Day 26-33 (Saturday February 4th to Saturday February 11th)

I had to wake up at 6 o'clock because we were leaving for Kanaan. Extremely tired, I at least had a beautiful sunrise😍 The drive was actually fine, especially because we had a lunch break in Neuras (another project I'm doing right after Kanaan) and got lunch there. Along the way, we also stopped at a supermarket where a friend and I stocked up on cookies and snacks.

We finally arrived in Kanaan at 4 o'clock. There are a total of 9 people: the leader Dries, a couple from England, 2 girls from Sweden, and 2 girls I share the room with here. The accommodation is really nice and it's so great to have a normal room with a normal bathroom again (we even had a bathtub😱)

There are also dogs there again. Dries' dog is only 8 months old, extremely cuddly, and was with us everywhere😍

On Sunday, we had a little hike for an introduction and to get to know the area. Lunch in Kanaan is already at 11:30 am and then we have lunch break until 3 pm, where you can go to the pool. The pool is amazing, only 50 meters away from the house and with a really great view😍😍

At lunchtime, we divided ourselves into two groups of 4 people each. The other group sorted the pictures from the camera traps and my group had to do wire braiding. It was relatively boring but it went faster than expected (the previous groups always did it standing up😵🔫). I think we braided about 200 meters of wire, which is supposed to serve as a "fence" at the boundaries of the area, but is easy for the animals to pass through.

On Monday, we started the day with a game count. The landscape here is beautiful, but there is only a low biodiversity. You usually only see ostriches, oryxes, and klipspringers here. If you see them every 5 minutes, it gets tiring after a while🤣 Besides, it was really cold in the car because of the wind, which is strange because otherwise you're melting in 40-degree heat during the day. Before lunch, we repaired a water hole. One of the oryxes couldn't wait until we were done and was only about 10 meters away the whole time.

In the evening, we were supposed to sleep outdoors under the starry sky, but it was too windy. So we only made a bonfire and ate outside, which was also very nice with the sunset. Then we didn't drive back directly, but took a night drive to see animals. Of course, we didn't see anything exciting and it was just freezing cold. I think that was the only night where I was happy about the warm room🥶

On Tuesday, we had a pretty shitty task... we had to dismantle and roll up 600 meters of fence. I think the record was 800 meters, but after 2 hours, nobody was motivated to continue anymore😂

After lunch, we continued in a stupid way to the main gate, where we also had to dismantle a fence and dig out the posts. On the way back, we stopped at the "garden" to water it. Mainly succulents and native trees are planted there to be planted on the site when they are big enough. We found a gecko between the pots and Dries, who by the way is partially crazy but extremely funny, showed us the traditional earrings of the San people🤣

In the evening, we watched Mamma Mia together because the boy who never appeared for activities in Naankuse is a total Abba fan🕺

Wednesday didn't start so well... usually, we only had bread or yogurt with different mueslis for breakfast. As a change, there was oatmeal today. However, after a few spoons, we noticed that there were small worms in it🤢 After breakfast, we did another game count, and not surprisingly, we only saw klipspringers and oryxes again. But when we came back, the manager told us that a king cobra had been sighted😱😰 Her comment on this was just: "Don't get bitten, otherwise you can say goodbye to your family..." (The nearest good hospital is in Windhoek and it takes about 10 hours by car to get there🥴) However, we only saw the tracks in the sand and didn't find the snake anymore.

After lunch, we had a presentation about hyenas and then finished work, which of course we spent at the pool.

In the evening, we watched another movie together, Top Gun.

On Thursday, we had to wake up very early again because we left at 6 o'clock to repair a windmill. There was breakfast there, which consisted of coffee and weird dry cookies. First, we had to pull out 20 water pipes from the hole, which goes 70 meters deep, in order to replace the system with a solar pump. The best part is that it doesn't even work now because the contact between the pump and the cable was probably interrupted💪🏼

We also had lunch there, which was prepared very professionally over the fire in a spade.

After a long break, we changed the groups from Sunday at lunchtime, which means my group had to sort the pictures from the camera traps. After dinner, we had a cocktail evening at the lodge🍹

On Friday, we had to wake up early again. This time we left at 5 o'clock for a sunrise breakfast, which ultimately only consisted of a cup of coffee and a small chocolate muffin. Then we drove to a dune to go sandboarding. After a less successful attempt, I realized that it's definitely too much sand for me (I guess I inherited that from my dad😂)

Back at the house, we had to clean the cars after a second breakfast and some pool time, but that was done very quickly. After that, one of the highlights of my week came: the manager of Kanaan baked desserts for us, which we ate at the lodge🍪🥧 There were 6 different desserts, which of course I tried them all🤤

Afterwards came the annoying part of the week... we had to pay for extra activities, drinks, and snacks. I had to pay 45€, which I found relatively expensive. My friend, who bought about the same, had to pay 75€, just to realize that the sunscreen she bought in the shop there costs 30€😱🫠

To finish off the week, we played games in teams in the evening. We had to bring a ball across a line with a water bottle tied to our hip, hit cans with a slingshot, race together with one leg tied together, do an egg and spoon race, throw an egg back and forth until it breaks, and spit oryx poop (in Africa, they do it with dried poop instead of cherry pits💩)

Then came another highlight of my week. Dries had told us that the two managers have weapons and if we're lucky, we can shoot with them. So we shot with a pistol and a .270 caliber rifle at an improvised target. As ear protection for the pistol, we simply had cartridges😂 Shooting was really fun and out of 4 shots, 3 were even on target.

In the evening, we had a braai and then we all sat outside together, when suddenly the dog started barking. The reason was a South African coral snake (venomous)... because it's dangerous to have it at the house with all the volunteers, Dries caught it and put it in a plastic box to release it far away the next day. To prevent it from escaping, we weighed down the lid with stones and made the box escape-proof... so we thought. At some point, I went to the room because I still had to pack because we're going to Neuras tomorrow. Two people stayed outside and witnessed that the stones couldn't prevent the snake from escaping. After they woke up Dries, he caught it again and they placed the box with the lid down and weighed it down with stones. When we got up early again the next morning (🙄), it was still there luckily🥲