TESTIMONIALS
| "My
placement at Moholoholo was the best thing I have ever done. As well as playing
with a one month old baby black rhino, I walked with two lion cubs, fed vultures,
slept under the stars and much more in only four weeks. I will go back at some
point as everyday was different. I wish I could have stayed longer!!" | | -
Laura Pike |
| "My
short tome at Moholoholo was absolutely incredible. A fantastic place with lovely
people, in a beautiful part of the world. I wish I could have stayed for longer." | | -
Sophie Youngs |
| "Moholoholo
is a fantastic centre and offers you a chance to work extremely close with a large
number of Africa’s spectacular wildlife" | | -
Robert Whitehouse |
| "Moholoholo
Rehabilitation Centre gave me a fun filled two weeks. at the end of my placement
I didn’t want to leave. The people are extremely friendly and knowledgeable." | | -
Claire Fielding |
| "A
fantastic experience with a really nice group of volunteers and staff. The placement
was hugely challenging and I had to do things I found very hard to, but equally
had experiences which were life changing and amazing, such as walking with lions.
Overall brilliant. I have also learnt that you’re never too old to push the
boundaries." | | - Hilary Omissi |
| "Moholoholo
Rehabilitation Centre is probably the best time of my life getting up close with
the animals. " | | - Catherine
Hutt |
"I
spent two weeks at Moholoholo in July 2007. I boarded a plan almost the second
my exams had finished and did not look back. My journey was a bumpy one because
I accidentally missed my connecting flight and so travelled from Johannesburg
airport to Hoedspruit by private bus, a journey which took six times as long as
it would have done.
This meant I did not arrive at the centre until midnight!
Corrie and Stuart who had collected me from where I had been dropped off were
a great welcoming team. On our drive to the centre, Corrie made sure that I saw
as much wildlife as possible to the extent that we drove off the road so he could
show me a porcupine! When we got to the centre at midnight, instead of going to
bed, we went to feed two of the patients; a ‘baby’ cheetah who did not
look that small to me! (He was very friendly, especially with Corrie baby talking
to him) and Tom, the four month old baby white rhino! When I was shown to my room,
they were kind enough to point out that I was sleeping right next to two hyenas
and two cheetahs, near some wild dogs that were next to a pair of lions.
I
started my week without my suitcase, as that had caught the plane without me,
but you get given two t-shirts to work in and then the other students lent me
pyjamas and socks and anything else that I needed. It was fantastic to be surrounded
by such great people. Most of the other students had been at the centre for two
weeks already and were extremely welcoming. We worked in four groups of about
4-5 people and each group was allocated certain animals to look after. My group
had, to give an idea of the variety at the centre, White faced owls, Vultures,
Genets, Servals and Honey badgers. As well as the animals each group looks after
there were jobs to do that involved everyone such as maintaining the big cats’
enclosures and clinic duty.
One of the most interesting things for me
was having a tour of the centre with one of the tour groups. The groups are shown
round by one of the rangers and you get to hear about what the centre is doing
and some of the stories behind why a lot of the animals are there. On my third
day, a student called Charlotte and I were on Japanese television releasing an
Egyptian goose which was a rather amusing experience as we had to look very serious
and clean even though we had spent all morning looking after the animals.
During
my time at the centre, Brian was intent on capturing a large male leopard that
he knew to be on the reserve so that he could put a radio collar on it to help
the leopard foundation get a better idea of the leopard population size. When
we caught the male, he seemed massive. Brian is very keen that the students do
as much as possible so even though he was the one that tranquilised it, we had
helped him set up the gun, we were the ones that carried the leopard to the centre,
one student gave him antibiotics, another took hair samples, a third attached
the radio collar with Brian and I micro-chipped him. Thanks to this great team
work, it took only half an hour from the time of the leopard going to sleep to
the time we released him.
My favourite night was the one we spent sleeping
under the stars at Nhoveni which is a private part of the Kruger national park.
We went on a bush walk with Brian when we arrived; which was extremely informative,
then collected logs and cooked the food prepared for us by the kitchens back at
Forest camp over our fire. Everyone took it in turns to do a two hour watch in
pairs and we all woke up to watch the sun rise. It was an incredible night and
when I was on watch I heard lions and leopards calling as well as seeing a hyena
eating the food that we had laid out.
Going to Moholoholo was one of the
best things I have ever done, I never thought that I would start my day looking
after Servals, have to scare away monkeys trying to steal breakfast, spend my
lunch time babysitting a rhino (that used my hand to suck on like a dummy), visit
a vulture restaurant in the early afternoon and finish the day with an after dinner
game drive to find an Aardvark." | | -
Lydia Levy – Volunteer |
| If
you have a testimonial you would like to share with other volunteers, submit
your testimonial to us, we would love to hear from you! |
|
