African Conservation Experience

We loved every minute of our stay in Moholoholo. Caring for the animals was a truly wonderful experience; I never thought I would get up close and personal with vultures or be rolling around on the floor with warthogs. I fell in love with so many creatures; a bush baby, serval, cheetah, rhino, squirrel. Moholoholo is like a Garden of Eden; you never know what is going to pop out from the bushes while you are walking around! I wish we never had to leave. The staff were lovely and they treated us so well. It was a great experience and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

I'll never forget the day when we darted a cheetah who had escaped into the next farm and brought her back. I was able to ride in the helicopter to try and locate her! The views were awesome and I managed to spot her running below us with a cub in her mouth. When the cheetah was darted I was on ground patrol in the Landrover following the chopper. Once we had darted her, I helped keep her eyes from drying by placing my cap over them. I helped hydrate her, then pick her up and take her to an area where she could recover. I even helped bottle feed the cubs until she came around! It was a day I'll never forget!

We headed out early in the morning to track a cheetah on foot. As we got close to her we could hear a lot noise and commotion in her direction. A large troop of baboons was making a racket and we sped up to try and ensure the baboons didn't attack the cheetah we were tracking. After the baboons ran off as we arrived we saw the cheetah on a fresh impala kill! She allowed us to sit within 5 meters of her as she ate. We left her a few hours later still on the kill. The whole thing was amazing as we were on foot the entire time.

The bush camp in Tuli delivered one highlight after another with so many events in one go! One night a herd of 93 elephants migrated past us! I felt such awe, my eyes welled up with tears. Nature is unbelievably fascinating!

Some of the best sightings included a mother cheetah and two cubs on a fresh kill, bat-eared foxes, brown hyenas and an aardvark. We also saw some big herds such as the 25 elephants and 8 eland! The bird sightings were great, with some lovely spotting points on rocky koppjes enabling us to view lots of vultures, eagles, buzzards, kites and water birds.

Living in tents with an open air bathroom, having elephants wander through the camp at night, a noisy porcupine rustling round your tent at 2am, and walking into a leopard on a bush hike will stay with me forever. As will doing sleep outs in the bush, lying there looking at the wonderful constellations of the southern hemisphere's night sky whilst listening to the hyenas call somewhere around you.

My concerns that I wouldn't be up to the task of volunteering soon vanished. I had such an incredibly nice welcome at the Tambotie Wildlife Care Centre and I was comfortable from the start. I could therefore dedicate myself completely and with great enjoyment to looking after the animals...The experience of handling, feeding and looking after lions and baby rhinos was unique! I was especially fond of the five lion cubs. Taking them for walks was a highlight of my life like no other.

Thank you for the experience of a lifetime! I had such an amazing time this past month, and feel like I have changed so much in so little time. I really appreciated how we were given the space to make our own decisions about how best to work with the animals as a group. I feel like I grew so much as a person, gaining confidence and maturity. My parents looked over my photos and were amazed and proud of what I did. I still can't believe we got to work so close and hands-on with the animals. I hope this volunteer programme is allowed to keep running so that others can get the chance to do what we were able to do.

I literally had the best 4 weeks of my life. The people - both workers and volunteers - were so nice and the things I got to do were awesome, with giraffe mass capture topping my experience!