Armageddon

Some idiot called Harold Camping caused quite a stir recently by predicting that the world would end on the 21st of May. He foretold that the world be victim to devastating earthquakes and only the true believers would be rushed up to heaven. Of course the 21st came and went with no sign of the 'Rapture'.

Well duh!!! Who does this guy think he is??? Anyone with an ounce of sense knows that the date of Armageddon is decided by the all powerful one...............that's right, The Warlock Rob Thomson.  

Those of us who worked with the Warlock at CCF had long suspected that he possessed mystical powers beyond our puny mortal comprehension. Some of you may recall a previous blog entry where I talked about a camp fire discussion about this very subject where we theorised that the Warlock was in fact thousands of years old and could have been present at the dawn of civilisation by ruling over the ancient Egyptians as Pharaoh. Rather than deny this theory the Warlock left the campfire and retired for the night to what appeared to be a one man tent similar to one pictured below.

However, we now know that this 'tent' is actually a Warlock recharge pod. His secret was discovered, and he was not amused. We were soon given a spectacular demonstration of the Warlock's power as he summoned a fire that almost destroyed CCF!

Harold Camping has made another prediction but we all know he is a false prophet. The guy is a fool with no evidence. In stark contrast if you look hard enough there is evidence throughout the history books of the Warlock's omnipotence. 

So you have been warned! Reject false prophets and bow down to the Warlock!!

CCF Greatest Hits

Two and a half years is a significant amount of time to spend anywhere and working somewhere like CCF ensured that there were not many dull moments! So to close the chapter on CCF here is a look back at the most significant elements that made up my CCF experience.

Xena

What can I say? I fell in love with this cat the moment I laid on eyes on her. My only regret at leaving CCF is that I wont get the chance to see her hunting for herself in the Bellebenno game camp (she is a future release candidate).  I can but dream that maybe some CCF cheetahs may one day be released into the Solitaire area and I can put in a request for a certain cat :)

The Bellebenno Release Project

As stated in previous blogs being involved in the project that saw us release Chanel and the Choc sisters into Erindi Game Reserve was the highlight of my time at CCF. I still find it hard to believe I got to walk behind cheetahs in the bush and observe them hunting right in front of me.

A Close Call
Pictures speak for themselves, a day I wont forget.

The Blog

I started this blog the very day I flew out to Namibia in August 2008 and thought only my mum and a few friends would read ever it. But surprisingly it's picked up a respectable audience, Kate's family are regular readers, I was blog of the week on a South African travel agency website and a regular Italian CCF volunteer (Hi Betty!) translates it into Italian and distributes it to her friends in Italy. So why have I chosen a pic of gay giraffes for this bit? Well, I had a browse through this blog's stats the other day and believe it or not my blog entry about our tall gay friends is the African Adventure's biggest hit and if you type in the words 'Gay Giraffes' in a Google image search this pic is the first one that comes up! Fame at last! It seems there are a lot of people out there interested in the subject.......yes it is a bit worrying! :-/

Boskop

My home for two and half years and scene of many legendary parties! My ipod will forever contain the Boskop party playlists I made for special occasions, lots of great memories with lots of great people!

 

 

 

Kate

I think its fair to say that meeting Kate is not only one of the most significant moments of my CCF years but also my life. Its not all been a bed of roses and we've had ups and the downs. But by going through the difficult times we have learned a hell of a lot about each other which has made our relationship much stronger.  Obviously the fact we have moved on to N/a'an Ku Se together shows how we feel about each other and that we see our future together, which is quite funny when I look back to when we first starting seeing each other and were trying to keep it a secret. We were very discreet and kept things very professional whilst at work, so much so in fact that some short term volunteers who were with us then only found out we were a couple when we made if Facebook official over a year later! The pic below is unintentionally our first pic as a couple thanks to Kate's wandering hand :) It was around this point that keeping things a secret from our colleagues became almost impossible and we had to come clean!

 

I know many people who couldn't imagine working with their other half but despite the odd disagreement Kate and I work very well together. We've even somehow managed to sync ourselves so that when one of us is stressed out the other one remains calm to defuse the situation. We are also both quite happy to just be boring and curl up in bed with a cup of tea and watch some TV at the end of a hard day. I'm sure we will face big challenges at N/a'an Ku Se but our experience at CCF has trained us well and we can't wait to start our new life together ........ Everyone say awwwww :)

Goodbye CCF, Hello N/a'an Ku Se

Actually, I said goodbye to CCF on the 6th of April and I am writing this at my home in England. I think those who read this blog will already know the reason but just in case you don't here is why.

A while back Kate and I decided we wanted a future together beyond CCF and started to see what opportunities were out there for us. Both of us have fallen in love with Namibia and hoped to stay in the country. We knew it would be difficult finding somewhere for both of us especially in today's economic climate, but we persisted and hoped lady luck would help us out. And in February, she certainly did as we received the offer of a life time - a chance to manage a carnivore release project for N/a'an Ku Se Wildlife sanctuary. We accepted immediately and gave our three months notice at CCF.

N/a'an Ku Se (San Bushman for God will protect us/watches over us) is based near Windhoek and is a relatively young organisation that was formed in 2007 by Rudie and Marlice van Vuuren. As well as taking in orphaned and injured animals that can not be released back into the wild (Cheetah, Leopard, Baboon etc) the organisation runs a Carnivore Conservation Research project that aims to study wild carnivore populations, relocate problem animals to reduce human conflict and re-establish cheetah populations in areas where they are suffering low numbers.

http://www.naankuse.com/

The project Kate and I have been asked to manage will be based near the town of Solitaire in the south of Namibia. The initial aim of the project is to study the existing carnivore population and to re-introduce cheetahs into the area and track them via satellite and radio collars and collect data on their movements. To say Kate and I are excited about this would be an understatement. We will be in our favourite part of the country (see pics below for why) and if you could have asked us what our perfect job would be when we started our search this would have been it!

Kate is currently at N/a'an Ku Se and I will end my holiday here and join her on the 3oth of May. We will then make the move down to Solitaire mid June :)

We were at CCF for two and a half years and had some incredible times and met some amazing people. Sadly our final weeks didn't end on a happy note as we saw the death of Cazigar, one of CCF's livestock guarding dogs, and Chewbacca who lost his fight against the injuries he sustained in his fight with a rabid Kudu. Chewbacca had been CCF's ambassador cheetah for 15 years and had a very gentle nature that allowed hundreds of people over the years to meet him and have their photo taken, which i find a bit ironic as he was probably the goofiest looking cheetah I've ever seen! Over the past two years Kate and I fed him his daily meal of chopped up meat complete with quite a concoction of pills and vitamins almost every day and we were very sad seeing the old man go.

This, added to the series of unbelievable events I mentioned in my last blog meant that my last few days were rather sombre. Although I did have one final rave up at Boskop with Carolyn on my last night :) Saying goodbye to the cats was hard, especially my beautiful Xena but the biggist part of CCF I will miss without a doubt will be Boskop and my fellow boskopians, especially the dogs! I considered it my home and it was a haven we could relax in after a crazily busy day (of which there were many!).

I really can't wait to get back to Kate and start this new chapter in my African Adventure but I've still got a couple more weeks to enjoy at home with my family which will include my 30th birthday.......bloody hell, typing that gave me a shiver! THIRTY, how did that happen???!! :-/

And in case you're wondering, don't panic, I will be continuing the blog! :)

I'll end this entry by sharing with you one of my last contributions to  CCF - Its a video I put together about Chanel and the Chocs first two weeks in Erindi for CCF's YouTube channel. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7FRfO2_oRY