This has been my 3rd trip into Windhoek, Namibia and finally I have found a computer at an internet cafe that is working long enough for me to post an update. Sorry but this one will be a long one and I don't have my disk from my camera so no pictures yet. I've got some great shots and I've already filled up a 1GB card in 2 weeks and have started into a new 2GB card.
The flight from Toronto, Washington, Johannesburg to Windhoek arrived on time but my luggage did not. Seems that everyone that travels via Johannesburg has a good chance at not receiving their luggage.
It was just turning dark when I landed but just before landing all you could see was the Kalahari Desert in shades of red, orange and brown. It was fairly flat but every once in a while you could see a hill and the closer we got to Windhoek the mountains appeared. The airport is east of the city and I would be heading to N/a'ankuse (Nan ku say) Wildlife Sanctuary for a 3 week volunteer placement. Jaco picked me up at the airport and it was about a 20-30 minute drive the the wildlife centre. Within miles of the airport there was a warthog, a jackel and a kudu along the road so I was impressed to see wildlife so soon. Check out http://www.volunteersnamibia.com/ for more info on Naankuse.
On arrival I was met by Christine from Ireland, Charlie,Luke,Karen, & Lucy from the UK and Thomas for Holland. They had all been there for a few weeks already and were staying anywhere from 3 weeks to 2 1/2 months. Some were strictly on the animal program like I was and others were on the animal/bushman medical clinic program. That night it was hard to get to sleep with a strange bed and all the strange noises, especially the lions roaring a few times in the night. In the coming weeks we had Taz, Afi, Chris, Kate, Frankie, Hayley, Dan, Amanda, Graham from the U.K., 5 girls from Sweden, Sarah from the U.S., Kelsey from Australia and the day I left Matt from Kingston Ontario showed up. Most of the volunteers were in their 20's, many on a gap year between highschool and university. The rest were usually in their 30's but Amanda, Dan & I were the oldies of the group. The first 2 weeks the groups were small and the weather was great so we usually sat up late around a campfire. The last week it rained everyday so most of us were early to bed to escape the wet, damp outdoor thatched roof common area.
Naankuse currently has 14 baboons under the age of 2years (youngest is about 2 months old), 5 lions, 2 leopards, 3 cheetahs, 4 meerkats, 2 Caracals, 2 African Wild Dogs, 11 tortoises, a huge pig, 6 horses and lots of dogs. A released Jackal and African Wild Cat come back periodically for food at night.
Our days are a mix of activities. Around 830am it's feeding time for all the animals around the volunteer accomodation. Mid morning we are either going on a bushwalk, doing a bit of construction or manual labour until 1pm. From 1pm-3pm is lunch and down time. Many of us have an afternoon siesta or read for a bit to keep out of the hot sun. At 3pm we could be taking the baboons or caracals for a walk through the bush or cleaning up the bones/poop and watering holes in the wild dog or cheetah enclosure, grooming and de-ticking the cheetahs or horses, feeding the big cats or going along to feed them during a tour or just playing with the baboons in their enclosure. Between 5-7pm it's animal feeding time once again then the rest of the evening is free time. I'm in the baboon group so I have to prepare the milk bottles and their food bowl (a mix of corn mush, apples, oranges, carrots, raisins, peanuts, and any other fruits/veggies they may have on hand.
I made a new best friend. Her name is Skoene (schooner aka Winky) a Jack Russel Terrier. She only has 1 eye since Tessa (a bull mastif), one of the other dogs bit her in the head during a fight. She's been my best buddy for 3 weeks, following me around all over, sitting on my lap anytime I'm sitting down and sleeping on my bed each night. After finding a tick on my belly one night I make sure to do a nightly tick check before she jumped on my bed. The volunteer coordinator said she would have to check my suitcase before I left to make sure Skoene didn't find her way inside.
My 1st day involved cleaning out the intestines of a horse that was being butchered for the big cats dinner. They buy old, sick horses that are heading to the slaughter house but it's cheaper for the farm to do the butchering. I figured I've gutted gophers at AWIC before so how bad can it be. Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad, you start out with mainly undigested grass and work your way down to the horse poop. Since I didn't get my luggage till later that day, unfortunately, I stained my good pair of pants with splatters. I guess the cleaned out intestines are a treat for the lions so later that day, as I hefted their treat over the fence I had blood and guts all down my arms.
The baboons are great and just like 2 year olds they are full of mischief. I've even learned to talk like a baboon. They are all orphans, and have lost their mothers who have been shot or hit by cars. The first day I just fed them through the fence enclosure wanting them to get to know me a bit before I venture into the enclosure. Just like feeding a baby, they make the cutest little noises when they feed. Some suck the milk back so quickly they sometimes throw up. Others bite at the nipple and a few are so content they close their eyes while nursing. Some of their names are Nemo, Dorie, Dave, Bobby, Spock, Apple, Figgo, Plascon, Saarkjie, Doinkevan, and Smartie. If they throw a tantrum they may bite you and if one starts to bite they send a signal to the others to join on in. We are told to stand still during the biting and it will end quickly. If you pull away you will get bit harder and more will come to join in. During my 1st baboon walk, two of them gave me light bits/scratches but since then Nemo and Dorie the alpha male and female seem to love the attention I give them so I've never received a hard bite. Some of the other volunteers have black & blue spots all over their legs from bite wounds. I never saw anyone bitten if they were sitting down so I always would sit down in the enclosure and advised others to do the same. Just my theory. A couple times a week we would walk them about 1km away to a couple of trees & the watering hole. A new film like Narnia will be using some of the animals in March so we are trying to get them use to playing in those trees. We would sit nearby and when they were tired of the trees they always had people to jump all over, pull your hair, try to take off your clothes, pick at your moles or try to pull off anything that wasn't attached to you. Most of the time Nemo would sit in my lap and just want to be groomed and massaged. On the walk to/from the trees you would sometimes have 1 baboon on top of your head, one in each arm and one or 2 hugging your legs if they got tired of walking themselves. The first walk a few of the baboons had diarrhea. Luckily I had my hat on but the back of my shirt was covered in shit so I had to hit the showers as soon as I came home. Unfortunately I never got to sleep with Smartie the baby baboon. I think he held it against me that I had to take him away from his surrogate mother Darna one afternoon. As soon as he saw someone else with long hair he jumped to her and wouldn't let me hold him. He would only let me touch him for a short time or give him quick kiss.
They are starting a new Cheetah & Leopard Tracking program so on some days we would go on bush walks on the adjoing farm area and look for play/marking trees. We would spread out about 50 feet apart and cover grid areas. The 1st time was a bit nerve racking since it was only my 2nd day and I didn't know what to do if I came across any of the wild animals. Basically they said leopards and cheetahs prefer 4 legged animals so we should be safe (should, not would). Most of the time you would see the person on the left or right of you (about 50 metres apart)but once in a while you would be in heavy thorny bush area and think you were lost so we would shout to each other to keep in contact. During the last week I grew to love these bush walks in the mornings and we started to use GPS or a compass that helped. I came across warthogs, springhares, steenbok and on the last day had an oryx run right by me (about the size of a horse with a really long spiral horn like a unicorn). The rains have started to green everything up and the flowers were starting to carpet some of the areas.
Twice I got to go in to pet, and groom the 3 cheetahs. I loved to hear them purr (I have it on video) and they like to lick the salt from your hands and arms. If you think a housecat has a rough tongue, a cheetah's feels like course sandpaper. Like housecats, they don't like to be petted on their backs or feet so we would stroke them around the head and neck area.
This internet cafe is about to close for the night so I will end for now. I start my 2 weeks of touring around Nambia tomorrow morning and hopefully some of the hotels/lodges will have a computer so I can keep on posting.
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