Experience Report - Big Five Project in South Africa

"Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer" 

I can only recommend the project in the wildlife reserve! The journey to the project is very well organized, as you will be picked up from Port Elizabeth with other new volunteers, among other things, and after 2 hours of travel to the reserve you will see so many beautiful landscapes. From the first day you feel immediately welcome by the other volunteers and you quickly become a small international family.

Every day you spend on the jeep accompanied by the super friendly Volunteer Coordinator Jarrett, who counts on you with enthusiasm about nature and without whom the project would only be half as much fun. Tasks that arise again and again are the collection of data on rhinos, elephants and lions. Already after 2 weeks you can recognize individual animals and sometimes know their names.

By eliminating alien plants, planting bushes that are good for the reserve or clearing roads, you also learn a lot about South Africa's fauna, which sounds more interesting than it is. Even on rainy days there is never a dull moment, because then you either watch documentaries or Jarrett teaches you interesting things about searching for clues, for example.

The best thing about working in the wildlife reserve

My favorite moment on the jeep was when we watched around 30 elephants from big to small playing in a mud hole and enjoying their life. You can only smile to yourself and just enjoy this extraordinary moment and not worry about anything else, and it gets even better when you recognize "your" elephant among the many elephants, for me it was Heavy Brow, from which one have to take photos. With so many animal sightings, you experience these moments even if it's just the lions you watch sleeping for an hour, or the baby rhinoceros that doesn't feel like doing anything anymore and lies down on the ground until the mother is too far away and it's chasing her again.

The work in a soup kitchen

Once a week you also visit the soup kitchen in the township and play with the dear children. When you arrive as a volunteer with the van, the children are excited and rush to the car as soon as the sliding door is opened. Then you immediately have two children hanging on you until the end of the afternoon and helping out is a great change from the animals. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend school during my time on the project because of the exam period.

Leisure time in South Africa

At the weekend we always had a wide range of activities to choose from, from kayaking to a whole weekend trip where I went to Jeffrey's Bay with five other volunteers with a local guide who took great care of us and who made the trip miles better, among other things, because he knew the area very well and told us a lot about it and South Africa.

My conclusion to the wildlife project

All in all, I can only say that I enjoyed every single second of the project. Even after 4 weeks you learn something new every day and I learned so much during my time on the reserve and made great friends. A great project for any animal lover who wants to contribute to the protection of this extraordinary wildlife.

Review - Big Five Project in South Africa, by Paule N., January 2019