For all of you that have not been to South Africa before…and for those of you that have been but not done some wildlife volunteering, you don’t know what you are missing out on!

From the time that I saw this tour advertised on Adventure Expeditions, I know that it would be an amazing experience. The next six and a half months of saving up were well worth it!

I boarded the plane at LAX and knew that it would be a bit of a journey (many hours flight!). Once I landed in Port Elizabeth (South Africa), I was wide awake and excited to get started with the tour.

There was a group of us and we were all met by representatives on arrival and taken to our wildlife project where we would spend the next 4 weeks.

This was no ordinary wildlife project. Over and above the amazing African big 5, there was also a predator educational and rehabilitation centre which housed endangered and abused species, an elephant sanctuary which cares for a family of elephants, sporting facilities, entertainment rooms, a site store, tennis courts, touch farm, herb garden, reptile centre, business centre and much much more. These were of course all available for us to use.

We were involved in activities such as game capture, fencing, rearing of orphaned cubs, lion monitoring, eradication of alien vegetation, game counts, veterinary work, guest-hosting, feeding the predators, rehabilitating injured animals, and assisting at the elephant sanctuary.

During my stay, I met loads of exciting and crazy people. It is definitely something everyone should experience in their lives and I can’t wait to get back! I guess I will be saving up again for another lifetime experience…

Yours truly,
A wildlife fan for life