Finished my second week of photography at Thanda. This week we did an average of 2 game drives per day and took photos on each drive to go into our final catalogue of photos. We didn't quite match the amazing Leopard viewing of last week, however we did see a mixture of Lions, Elephants, Birds, Hyena's, Buffalo's, Giraffe's, Zibra's, Kudu, White Rhino, Impala, Nyala, Hippo's and Wild Dogs. I would have liked to see more Elephants, so fingers crossed this happens in the coming weeks. We had a guide for a few of our rides this week who did not know the reserve and was the slowest driver imaginable. We really missed our normal guide Dumi on these drives.

It was also an interesting week at camp as I decided it was time to approach the African Impact Manager who was visiting to alert her to the unhappy state of most volunteers. The level of moaning had reached it's height and I personally was finding it difficult to maintain a positive attitude and continue to enjoy my time at Thanda. It then turned out that after I said something that quite a few other people gained some more confidence and the flood gates opened. I feel it was positive for African Impact to realise the there are problems with the staff's general attitude at Thanda and that they need to manage our expectations as false advertising a pool and watering hole is just going to lead to unhappy volunteers. I was not glad I had said something at one point this week when the Manager at Thanda cornered and grilled me for over an hour on my feedback. Considering I had not chosen to speak to her because of her aggressive nature, it just confirmed my initial decision - it also illustrated her complete denial that she is in fact the problem and the aggressive party - which when you are being grilled is hard to suggest without having your head bitten off! But after 4 more people then came forward, I am hoping that my initial braveness will result in some positive changes for us all going forward.

Overall though I am having a great time and enjoying the 2 daily game drives even more than I thought I would. I also had the chance on Thursday morning to go back to the creche. It was so lovely when the teachers and children all recognised me and welcomed me with open arms. Lots of great hugs from the kids. Funniest moment of the morning was having a child on my back climbing his way up and down whilst showing another child how to write letters on the board. The other volunteers thought it was an absolute scream.