Sunday 28 December 2008

Boskop



I can't believe its taken me so long to talk about where i'm actually living here at CCF. I live at a farm known as Boskop 7 km's from the main CCF farm with fellow long termers Kate and Rob (it will get more crowded when the volunteer season starts). It's become my home away from home and sometimes it is just GREAT to to get away and relax there, well away from the sometimes crazy epicentre of CCF.

So let me take you on a tour, I live in the main house that you see above. Boskop is easy to see from a distance due to the large exotic looking trees in the back yard.
Below is our front room where we have a tv, playstation, stereo system and dvd player. The sofa is sometimes removed to create a dance floor when we have what are now notorious Boskop parties. In the pic you can also see Spots, one of the 3 dogs currently residing at Boskop, we also have Timone and Tyger. I will dedicate a whole blog to these guys sometime soon!



Above is a pic of the view from the porch area just outside my room, pretty nice eh?! Many a relaxing moment has been spent sitting out here looking at the scenery and star gazing. Finally, below you will see a couple of pics of my room which I have turned from a pretty grotty hole into a cosy, homely area I like to relax in and take well deserved naps!!


Well there we are, I hope you enjoyed that lil tour around my new home. Feel free to pop round for a cup of tea anytime you like :)

Saturday 27 December 2008

The Circle of Life



This is a story I should have put up ages ago but at the time my camera got stolen and i couldn't take any pictures of the momentous event.
So let me first introduce you to the towers (see pic above) they have been used as grain and water towers in their past but today they are now primarliy used as a place for us to go and relax with a few drinks.
When I first arrived back in August I was the only one who would enjoy sundowners and I started to place my empty cider bottles on the floor against the circular wall and wondered how long it would take me to complete a circle. Since then I have encouraged others to join me in my quest and at some point at the end of November, Tamara (see previous blog) had the honour of completing the circle! It was an exciting moment and gave us all a feeling of great accomplisment!!
We have now moved on to the second tower and started a new circle! I will of course let you know when it is completed!!

Thursday 25 December 2008

An African Christmas


This year has been a very different Christmas thats for sure. For one thing its bloody boiling over here!! Also myself and Kate still had to do work - checking fences and looking after puppies, so its not really felt like Christmas at all. But Kate and I did try and enjoy the african scenery and drove past the Big Field which is looking rather lovely now the grass has turned green thanks to the recent rain.

All in all I really wished I was home today. I really missed putting up the Christmas tree with my sis listening to cheesey christmas songs, watching Christmas TV and having dinner round my Nan's (especially my mum's roast potatoes!!).

I hope everyone else had a great day :) Happy Christmas!

Tuesday 23 December 2008

Puppy Time Again!



Yep, two of our dogs gave birth this week! Uschi (see pic) had 9 pups and Tylee had 11, however three of those were still born :(

So Myself and John now have 17 lil bundles of cuteness to look after, Doesn't John look cute in his pic?! awwwwwwwww, ha ha



Sunday 21 December 2008

An Evening Out


Although looking after cheetahs is a jolly nice job it is sometimes nice to get away from CCF, especialy when times are shall I say.....a tiny bit stressfull. So For John's Birthday (our new dog programme guy) myself and Kate were invited into town to celebrate at Axel's house (our vet). Lizzie (the now ex-dog programme gal) came as did John's family. A splendid time was had by all, we enjoyed a fab brai, a couple of drinks and best of all.......dog hugging!

Thursday 11 December 2008

Xena, Warrior Cheetah Princess!!!

I know i shouldn't have a favourite cheetah but I just can't help but love this beautifull, fiesty cat who for a long time was only known as 'Chester's Sister'. Why is she my favourite? Well funny as it may seem its because she is the one cat more than any other who lets me know how much she hates me! Every day I feed her she greets me with a virtuoso display of hissing, spitting and paw slapping which has to be seen to be believed!
So when it came to giving her a name we had to think long and hard as we wanted to do her justice. Eventually I came up with the Perfect name...........Xena!!!!!

Monday 1 December 2008

Karma!


This week I had the unfortunate honour of being the first person this rainy season to get stuck in the mud after some heavy rain had made one section of road a swamp! I was stranded for a couple of hours waiting for rescue which finaly arrived and I was pulled out to resume my journey.

Of course my co workers who have been here a lot longer than me had failed to mention to me that they new that road was a no-go area and found it oh so amusing, especially my fellow cheetah keeper Kate, who took great delight in mocking me. So when I got the call on the radio a couple of days later from her asking for help as she was stuck I could not help but smile!! So I went myself to pull her out and found that she had performed a quite ridiculous manouvre straight into a huge swampy area and not only was she stuck, she was REALLY stuck and the car could not be removed!

So let this be a lesson, especially for you miss Echement, what goes around comes around!!!

Sunday 30 November 2008

Another Goodbye :(


So today I said a sad goodbye to Tamara, one of our volunteers who has been here for quite a while. She is that last of a recent group of volunteers to leave, last week we said goodbye to Sarah and shortly before that Lise and Ree.

If you are reading this guys, thanks for all your help with the puppies, you did a fantastic job and were great to have around, it feels very stange without you here!!! :(

All the best for the future and make sure you keep in touch, I may be coming to visit you one of these days!!!


Sunday 23 November 2008

Hunters Gold, A Tribute!

Ladies and Gentleman may I present to you one of the best reasons to come to Africa, Hunters Gold Cider!!!! After a hard days work there really is nothing like sitting down and watching the sunset with a bottle of this golden loveliness in your hand. mmmmmm doesn't it just look absolutely scrumptious!!!

Monday 10 November 2008

The Disney Returns!

Yes, despite fearing the worst after her wheel spectaculay fell of one day almost killing everyone on board, the Disney is back!! Feeding just hasn't been the same so it was an oh so happy day to see her back in the parking lot ready for action once more. Although if anyone from Disney is reading this it would be very nice if you could donate us another car!

Monday 27 October 2008

Etosha!

Well who'd have thought this time last year when i was struggling to learn to drive that a year later i would be driving people on safari, but thats what i did this weekend and loved it!!!!!!!!! I safely drove 4 of our volunteers there and back and had a great time camping and having a bbq under the african sky. We saw Black rhino, cheetahs, lions and a lots of elephant, can't wait to go again. Etosha is amazing!! Go!









Wednesday 22 October 2008

The Day the Disney Died




Today i am very glad to be alive as yesterday a wheel flew of my beloved feeding car known as the Disney. As you can imagine it was quite a shock to be driving along only to hear a huge metalic crashing noise and feel the car dip to one side, it was an even bigger shock to realise the brakes were failing to work! Fortunatly i had my wits about me and manged to keep the car on the road, phew!!!!! But do i get any credit from my terrified passengers for saving their lives? Of course not!!! The wheel deciding to fall of was obviously my fault! Ungratefull gits! But alas, the Disney is now in a very sorry state, will she rise from the dead?? Watch this space!


Sunday 19 October 2008

Cute Puppies!



One of our livestock guarding dogs, Penda gave birth to 9 unbelievably cute puppies a couple of weeks ago and all 9 are growing up fast. So when the pups started to crawl one of my jobs was to build a puppy barrier that would enable penda to have access in and out of her hut but at the same time keep puppys in.

So I built what i thought was a perfect barrier constructed from wooden poles and string only to find the next day that somehow one of the puppies had escaped! So I added an extra pole, but again the next day 2 puppies had escaped!! Unbelivable!! So I further increased the height of the barrier only to have the lil buggers escape again. I could not understand how they were doing it, but the crafty pups had two tricks up their sleeves, one was to suck on Penda's teets so hard that when she jumped over the barrier they went with her and the other was to use the poles I constucted the barrier with like a ladder!

So i then added some flat cardboard to the barrier creating a flat surface, aha!!! That will stop them. However, within 30 minutes 4 had hurled themselves over so i gave up! The lil puppy genius' now have full access to their pen. Still its hard to be mad at something so damn cute!!!