Having written this on Sunday and accidentally deleted it here is the second version, hopefully better than the first...
I arrived back to the farm a little tired and confused, but with a lovely welcome from old friends, animals and new ones alike.
Once you have been pecked by a goose you know you are back!
In the evening we took a drive over to the pan to look for somewhere for filming one of our videos and saw a herd of Oryx and a herd of Springbok along with lots of warthog on the drive. There are amazing yellow flowers everywhere and the sunset that night was stunning!
"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky." - Rabindranath Tagore
[Ed: Beautiful quote, but trust me the clouds do also carry rain and usher storms!]
On my first night the guys next door were having their door fixed so had it off the hinges all night and simply propped it into the hole, the Namibian solutions are not always the same as in the UK!
“When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.” – Clifton Fadiman
[Ed: though I am not sure that would really be comfortable for anyone]
Before I came out I was supposed to be sharing my room with our new cheetah cub, however once I arrived I found out he had been moved into his own pen, when I saw him spitting and stalking at the fence I could see the logic in that and why he wouldn't make the ideal bed partner!! I saw him run on the lure (like a greyhound) on my first day, amazing to see his speed, not even at full tilt, only exercise and fun.
We went up to the waterfall for some sun-downers one evening and saw some huge storms on the way over there
The light up at the waterfall was really eerie and everything looked orangey / sepia, like the clouds were keeping the light in
On my first Sunday we had received a call to pick up a 9 week old baboon, his mother had been shot and he was orphaned, a family had taken him in and looked after him very well, but it was time for them to pass him on to us so we could give him expert care.
Our next new arrival, only a few days later was Benny the baby zebra, who I seem to have adopted and seems to have adopted me, he came to us having gotten trapped in a fence and separated from his mother, we are now hand rearing him.
At the weekend we did a research activity and I got to try my luck at using a blowpipe to shoot a dart, surprisingly not bad - watch out!!
One of my first tasks was to take pictures of the children from the school in some knitted hats and scarves from a generous friend of one of our major supporters. You would be surprised, but in winter at night and in the mornings it does get cold. It did seem strange taking these photos on a bright, hot, sunny day!
Our lions always roar at night, something we are all used to and somehow find comforting, like rain drumming on the roof when you know you are safe and dry inside. The other night however Meatball was very close to the fence,. his roars echoing round the farm yard and sending something deep inside me to a instinctively nervous place.
“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” – Mark Jenkins
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