Only five sleeps now until my wife and I depart the fair shores of New Zealand for the wilds of Africa. Has it really been over 2 years since I sat at the home computer in the flat on Pirie St madly surfing for an adventure; upon telling my wife of a throwaway idea of working on a wildlife reserve, her hungry eyes gleamed and the rest is history.
Cue 2 years of saving, borrowing, cajoling, negotiating and buying fetching French Foreign Legion style hats.
Through a NZ volunteering agency, for 4 weeks we're going to be pulling weeds, feeding vultures, tracking animals and making fire breaks on a bankenveld (ie high altitude grassland) reserve 35kms or so out of J'Berg. Then we'll travel around the country for 3 weeks, starting in the north at Kruger National Park before wending our way down to Cape Town in the South where the Atlantic meets the Indian Ocean. We'll be travelling by jet, rickety plane (on a jaunt into Zambia), diesel train, steam train, ostrich, bus and rickshaw during the course of our adventure.
We'll no doubt have fun, stress, rage, love and insane wild meat (and mung bean for Francoise) fuelled mayhem. Good to have those butterflys 'What if I burn down a forest? What if I get bitten by a disgruntled meerkat?'
Im also looking foward to meeting our fellow volunteers. It looks at this stage as if we are volunteering with a Canadian and an Australian. 'Bonzer, put another warthog on the barbie'
I do hate however all the travel linking up to transport/tours stress; I dont want us to get on the wrong plane and end up in Uganda as a child soldiers or worse.
It will be interesting to see how the pictures in my head matches up to the reality 'Where's my elephant butler?'
Ah Im sure we will have a great time.
Roll on Sunday's flight.
ps
As my wife and I take turns adding sporadically to this blog, no doubt the tone will veer wildly between the informative and the bizaare. Be warned.
Manfred the Manatee
Cue 2 years of saving, borrowing, cajoling, negotiating and buying fetching French Foreign Legion style hats.
Through a NZ volunteering agency, for 4 weeks we're going to be pulling weeds, feeding vultures, tracking animals and making fire breaks on a bankenveld (ie high altitude grassland) reserve 35kms or so out of J'Berg. Then we'll travel around the country for 3 weeks, starting in the north at Kruger National Park before wending our way down to Cape Town in the South where the Atlantic meets the Indian Ocean. We'll be travelling by jet, rickety plane (on a jaunt into Zambia), diesel train, steam train, ostrich, bus and rickshaw during the course of our adventure.
We'll no doubt have fun, stress, rage, love and insane wild meat (and mung bean for Francoise) fuelled mayhem. Good to have those butterflys 'What if I burn down a forest? What if I get bitten by a disgruntled meerkat?'
Im also looking foward to meeting our fellow volunteers. It looks at this stage as if we are volunteering with a Canadian and an Australian. 'Bonzer, put another warthog on the barbie'
I do hate however all the travel linking up to transport/tours stress; I dont want us to get on the wrong plane and end up in Uganda as a child soldiers or worse.
It will be interesting to see how the pictures in my head matches up to the reality 'Where's my elephant butler?'
Ah Im sure we will have a great time.
Roll on Sunday's flight.
ps
As my wife and I take turns adding sporadically to this blog, no doubt the tone will veer wildly between the informative and the bizaare. Be warned.
Manfred the Manatee
1 comment:
Its the final countdown... dododo dodododo, dodo do, dododododo do....
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