The kind of things you pack when you go on a trip says a lot
about where you're heading and what you're going to be doing.
Taking a warm top and a ‘blanky’ is OK if you're going to stay
at Granny’s house, but when you're taking a gap year in Africa,
these items come highly recommended...
Work Pants with zip-off longs x 2
Great for casual wading in the water and getting within meters
of Southern Right Whales breaching just off your sea sprayed
research boat.
This is what work at the O.R.C.A Foundation in Plettenberg Bay
was all about. Plettenberg Bay is a coastal town located along
the world famous Garden Route. It's where some of the worlds
most fascinating marine species can be seen, anything from
Humpback Whales to Great White Sharks.
My gap year travel here gave me a once in a life time chance to
work with these magnificent marine species in exciting and
groundbreaking marine conservation volunteer work.
My Gap year at the O.R.C.A. Marine Foundation was also spent
doing:
Rescue and rehabilitation of marine species Sampling, tagging,
monitoring and dissection of fish species Participating in
commercial marine-eco tourism activities, that included whale
and dolphin watching tours, sea kayaking, township tours, and
river ferry cruises Supervised collection of touch pool and
aquarium species for the O.R.C.A. Education Centre O.R.C.A.
patrol boat trips to collect data, monitor the bay and take
photos of whales, dolphins and other marine species
The Fleece Beanie
The Kapama Private Game Reserve gets cold at night; I reckon
fleece beanies are essential. Long nights monitoring and
tracking game is an amazing experience, chills or no chills.
I found the stars in the sky were a thousand times brighter than
they are in the city. Though the stars were beautiful, most of
the time the thrill of stalking around in the bush took
preference. Darting parties were conducted to inspect and tag
animals for conservation purposes.
The monitoring programs enable conservationists to keep records
of the movements and numbers of the game in the area.
Working at the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre involved
feeding and taking care of baby animals. Quite a few species are
bred here, including the cheetah, which is a most interesting
cat when you get to see one close up.
Other activities we were involved in: Camping in the
reserve to get the African feeling Target shooting Capturing of
wild animals when required by the reserve or the sanctuary
Assisting in hand raised animals Elephant back safaris
Handy Gloves for the Colobus Trust
You can't even begin to imagine how a pair of gloves help while
you're fixing fences and chasing baboons and monkeys all day.
They're also a great help for removing vegetation from power
lines to prevent these silly monkeys from being electrocuted.
Another priority was removing the snares in the Diani Forest in
an effort to protect the Colobus Monkey and its habitat.
I've never done anything quite like conducting a census for
monkeys. Counting hundreds of colobus, sykes, vervet monkeys and
baboons is an oddly rewarding experience.
What else did I do on my gap year on the South Coast of
Kenya:
Repair and installing Colobridges, monkey-crossing bridges over
Diani Beach road Remove vegetation from power lines to stop
monkeys from being electrocuted Work alongside the school
children doing studies on medicinal plants used by the community
Binoculars: Eyes in the Field
For the Shamwari Game Reserve, Binoculars were undoubtedly the
most useful piece of equipment I had. You’ll understand why they
are often called field eyes when you get to Shamwari.
They are especially useful for the mammal monitoring and
tracking program that requires diligent scanning of at least
20,000 hectares of African bush. You also need them while taking
game counts and conducting the anti poaching patrols. This makes
you feel like you're really playing your part in things.
These missions in the name of nature are incidentally carried
out from the back of land rovers; the genuine experience!
We spotted so many varieties of amazing animals; I don't even
know where to begin. While stacking up thorn trees around the
village, a technique used to keep predators out and livestock
in, we were surprised by the sighting of a cheetah, a perfect
time to zoom in with those binoculars.
My gap year voluntary work on Shamwari also covered the
following: Assisting with game darting Alien vegetation
control and identification Camp outs in the bush Feeding of
predators at The Born Free animal rescue sanctuary
A Trusty Pair of Hiking Boots
If you're walking through 54 000 hectares of mountains, plains,
indigenous fauna and flora and the incredible rock formations of
the Warmwaterberg Mountains, I recommend getting good boots.
Most of the animal research projects at the Sanbona Wildlife
Reserve involved tracking. This meant covering a lot of rocky
terrain in order to complete our objectives of game counts,
monitoring and transect analysis. Camps outs in the bush and
nocturnal game monitoring turned out to be extremely adventurous.
Generally, it was more of a team thing. I felt connected and
part of something that, beyond just talking about it, really was
doing something to help conservation efforts in the real world.
These are only a few examples of the hands-on experience we
had: Plant studies and identification Animal habituation
Bird monitoring - bird counts on the dam including the raptor
family Medicinal use of plants and vegetation biomes
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