good photos!

Okonjima, Namibia: 16th September 2009

This morning our work involved going into enclosures with cheetahs and picking through their poo. Yes, really.

Africat, the charity who are based at Okonjima have over 100 cats in captivity, which can’t be released into the wild – either because they are too ill, or more commonly that they were caught by poachers/farmers when young and didn’t receive the necessary training from their mothers to manage in the wild.

The majority of animals that pass through Africat get released back into the wild within 24 hours, but the young ones need to be kept on. Some of these the go into the rehabilitation programme, whereby they go into a massive 10,000 acre enclosure and are monitored to see if they’re fit to go into the wild, but unfortunately a huge leopard called TJ killed 6 of the Cheetahs last year so they had to take them all out – they are now preparing an even bigger enclosure of 16,000 acres and without TJ so they can re-start the programme next year.

So in the meantime there are lots of cheetahs in smaller enclosures (about 10 acres each, with about 3 cheetahs in each) and we had to go in and collect their poo and any donkey bones they’d left hanging around – the dirty b’stards!

It was actually good fun and in one of the enclosures Matt and I had a close encounter – one of the cheetahs took umbrage to us and did a ‘mock charge’, stamping his feet and growling. We’d been told under no circumstances to run away, so Matt just waved a stick at him and said “ah, shut it!” to which the cheetah legged it quick sharp!

Matt and I were accompanied during the work by Felix, one of the 2 local employees of PAWS (People and Wildlife Solutions: www.pawsnamibia.org), who run the volunteer programme. He’s a nice chap, 22 years old with fairly good English. Clive told us that last year Felix’s wife had died – after being attacked by a crocodile – apparently a fairly common occurrence in northern Namibia, where he comes from.

In the afternoon Clive and Felix took us on a bushman walk and explained how the traditional bushmen lived and tracked animals and how they lit fires – very enlightening!

Okonjima, Namibia: 15th September 2009

Slight hangover today after consuming too many birthday wines! Morning work consisted of coiling more fence wires, but it was more challenging today as we hit a section going through heavy overgrowth and bushes with big spikes – sounds awful but was actually good fun! At one point we saw a 2 metre rock python making its way into one of the termite mounds. Ugg!

In the afternoon we went tracking hyenas on foot – they have 3 tagged for research purposes. On the way we stopped at the viewing point to work out which would be the best direction to find the hyenas – we had to wait a few minutes as a large family of baboons were playing. I didn’t realise but hyenas can grow bigger than leopards and have ‘the strongest jaws in nature’ officially! We found one, called Pooh after the bear and got very close – very odd looking animals!

Okonjima, Namibia: 14th September 2009

My Birthday! Matt bought me some new shades and trousers last week in Cape Town, so they’re my pressies.

This morning we started work – we’ll work from 7am to 11.30am every day, then back to the campsite for lunch and a siesta until 3.30, followed by an ‘activity’.

This morning the work involved coiling fencing wire from the old farms fences which is made from galvanised steel - a total nightmare to work with. Unfortunately if the wire is left in the reserve, animals get caught in it and die, so it’s a vital piece of work. It’s hard going, especially when it starts to get really warm around 10am - but it’s rewarding and it’s nice to know we’re making a difference.

In the afternoon we had word that one of the tagged leopards, a female called MJ had made a kill. MJ had a cub three months ago and there was a great chance she’d have it with her – so for the second day in a row we spent the afternoon leopard tracking – with great success – we found her sitting under a tree, near to a dead Kudu, with the 3 month old cub playing around her – great! Nobody knows if the cub is a boy or girl yet but we do know it’s mega cute!

In the evening it was our turn to cook dinner, which was Oryx stir-fry – everything is cooked over an open fire outside by the watering hole, so it was quite an experience. Roma also bought me a cake (which meant a 150km round trip!) and put up a banner and some balloons which was nice!

Okonjima, Namibia: 13th September 2009

As this was our first day we spent it orientating ourselves on a couple of game drives – during the morning we saw tonnes of Kudu, Oryx, Zebra, Giraffe, Rock Monitor Lizards and more. We also visited the largest termite mound in the reserve – about 4 times the height of Matt! And we saw our first leopard, called Skinny Boy. The reserve has 4 leopards tagged for research purposes.

In the afternoon we went leopard tracking which involved driving around in the jeep with Clive holding up a big antenna listening out for beeps. We managed to track down one called Nxosi which got quite close – a great sight!

In the evenings we all take it in turns to cook, so the 2 female volunteers, Tanya and Bev cooked spag bol – delicious!

Nb – there are just 5 volunteers for this week, Bev a local council sports co-ordinator from Surrey aged 49, Tanya a former banker aged 39, David a recruitment consultant aged 53, and Matt and I – so I’m the youngest!