Monday, 29 July 2013

Animal and technological incidents

Over the last couple of weeks I seem to have gained two things - a static charge which goes off every time I touch metal or any other being, which was a bit of a shame for poor Lala who got a shock on her wet nose the other day when I was giving her her doggie pill that she hates to take anyway! I have also gained a huge ability to repel technology - most of my electrical items from my electric blanket to my hard drive seem to have died in some way or another. Maybe I am developing some sort of static powered anti -super -power?!

"I don't have a super power" - Ang Lee


In addition to my luck with technology I have also managed to be chased by a porcupine - which was quite scary (and no they don't throw their quills)

“Prickly

When I'm feeling
porcupine-y,
I get nasty,
I get whiny.

Stay away or
I might stick you.
My sharp words are
quills to prick you.” 


― Laura Purdie Salas



 I have also been rammed over and knocked about by our huge goat ram covered in bruises with a twisted ankle :0(

"New York is my Lourdes, where I go for spiritual refreshment... a place where you're least likely to be bitten by a wild goat." - Brendan Behan 

Despite all the bad luck I did have some very good luck and on the evening  I saw the brightest, closest most impressive shooting star that burned up into pieces.

"I guess I could still watch the clouds roll by, make a wish on a shooting star" - Piglet


I was also lucky enough to see the big male leopard on our farm! One of the drivers had spotted him and came back for a few of us, he has been hanging round one of our leopard camps as one of the females has been on heat. We drove around quietly a couple of times and then spotted him in the road, just as he swaggered off into to the bushes. Very impressive boy! 

"I went to South Africa on safari and came eye to eye with a beautiful leopard. We were so close; I was staring at him for a long time and I felt a recognition with my own nature." - Bai Ling 


Here he is for you....




The last few weeks have been very busy. We usually have around 30 volunteers at one time and at the moment we have around 70. Its great fun and we are getting a lot done, but its also a bit hectic! For some reason things always seem to happen at the weekend also. 

"I've got a hectic schedule, but I wouldn't have my life any other way." - Dominic Monaghan 

This weekend has been crazy, with so many people we have some of our volunteers staying in holiday homes, so I have been dropping and picking them up. I dropped them Friday evening and went for then at 7am Saturday, after a coffee I had a funny feeling and  decided to check on the new baby oryx, I didn't know but apparently it had been getting weaker and weaker and I found it with only hours to go, I called our Director, but sadly, nothing could be done for her. 

Baby oryx's are so sweet looking - more of a tan colour than a grey like the adults and all antelopes seem to have such sweet eyes.



Next thing we get a call that a cobra has been spotted on the baby baboon walk and a very quick thinking volunteer gathered up the people and baboons, called us and headed back without incident. Our researcher decided to go off with his research volunteers to see if he could find it with no luck. He is hoping to dig it out in the next few days and relocate it. He wanted to go over the weekend and I suggested he wait for the week so as not to 'tempt the weekend gods' they can be quite volatile!

  After running round all day with agents we then had a braai and I had my guests to run home. On the way back I was stopped by someone wanting me to take a kitten back to my house to stop the jack russell trying to have its way with it. Mother Nature can be strange at times!

"One of the things I enjoy is the challenge of Mother Nature." -  Nik Wallenda 
I have been lucky enough to see my babies a couple of times over the last few weeks and they are growing and wandering further and further. Sometimes they are with the donkeys and sometimes the zebras (like a couple at Christmas time sharing which family they go to). As they wandered off yesterday with their friends they stopped and looked back at me as if asking me to go with. Sometimes its sad I cant live in the veldt with them and they cant live in a house with me!

"Every goodbye makes the next hello closer." - anon

In sad news over the last couple of weeks Jaci's skin infection has been getting worse and worse and she had been losing weight and becoming a sad dog, the ultimate decision to put her down was taken and a few of us took her into the vet last weekend, very sad to say goodbye to an old friend.



"A good-bye is never painful unless you’re never going to say hello again." - anon

"Being strong sometimes means being able to let go." - anon

Both sadly and excitingly this place is a microcosm of the cycle of life, we lose animals - some after a few hours or days nad some after many years and on the flip side we gain animals sometimes one a month, sometimes several a day. Over the last few weeks we have gained a new baby baboon, Kimi 

Photo: Meet Kimi, our newest little baboon. She came to us earlier this week and has already stolen everyone's heart. If you'd like to be a part of her life by sponsoring her, please email donations@naankuse.com. Thank you!
who somehow came with a pygmy goat- coco.

Photo


Monday, 22 July 2013

Southern Road Trip - Part V

As we drove back to Aus for a night in another hotel (couldn't get into Eagles Nest twice sadly) we saw the "wild desert horses of Aus". Took us ages to find them with comedy spots of 'the wild cows of Aus' and  ;the wild ostriches of Aus' first. There are several versions of how they arrived to come here, but I believe the most likely is that when the German troops were stationed in the area during an incident thousands of horses escaped, they have lived off the sparse vegetation ever since and have been assisted with water by the local people in the area.


Most were quite shy.


But this fella we had to move off the road, mum looked a little nervous when he put his head through the window of the car!!


"Horses make a landscape look beautiful." - Alice Walker 

After a night in Aus, at a hotel that was better than we thought it would be ...


... we headed to my organisations winery, via a strange little hotel in the middle of nowhere called Helmeringhausen where they have these strange haybale characters outside.


"I'm odd looking. Sometimes I think I look like a funny muppet." - Angelina Jolie

We drove through to Maltahohe and had lunch there - the worst meal ever! Supposed to be goulash, but just dodgy pieces of lamb on rice. From Maltahohe the gravel roads are pretty bad and there are some interesting passages before you reach the place, we were just beginning to think we were lost as we rounded the corner and there it was.



After a night relaxing, showing mum around the fountains and vineyards and catching up with people we headed to Gocheganas, a stunning spa lodge just on the way back to Windhoek. We had an amazing massage and some nice relaxation time in the wellness centre - not to mention the amazing beds!



It had some pretty twisty roads on the way up to the lodge itself. The rooms have great views and at 3pm we headed out on a game drive.We saw 11 of their 14 rhino, including a very young calf.






Mum feeding a baby.


They also had giraffe.






"Love is like a rhino, short - sighted, but always willing to find a way" - Anon



Mama and klein calf.


Rhino at sunset.




One of those super sunsets


You are supposed to be able to see the rhino between us, but I had the wrong lens on!
We reluctantly parted from the lodge on the last day of our holidays and headed into town to stay with friends. We had a lovely meal at NICE (Namibian Institute of Culinery Education - a training facility for the hospitality industry). I showed mum the meteorite statue , bits of meteor that had rained down.



After a bit of shopping we headed back for dinner at the farm and a Sunday relax at the lodge before mum had to join the real world back in the UK and leave me here in Africa.

"The mother-child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic. It requires the most intense love on the mother's side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother, and to become fully independent." - Erich Fromm 

"A mother's arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them."- Victor Hugo 


"I always feel that I have two duties to perform with a parting guest:  one, to see that he doesn't forget anything that is his; the other, to see that he doesn't take anything that is mine." - Alfred North Whitehead

[In this instance I think I managed to send mum home a lot lighter in the suitcase than she arrived - thank you!]

Monday, 15 July 2013

Southern Road Trip - Part IV

The drive over to Klein Aus Vista was stunning with the landscape constantly changing as it does in Namibia. 

The place we stayed had been recommended and we both think was the best place we stayed on the trip. Almost total seclusion and stunning views.

From the main reception we drove a further 7 km in the sand to the Eagles Nest chalets. The one we got was "The Rock" which had a huge rock as one of the walls and the trickiest driveway ever navigated, as anyone who has ever stayed there can tell you.


Almost camouflaged against the other rocks (and check out that driveway - I had some fun with that)


The drive, both up and down awkward as arse!


The view!


The view from the back chilling area.


Here you can see the front of the house and the back chilling deck (and our shadows!)



The rocks we were built into





Back of the house with the rock into the room


Inside the room


Rock as a bedhead


Cant forget the African sunset.

“Twilight fell: The sky turned to a light, dusky purple littered with tiny silver stars.”  ― J.K. Rowling

Mum did not want us to drive back to the hotel for dinner on those roads at night - I was happy to apart from the driveway! But as we were in the middle of nowhere it was really nice to have our own braai.


The next morning as the sun came up the moon lingered.


And the clouds seemed to roll in from the coast.

We had no desire to leave this stunning place, but it was time to drive on to Kolmanskop...


...mind the oryx on the way!

We arrived at Kolmanskop (I had luckily discovered it closes at 1pm the day before, so we got a move on to get there). This is the old diamond mine near Luderitz abandoned many years ago. Ever since 2010/2011 when the sanctuary I work at did a shoot with some of our cheetahs I have wanted to come here. Old buildings taken back by nature weirdly fascinate me!

For those of you who don't know it, its the place with the sand in the houses. The pictures speak for themselves...



"The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it." - Niccolo Machiavelli 


So ornately decorated and painted.
















I love it when nature reclaims buildings.



There is one building done out in original features and furniture to show you how it used to look.

I ran around the place for about three hours taking pics of everything like an excited child. I loved the place. Eventually it was time to leave and head to Luderitz for lunch. Very glad we did not stay in this rather run down old fishing port / diamond town. That said, the sea views were nice.