The Cheetahs

The rangers keep in continual contact with the lodge staff whilst on safari via radio, keeping track of the game and guiding the jeeps towards the animals when there have been sightings. It is important that the guests get to see the game to fulfil their safari dream, without happy guests no-one has a job out here. Some guests get hooked and even come to the reserve from the UK for a long weekend several times a year. Today we saw a cheetah mother with her three adolecent cubs resting in the bush. Our ranger, Luke, decided that we would go off road in the Land Rover, (including down a very steep ditch), in order to follow them. The mother decided to start looking for food and the cubs followed her. Cheetahs are bad climbers and one of the cubs was showing off and jumped up this tree and then got stuck. He wedged himself in between the branches for a rest and then skidded down the trunk, he looked kind of embarrased.

A note on monkeys

The rangers and wardens get very animated about the monkeys. Some favourite monkey passtimes include sitting on the roof picking out the thatch, sliding down them for fun holding on to the thatch as they go, (baboons mainly) and stealing food from the kitchen. After a bout of thefts from the kitchen a while ago, the rangers devised the perfect plan....a fruit salad monkey trap arranged outside the kitchen....every fruit the monkey's heart could desire. They waited on the lookout for the monkey ready to spring the trap...and waited....and waited....only to turn round in the kitchen to find the monkey inside at the other end of the room stuffing himself with chocolate chip cookies - great cheekfuls and fistfuls from the jar...I still haven't seen any monkeys but I am told to close my door as they also have been known to go inside to play with lipsticks and mascara.

Khulani means "Growth"

An unscheduled stop to a school for disabled children. I was not prepared for the emotional reaction and struggled to hold back the tears for the entire time I was with them. In fact for the rest of the day I have been very tearful when thinking about the visit. The woman who started the school had her own disabled child - now grown up - and she has continued to develop the school. The local chief has donated a larger portion of land nearby and granted permission for a new building to be built for the school. This will mean that the children have a dormitory instead of sleeping on the schoolroom floor, access to running water and electricity and the dinner ladies don't need to light a fire to cook by, they can use a stove. Before we leave the children sing for us - a song about 10 little fingers and 10 little toes. One of the children clamps on to Susannah as we leave and the teacher has to prise him off - he wants to come back with us. It's a stretch of the imagination to go from the fundraising auction, "Art for Africa", being held in London at Sotheby's in September to this little disabled boy, but it reminds us why have got involved and why it makes a difference. It is worth getting it right.

Baby Rhino

The safari industry is the economic engine of the entire area, it provides jobs and attracts investment to the region and promotes best practice for conservation. Apart from that - a safari is great fun! Here we saw a two-week old baby white rhino nuzzling with its mother by the side of the road. At two weeks old the baby wasn't used to the safari jeep and got very protective of its 1.5tonne mother. He started off by charging a small bush and then turned his attention to the jeep - and charged us! The mother looked on like any indulgent parent....

Lunchtime at the pre-school

Just as we arrived at lunchtime the children emerged from the classroom taking their chairs to the dining room ready for a hearty lunch of rice and beans. The pre-school looks after about a hundred children enabling the mothers to find work to help support the family. We were told that government officials were due to visit next week to check that the staff were following the curriculum. The government only helps to fund projects like this after they have been up and running for a while and proved themselves viable. This is where the charity can help by starting these facilities off with the local communitites that then become sustainable with the help of the government in providing trained teaching staff and additional finance.

The "DEV" Centre

DEV stands for Digital Eco Village and is the local hub of activity. Here we met Isaac, the Director of Operations for the charity and Nondumiso, here in the picture, who runs the centre. Her focus is education and she told us about how she is giving her staff extra English lessons to practice speaking English. Most people here learn English and can read it, but don't like to speak it as they are shy and don't practice. The DEV centre runs computer courses and, most importantly, has a fax and photocopier machine which has revolutionaised the ability for local people to apply for benefits. Before then it was a 30 Rand taxi drive to the nearest town.

At the clinic

We spent our first morning visiting projects in the local area. There are five communities surrounding the reserve that are supported by the charity. We stop off at Mduku clinic and meet one of the nurses. The clinic is a good example of a combined effort between the government, the charity and the locals. The waiting room is packed, and the nurses are so busy. Six nurses live on site with their families and provide 24-hour coverage. I pop my head round to the delivery suite and imagine having my children here....at least the midwives in Africa know how to deal with a breech birth though, unlike back in the UK where you get whipped off for a Ceasarian at the drop of a hat. Our guide says they do suffer with a brain drain of African doctors and nurses heading to the UK and the Middle East to work there....