The worst part of a wildlife conservation experience is, for most people, the part where they have to leave behind the perfect climate and experiences associated with their time in South Africa and head home. As oxpeckers don’t migrate, I’m lucky in that I get to stay on the game reserve on a year round basis. However, I do dream of being able to visit some of our conservation experiences in India and Sri Lanka one day.  

Like me, game rangers and programme coordinators are lucky enough to stay in South Africa all year round, and for this reason, many of our wildlife conservation volunteers see them as having the perfect job.

I decided to fly over to Kariega, which is located near to my home in Shamwari, and catch up with Jacques de Klerk, who has the jealousy-inducing job title of being a programme coordinator for the volunteers on the Kariega course. Kareiga is less than half the size of the Shamwari Game Reserve and attracts a mixture of mature volunteers and the usual gap year students. You could say the smaller size makes Kariega a bit more personal than some of our larger reserves.   

Jacques told me all about the fascinating week that he had had, which started on Monday with an elephant monitoring session. Many of the volunteers had never been in such close proximity to elephants before and certainly none of the volunteers had ever seen them in the wild, so as you can imagine this was an incredible experience.

On Tuesday, the volunteers set about cleaning up invasive plants from the reserve. During the day, there was a heat-wave so tackling overgrown Acacia bushes proved to be quite strenuous work. However, the volunteers were able to relax in the evening with a cold beer, whilst watching the spectacular sunset, and all of them agreed that there was no better way in which to unwind at the end of a long day.

It was back to work on Wednesday and, with a game count organized, the volunteers were early to rise. As it turned out skipping a snooze proved to be worth it, as the students managed to spot loads of wildlife out on the plains from kudu and springbok, to a jackal out with her cubs. With a successful count, the results were submitted to Kareiga’s Conservation Department, where they would be analysed.

Tomorrow the students are going to make the most of the warm weather and head to Kenton where a beach ecology session will give them the chance to take a dip in the Indian Ocean. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes…