Day 34-40 (11.02-18.02)

At 7 o'clock we started our journey back to Neuras. The drive was actually really relaxed and we arrived quite early. Then everyone had lunch here and after that, those who were going back to Naankuse left. One of the German girls who I met at the beginning was also leaving, but since she's flying home while I'm in Neuras, it was a very sad goodbye🥺 Usually, the people going to Kanaan leave after lunch (like my group last week), but this time the managers stayed here for a night and only drove back with the volunteers on Sunday.

In the evening, we all had cheese with pizza (yes, I intentionally wrote it that way, look at the picture and you'll know why😅). It was so delicious and I think pizza, along with sushi, is the dish that many of the volunteers miss the most.

For overnight stay, Mila and I (who was also in Kanaan) treated ourselves to an upgrade to a room...pure luxury with those beds and the bathroom😍😍

Our group consisted of me, Mila, a French girl, a French boy, a Spanish girl, and our coordinator (Mielie). I can already tell you that it was probably the funniest week so far. We laughed so much in this group and Mielie was really cool and funny😅

On Sunday, we had to wake up early again...nearby (2 hours away), there is a lily farm. The flowers bloom only for about 5 days and often not every year, due to lack of rain. Our group was really lucky because we are the only volunteers who visited it. There were thousands of blooming lilies...really beautiful and it's hard to believe that it's in the middle of the Namibian desert. The drive there, just like every drive this week, was very adventurous: the regular car is in the workshop, so they only have an open car that is usually used for game counts and such. That means a lot of wind, which in the mornings means freezing your ass off🥶 (at least funny pictures came out of it)

After the return journey, we had a tour of the grounds. Neuras is actually a wine farm, so they showed us the vineyards and the wine production. Then, of course, there was a wine tasting with cheese🍷🧀 (to be honest, the wine isn't that good😂)

On Monday, we had to wake up early again (at 5 o'clock😵🔫). We drove to the Naukluft National Park to have a sunrise breakfast with pancakes😋 After that, we had a little hike and the landscape there is really beautiful (the funny trees are called Quiver Trees in English). On the way back, we passed by all the camera traps to exchange the memory cards and batteries. In the afternoon, we looked through the collected memory cards and sorted the pictures...we saw a leopard😍😍 the last time one was seen was probably a year ago.

Today was the first evening without guests, so we finally had the pleasure of feeding the 7 cheetahs. It's really a great group and it's so cool to be so close to them and to hear them meow😍

On Tuesday, we had a 10 km hike around the Neuras area, which is actually done without a coordinator, but with the help of a GPS device and coordinates. However, the coordinates were wrong, so our hike was meant to prepare everything for the next group. At noon, we watered the garden and the water smells so disgusting. They use recycled wastewater for that🤢In the evening, we fed the cheetahs again. Since we had to wake up so early every morning, there was never a party in the evening, everyone went to bed relatively early😴

On Wednesday, we had to wake up at 4 o'clock because we had a long drive to Sossusvlei ahead of us. I really thought it was my day to die:

1. Reason: waking up so early again
2. Reason: the wind in the open car for about 3 hours
3. Reason: climbing a dune for 1 km
4. Reason: the heat, of course
5. Reason: all the sand

In addition, the morning didn't start quite well because our coordinator forgot to get the money for the entrance fee and to fill up the car with gas. With a little delay, we finally set off and BAM, a kudu just ran into our car🫠 Luckily, nothing serious happened, except that everyone was awake due to the shock and the kudu was not hurt. When we finally arrived there, we hiked up Big Daddy. That's the highest dune you're allowed to climb and it took us a total of 40 minutes😰 The view from up there was truly breathtaking and right next to the foot of the dune is Deadvlei. It's an old water basin that has a completely white ground due to the old sediment that was deposited there, and in the middle, there are trees that have been dead for 900 years but do not decay due to the climate. So we ran straight down from the dune to Deadvlei (yes, really ran and no, unfortunately, no one fell). On the way back, I bought a T-shirt from there as a souvenir😍

For lunch, we stopped at another lodge near Neuras and we could also relax by the pool there.

In the evening, we watched a movie together.

On Thursday, we finally had breakfast at 8 o'clock. I never thought that would be considered sleeping in for me😵‍💫

Afterward, we went on a small game count, but we were already told that animals are usually not seen in these areas. However, we were very lucky and saw 2 herds of 12 mountain zebras each😍🦓

The roads there are sometimes so crazy and you drive right through the mountains that sometimes you really have to be afraid of falling down. When we arrived back safely, we had to water the garden again and then go through the pictures from the camera traps. Since a branch from a tree was in front of the camera, there were almost only pictures of that branch😵 But as good as we are, we finished sorting the pictures before lunch and had the afternoon free to relax by the pool.

On Friday, we went back to the Naukluft National Park and had a 45-minute hike ahead of us. Our destination was natural springs where we relaxed and swam for a while. It was beautiful and incredible that something like this exists in the middle of nature. For lunch, we had a little picnic back at the parking lot.

In the evening, we had a party because it was also the last evening for the manager there, who is going back to England after many years. We all kept "complaining" that we didn't want to spend so much money on drinks and our coordinator always replied, "come on, it will be a fun night that you'll always remember"...after a few drinking games, he ended up completely drunk and had to be taken to bed by the manager😂😂

On Saturday morning, we could sleep a bit longer, but unfortunately, we had to pack our things and leave our great room😭 We spent the morning watching a bad dating show until lunchtime, and then we drove back to the farm🫠

The week there was really beautiful and definitely more like a vacation than volunteering (that's why the week cost an extra 240€🥴)

It's been my favorite place so far😍