Well we enjoyed our time so much at Antelope Park in 2010, we decided to go back in 2011, but this time for 4 weeks. We went back with several good friends we met there last year.
There was 1 major difference to the project in 2011 and that was Ngamo. The Ngamo release site is where a pride of lions is the first to be released by the African Lion Rehabilitation & Release into the Wild Program into a semi-wild environment. They are therefore the first pride that will give birth to cubs that will eventually be released back into the wild when they are in their third year (2013). During our time there the Ngamo pride already had given birth and the cub was 7 months old in August 2011. This is a brilliant step forward for the project as it shows these lions can hunt and breed, without any human intervention.
So one of the new volunteer activities, was to go into the release site in a vehicle with researchers to study the pride.
Basically the life of a volunteer was the same as last year, but without the cub feeding as there were no very young cubs this time. There were 2 sets of walking lions, Penya & Paza and Lewa & Laili. The 2 sets of lions were just amazing to walk with, on our 1st 2 Ps walk we watched them stalking Giraffe, these are 7 month old cubs!
Day 2 was by far the most surreal day. We were called to go and help with putting out a fire in the park, this involved creating a big fire break to stop the fire reaching other parts of the park (yes fighting fire with fire). So my job was to set fire to a large area and keep burning it, till I looked back and the wind changed direction by 90 degrees. This took the flames over the road and within seconds the fire was now out of control. After several hours of more burning and flapping at flames with tree branches, the fire was out. This fire had burned 50% of the Ngamo site and there was a lot of people trying to ensure the lions were safe. It was a worrying time as you cannot just get out of the vehicles and shoo the lions to safety. In the end they didn’t appear bothered by it all particularly AT1 the cub. 30% of the whole park was burned to a crisp and I was told it was their worst ever fire, but 2 weeks later the green shoots of grass started to appear.
Information about the A.L.E.R.T. Project taken from the Africa Impact website
The Lion Rehabilitation Program:
Over 200,000 lions used to roam the African continent, as recently as 1975. The latest estimates show an 80 – 90% population decline in the last 30 years. The end objective of the Victoria Falls lion project, along with our Antelope Park programme, is the reintroduction of the offspring of captive-bred lions into the wild by means of a four-stage process, which you will learn more about during your involvement with the project.
A brief breakdown of a day in the life of a volunteer.
6:00am – Bottle feed the 3 8 week old cubs
6:30am – 8:00am lion walk, taking cubs from 7 months to 18 months out into the bush, either with or without clients.
8:30am – 9:30am Breakfast
9:30am – 12:30pm involved various duties including enclosure cleaning (Elephant, Horse or Lion shit shovelling), cub walking, boundary patrols, painting lion enclosures or meat preparation.
12:30pm – 2:10pm Lunch
2:10pm – 6:00pm afternoon duties included lion walks, horse rides, fighting fires, making fire breaks, painting and more shit shovelling.
6.00pm – Briefing by the volunteer coordinator about the following days activities
6:30pm – Dinner
My favourite parts were the meat preparation and fighting bush fires with tree branches, oh and of course we hogged the cub sitting
Well we are back from a fantastic holiday in South Africa. We did 2 days in Cape Town, then 3 in Gansbaai (shark diving) and then back to Cape Town for 6 more. Ended up only doing 2 days shark diving as the 1st day was cancelled due to bad weather, but all in all the weather was superb. We saw some amazing wildlife and has some great days and nights. Wildlife seen:
Whales (in Hermanus and De Kelder) Even saw one leaping from the water and then the wonderful tail shot.
White Sharks off Dyer Island
Seals on Dyer Island
Baboons wandering all over the road in Cape of Good Hope, one even got into someones car – brilliant
Ostriches and several of the young in Cape of Good Hope
2 nesting herons in Cape of Good Hope
Penguins at several locations but best of all just near Bettys Bay
Huge bee hive on a tree in Cape of Good Hope
Rocks Hyrax also know as the Dassie – loads of them everywhere
Plus of course we managed to get 14 Geocaches while we were there. we could have gotten so many more but didn’t want to spend all of our time hunting the plastic box
This is going to be very photo heavy and 1st we have some Panaormas
Well we decided to say sod it to money, work and head to Paris for a wonderful 5 day/night jaunt. During this time we decided to do our 1st Geocaching in a new country. Well 1 became 2 and 2 became 11. They took us to some brilliant places in Paris we wouldn’t normally visit i.e. Parc des buttes Chaumont and Saint-Pierre de Montmartre church.
Day 1 was a cache free zone, well we did arrive at 3pm so day 2 we found 2 caches. I Love You ! which was in a lovely little park in Montmartre. Then we found Calvaire / Calvary which was in the grounds of church in Montmartre near Basilique du sacré coeur. We headed to the Basilique for a wander as it poured down last time we were there. Some great views from up there.
sacre coeur panorama
Day 3
Today was the day we walked up the Eiffel Tower which was fun for me since I hate heights but the views were fantastic. Before that we found Champ de Mars by night: Wall of Peace which was in the form of a rock and well hidden. Then we climed the Eiffel tower, then time to drop off the da Vinci Geocoin #1 which started off in Canada on 20th July 2007 and wanted to arrive in Paris – perfect. It was placed in Trocadero (Paris) and we took Laphro’s Single Malt Whisky Collection -Laphroaig-. As we were heading off to an outdoor market we stumbled across Liberty’s Flame . End of caching for the day and we then took a picnic with wine to have that night sat under Notre Dame and at the edge of the Seine.
Eiffel Tower panorama
Eiffel Tower panorama2
Day 4
We went to Sainte-Chapelle and on the way we bagged Pom, pom, pidou which was a DNF 2 days before. After Saint-Chapelle we had a wander over the the Louvre and found the following caches Dhû-n-Nûn at the pyramid and Who is She? (Paris)
Day 5
Today was a visit to Pere Lachaise Cemetery. Last time was on a rather wet New Years day, so was nice to wander about in the sun and to see the graves of Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, etc. Then we we found A la mémoire des communards which was a toughie to find and had to come back to it as people were sitting on a bench right near the cache location. A rather spooky wall where the cache was, had what looked like someone holding back the spirits…. Next up was over to Parc de Belleville which was a good find without being spotted by the many people right near the cache location. Took Racetrack Zac’s Dodge Viper and left the recently found Laphro’s Single Malt Whisky Collection -Laphroaig- Then for out last cache of the holiday we went to Le parc des buttes-chaumont, which was a fantastic park in Paris and would never have come here if it wasn’t for the Earth Cache here – Le gypse de Paris – Gypsum of Paris. This had a cave with a waterfall into it.
Well it is just over a year since we went on our “Husky Adventure”. It was the best experience we have ever had.
It was a 5-day wilderness experience with lunch on the trail, overnighting at the Wilderness Lodge in cabins and the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden. It was 100 miles inside the Arctic Circle. We spent the 1st day flying to Kiruna then being transfered by dog sled to the Mushers Lodge for our 1st night, where we learned how to control our own dog teams. Days 2 and 3 we were “mushers” of our own team of 3 or 4 wonderful dogs. Day 4 we took the dogs back to the Mushers Lodge where we then picked up our snowmobiles to get to the Ice Hotel. We then had a night in the Ice Hotel in a deluxe suite where it was -5C. Day 5 we spent exploring the Ice Hotel some more and the village of Jukkasjärvi before we flew home
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