Welcome to Kwantu... the next two weeks I'll be living on game reserve learning about animals and doing some manual labor... should be a fun experience...

Day One- I arrive in Port Elizabeth bright and early and get a taxi to Al-Beit which is the accommodation in port Elizabeth... I spent the day here catching up on sleep and not much else waiting for my transfer to Kwantu the game reserve. About 3pm 2 ladies came, they were English and Scottish Elaine and Gillian. Nice ladies. We chatted for a bit and then came in Aline... Aline had been on the reserve for nearly 3 months and was in her last 2 weeks. We got chatting to her and she told us all about the reserve and what to expect over the next couple of weeks. She got us rather excited about what is to come.

We got our transfer and headed on our way to Kwantu. It was about an hour north of Port Elizabeth we arrived at dusk and as we drove in we saw giraffes and zebras... I was like a kid at Christmas. We arrived at cubs which is our dorms and I met the crew-

Aline- an aussie lady from Melbourne who was spending 8 months travelling and was off to sth America next, has a PR background and seems to be good value

Christine- English girl from Nottingham who is just lovely and unfortunately only had a week with at Kwantu before she headed home

Emma- from the UK and an absolute champ!

Karl- young guy from the USA who now lives in London with his parents and has since he was 8. A really sweet person

Danielle- young girl from Canada who has returned from Kwantu after spending a few months at the start of the year doing a ranger course... she knows a lot about the animals and is a sweet girl

Robyn- she was from the UK also and only spent a couple days there whilst I was there so didn't get to know her much unfortunately

Donya- young girl from the Uk who is an amazing artist and a really sweet girl

That's the gang... I met them all and chatted for a bit and then we all hit the hay as it's a 7:30 start in the morning.

Day 2: We were up bright and early and headed into the predator camp. The predator camp houses the teenage lions that are a part of the breeding program. There are also some Bengal Tigers that are obviously introduced to Sth Africa from Asia. Kwantu also have the first Bengal tiger born on the Eastern Cape. Anyway we headed in to lay some grass down and do a bit of manual labor. Dave who is our volunteer coordinator, guide person took me around the pred camp and explained all the animals. There are some beautiful white lions and a crazy psychotic cheetah who is angry at the world because her mate died which I can appreciate that... not a bad reason to hate the world really.

Anyway after my tour it was time to get to work we were fixing the dirt road that goes around the predators enclosures because they have had some heavy rain lately and the roads have washed away and exposed rather large rocks that obviously ruin the tyres of the vehicles.

So we cleared away the large rocks and laid grass down that will hopefully take and grow and then they won't have the problems that they have been having when the rains come. We did this for a couple hours until breakfast time... by breakfast we were starving and ready for some serious food... I was so happy tosee fresh bread and I of course busted out the vegemite.. It was just like home... so good.... after breakfast we went back to the pred camp to finish fixing the dirt roads. This took us all the way to lunch.

After lunch we were going to go out on a game drive into the reserve but Dave got a call from William who asked if we wanted to help them move the white lions... so we headed back to the pred camp.. To move the lions.. This involved tricking them into a cage..

Now I need to describe to you the enclosures that the lions are in... They are large and have about 3-4 metre high electric fences surrounding them. Now there are two next to each other.. one has the cheetah and the other had the 2 lions... in the middle there is like a 2 metre wide like corridor type thing that is also fenced in for extra security so you go in one gate to get to the enclosures then the next to get into the enclosure.. Hopefully that makes sense.....

So we went in to help them.. we got the male in no dramas at all...took a bit of persuasion with food but was easy enough and got him moved.. Easy enough.. then it was time to move the female... that wasn't so easy and she spooked... it took a long time to try and convince her to get in the cage... and to say we were unsuccessful is an understatement.. She got spooked and cornered and climbed... well half jumped half climbed up and over the electric fence.... into the area that we were!!! To say that we were scared is an absolute understatement. We were in shut in this area and now there was a lion in the same area…!! I ran for my life for the gate as did everyone else… We all escaped unscathed…

Anyway so I got really slack and am now writing this a long time after and didn't keep up the journal so I will now write the highlight reel……

During my two weeks at Kwantu I had an amazing time and met some even more amazing people. We went on game drives, tracked lions, and went to the elephant sanctuary and seen African elephants. Some our duties were chopping down introduced species of plants, weeding, tracking the big 5 animals and a wilderness walk…..

Ok so one of the highlights was the wilderness walk.. It was in week 2 and the British couple Andy and Tanya had arrived on camp. They were the coolest married couple ever. They packed up their house and took off for a yearlong trip around the world. Anyway we went on wilderness walk through the reserve, the animals in the reserve were wilder beast, ostrich and apparently a leopard although it hasn't been seen in a couple of years. Anyway we started the walk and were all as one group, however as the walk went on the group went on we all started to separate and smaller groups formed.. Danielle, Donya and Carl, who had done the walk before were ahead of us and I was with Tanya and Andy, We were talking about where they were off to on their travels and places I had been and we swapped stories and I gave them advice and recommendations.. Tanya's brother was in a long distance relationship with an Aussie girl which made me feel a little better about the idea of Chris and I… anyway we were so bust chatting away that we didn't notice that we had lost the rest of the group….

I thought back to when we were stopped for lunch and remember hearing pelailai say something about the elephant sanctuary, so when we came to a crossroads where we could turn left or right we all agreed after my recommendation of the elephant sanctuary that we should go left toward the sanctuary as that must be where the walk finishes… we kept going along on our merry way chatting as we walked and we picked up the pace a little however still had not court the guys ahead of us… about half an hour from the cross roads we realised that we had possibly gone the wrong way and were in fact lost…. We didn't panic though as we knew the elephant sanctuary was a Kwantu property so we thought it was best to keep on going towards the property and then get them to call out ranger pelailai.. As we were walking we came across a heard of wilder beast… now I'm pretty certain they are herbivores and don't eat meat however I have seen lion king enough to know they can still be dangerous… Now when I say a heard I don't mean the one like in Lion King, there were about 6 maybe 8.. But considering we were 3 measly little humans I didn't like our chances… One of them.. The big boy of the group was staring at us… So we decided it was best to huddle quite close together to give the illusion we were bigger then we were… I like to think we all had a little Bear Grills in us and our survival instinct was kicking in.. When in fact I think we wanted to huddle because we were scared! We shuffled slowly and then all of the sudden the heard was on the run… granted it was away from us but it still scared the life out of us and made us all jump and I may have let out a little squill… Wilderbeast- 0, Tandy and Jess- 1.. we survived… we kept walking a little more aware of our surroundings and possibly realising that it wasn't the safest situation we were in however we kept our cool and continued along to get to the gate..

We walked along the fence and the gate was in site, however there was a flock of ostrich blocking our path… now these birds can be dangerous that I knew so we went the long way around them avoiding eye contact and walking very slowly not to bring attention to ourselves. When we got to the gate it felt like Jurassic park and we didn't know whether the electric fence was turned on.. We tried opening the gate but it would not budge as I don't think it had been opened in quite a long time.. This was when we knew we were definitely in the wrong place.. We threw sticks at the wire fence to see if it would spark and nothing… we voted Andy go first but he didn't agree with the voting.. In the end I think I went first, slow and steady trying to avoid the wire.. I ended up touching it a little and was very lucky that it was not in fact turned on.. Phewww we all climbed through and walked up to the elephant sanctuary where we waited for the group to pick us up… We learnt a lesson that day.. An Aussie and two brits are only good at doing one thing in a group… drinking!!! Not wilderness walks and navigation!

On the weekend in the middle of the two weeks we went to Jeffery's Bay, I was so excited to go to Jbay as I was hoping I would get a chance to go. Just outside of Jbay, well about an hour away the biggest bridge bungy jump at 264 metres. We head off in the morning from the game reserve and head to Jbay. We check in to our rooms, check out the views of the ocean and plan our bungy.. An hour til we are off.

We get ready and await our transfer, it comes and we head off… it's me Alaine, Christine and Emma. We head on our way and at the minute it is only me jumping.. Alaine has already done it but Emma and Christine are contemplating it! We arrive and we walk towards it and have a look.. And OH MY GOODNESS it is high.. The girls are convinced and they are jumping as well.. I may have help persuade them. We pay and await to be called to get harnessed up..

It's our turn and here we go… We get our harness on and walk out over the bridge!! I think the walk out was the scariest part. We are so high up and it is so scary.. All three of us are scared out of our minds, we await our turn.. Christine was first… 3 2 1 jump.. She is off, Emma and I stood there thinking holy s***… what have we got ourselves into… Next up it's my turn!!! I waddle up with my feet all hooked up.. I worked my way out to the edge and the guy asked me what my tattoo said… I said grandpa.. I was so scared I thought I was going to faint I really did. I was breathing so heavily. The countdown was on 3 2 1, as I was jumping the guy said do it for grandpa!!! I was out and over the edge… I however stupidly jumped feet first.. Without thinking.. I tried to correct on the way down but as I reached the bottom there was a snap and I was back up… it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would but it hurt the next day… I was dangling there could not believe I had done it and was so excited. The guy came down and hoisted me back up and I was so relieved… I got back onto the bridge and was sooo excited and had so much adrenalin.. I just bungy'd 264 metres I was so excited.

There were many other highlights throughout the two weeks, those we the obvious ones. Other highlights were crazy night drinking at Island Vibe in Jbay, Lion tracking was awesome.. We stalked them for an hour or so and had nearly giving up then all of a sudden there they were.. Zulu the male was so massive.. He was huge and there we were in an open top 4 wheel drive sitting 2 metres away from him. We then saw the cubs and they were so small and cute…

I had such an amazing time in South Africa, first in Cape Town and then playing game park ranger at Kwantu, Bungee jumping and partying at Jefferies bay.. It was such an amazing experience and I was so privilege to have the opportunity to see and do all of it. However I am so excited for what is next.. Bali and reuniting with the family!