Safari, Arts and Wildlife Work

  Apologies for the delayed blog post. I have been far, far away from any wifi for quite some time. It's been incredible but I'm glad to be back to tell you all about it!

  Technology tip for the week: when going on safari, don't drown your camara so that your only way of taking photos is an iPad with no optical zoom. It's a pain in the arse when the animals aren't right next to the bus!

  Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th were safari days. The journeys were quite long ones (between 5 & 7 hours) but once we arrived into Saadani National Park it all started to become worth it. On the way in some baboons posed for pictures, a warthog was rooting around for grubs just outside a small village where we stopped for lunch and on the actual game drive we saw a great number of giraffes and a whole herd of elephants! It was something else. Lions greeted us early Sunday morning and the hippos made plenty of appearances on the river cruise. On the way back the bus broke down! At least I'm not the only one breaking stuff this trip!

  Monday 14th was a recovery day. My neck was supremely sore so I spent a day with one of the guys, Harry, who has broken his foot (kicked the floor during football.) We hopped camp and spent a day doing arts and crafts! The marine conservation program uses flip flops washed up onto the beaches to make key rings, juggling balls and other cool knick knacks. I made a fish and a juggling ball, they look totally sweet!

  Tuesday 15th was the second day of arts and crafts. This day Harry and I were joined by the rest of the groups to all mess around with the flip flops and make some things. I helped people who were stuck and admired the artwork of the resident artist, Benson. He does lots of landscape pieces and I've bought a canvas of a cheetah mother and her cubs. Camps has really stuck gold with Benson, he's such a wizard with his art.

  Wednesday 16th saw us return to the school and begin covering our toilet hole with the concrete slab. It's messy work and I managed to cover one of my feet in fresh concrete, like the sensible soul I am! The hole has really come along and everyone in the original group is so proud of it!

  Thursday 17th was a day of continuous travel. A group of us packed our bags and journeyed across Tanzania to do wildlife project work. The game reserve we're working in, Ndarakwai, is 11,000 acres large and took us a grand 10 hours to reach! Living in England hasn't prepared me for such long journeys. A 10 hour drive in England would either end in mainland Europe or the ocean! It's a real eye opener as to how massive the world is.

  Friday 18th saw us all begin work around the game reserve. The managers eased us in with Elephant Dung paper making in the morning and using animal snares to make art pieces. They were both great fun to do and we got to do them in the middle of the African bush, far away from the busy world. It was such an amazing experience.

  Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th both began with us working around a water hole, dredging the existing channels and digging new ones so the water can flow through the dry season. It was tough and muddy but oh so rewarding! On both days we had herds of Zebras, Wilderbeasts and Elands waiting expectantly to finish our work! The afternoons were spent clearing invasive plants from the reserve (Mexican Poppies, thorny little things) and visiting a Massai Boma. The Boma was such a culture shock, coming from a life with so much and seeing people living a happy and content life with hardly anything at all. It made me have a long think about what I came out here for.

  Monday 21st marks the beginning of my last 10 days in Tanzania. The majority of the time was spent on the coach back to Tanga. It gave me plenty of time to reflect on my voyage so far and I'm so glad I made the effort to save up, organise and journey into the unknown to do my bit to help others. At the same time I can't wait to start my South African portion of my adventure and return home to share my stories.

  The work I've done in Ndarakwai, even if it was for only a few days, has been something I wouldn't have missed for the world. Being the guests in the wildlife's domain and meeting a truly opposite culture to my own has been outstanding! It's made me so eager to go out and experience more of this incredible world we live in.

Goodwill to you all and see you on the flipside!