03/12/2018

03/12/2018 13 days at Buffelsdrift

After breakfast we headed down to camp and started with the elephant enclosure which was especially dirty today.

Next we had to fill up bags with elephant dung so we could use it to plant some trees later. Before that, we quickly made our way to the lions to check the fence and cut some plants outside the fence.

On the way back, we grabbed a bunch of little sprouts in flower pots and with our bags of dung, we went up to our tents.

Here we started to dig holes in a small patch of ground outside my tent. We filled them with elephant poop and put the little tree saplings in them. It took us a while to get through the ground and plant everything nice and tidy. Also, the smell of dung was in the air, especially right in front of my tent.

Back at camp, we prepared the elephant food and then went out to track the cheetahs.

We had a late lunch today, but it was alright since dinner would be late as well because there was a night drive planned for this evening.

We had no electricity during lunch, so we had cold spaghetti.

On the way back to camp, we met up with Josef. He is one of the rangers taking care of the elephants, and we stayed with him for the afternoon.

I was really excited already because I knew these elephants were more tame and you could stand close to them. They are kind of the last animal on my list that I haven't encountered yet.

So we walked towards the elephants. They are still growing but are already gigantic, and Larissa told me to give her my bag. I did, but was a bit confused why then Josef pulled me closer to the elephants and told me to stand and turn around.

With a simple word from Josef, 'Hug!' The elephants came up behind me and with their massive trunks, they wrapped around me. Around my arms, shoulders, and head while Larissa and Lea laughed and took pictures. These long trunk noses were enormous and really rough.

It felt like sandpaper, and even though the elephants were behaving 'gentle,' all of my sunburned skin was rubbed off and red. That was really amazing.

We continued to walk with them. They knew it was Monday, so they would get special food, but Josef had closed the fence towards the exit. So all three of them stood there for a while until they turned around and came back to Josef.

Josef led them to a wooden balcony where we could stay on top and be almost at the same height as them. Josef fed them a bit until one guest who had booked the elephant experience came along. With him, we brushed the elephants as good as possible, petted them, and gave them something to drink.

Then we went further up and fed them some fruit and took some more cool pictures.

It was really an amazing experience.

Before we went back, we went to see the chef Andrice. We had decided that we wanted to give something to Mariné. Her dream is to travel, so we wanted to get other volunteers together and donate some money to help her finance her travel since it is really expensive for workers here.

He thought it was a great idea, and he would help us get everything in order with sending the money and the bank accounts. Right now, we just need to contact some more volunteers.

Back at our tents, we showered and got ready for the night drive. Mariné came to pick us up at 19:00. It was raining a bit but got better later.

We drove out to the reserve and had dinner. It got dark quite fast, so we jumped in the car. One person was always responsible for the spotlight, and we all searched for any animals.

We saw zebras, giraffes, different antelopes, and a bunch of other animals throughout the night. We drove around for three hours and kept switching the light. Holding it was pretty cool since it produced a lot of heat, and it was nice to warm our fingers.

Back at our tents, we quickly got into our warm beds.