Tags 81-87 (March 31 - April 6)

Since we couldn't find a spot for kayaking with the seals on Friday morning, we had a very relaxed morning. The hotel owner's wife is probably from Germany or at least has some German roots, so we finally had boiled eggs, dark bread, various types of sausages, and even meat salad for breakfast😍🥹 We didn't leave the hotel until noon and strolled towards the beach. We got food from a very popular food truck and ate it on a grassy area by the sea. We had some competition from seagulls and eventually found ourselves surrounded by them😱 We spent a long time on the grass, getting a nice little sunburn. Eventually, we walked back towards the hotel and made a stop at a waffle house, where I treated myself to a delicious waffle with banana and chocolate, along with a good coffee. Johannes opted for the healthy option and had a protein shake💪🏼 Then we went back to the hotel to arrange our transfer back to Windhoek. We also had to pack all our stuff again😵‍💫 We wanted to go to the beach for the sunset with a drink, but it was too cloudy and we couldn't see it at all. We were still very full from all the food during the day, but we got some sushi to go and ate it in bed while watching a horror movie. And then it was time to go to sleep because we had to wake up early the next morning.

On Saturday at 6:30 am, a public transfer picked us up to take us back to Windhoek. Since it was too early for breakfast, the hotel owner gave us a packed lunch the day before🥪 We drove for about 5 hours, and it was awful. Both Johannes and I felt uneasy, and we couldn't even think about food. I also had a severe headache. In Windhoek, we had to pick up some stuff from our previous hotel that we had stored there, and then we were picked up to be taken to the Naankuse Lodge. That meant another 40-minute drive, and when we arrived there and checked in, our room wasn't even ready😵‍💫 I think we had to wait for about an hour, and at some point, I really thought I was going to cry because I just wanted to lie down in a bed and sleep. In the end, I spent the whole afternoon in bed, mostly sleeping. Eventually, I also got a fever, but Johannes was a great nurse and made me cold compresses. We ordered dinner to our room, but I couldn't eat much. I couldn't even eat the chocolate mousse for dessert, and that really says something😱 Then I went directly to sleep.

When I woke up on Sunday, I strangely felt better. My appetite wasn't great yet, but the breakfast looked incredibly delicious, so I ate a little bit. It included scrambled eggs, bacon, sautéed mushrooms, fruit salad, croissants,...🤤 (By the way, as I'm writing this, I'm sitting in a bus and I'm extremely hungry🫥) What exactly happened to us/me? I have no idea. Maybe we got too much sun during lunchtime at the beach and got a slight sunstroke. After breakfast, we went to the pool. Of course, we stayed in the shade for a while as a precaution. The water in the pool was freezing cold, which Johannes loved, but I could hardly get in. The reason why I eventually got in was because Johannes teased me that I couldn't do it😂 I was really looking forward to lunchtime, so I was very glad that I felt better again because at 12 o'clock, the volunteers came for the lodge lunch. Among them were some people I had spent a lot of time with, including Cassidy😍 We all had lunch together and then relaxed by the pool and chatted a lot. While we were chatting, we came up with the idea that I could go back to Naankuse again. The problem is that when Johannes flies home, I still have 3 nights left before I fly to Johannesburg. Since I didn't want to go back alone to the hotel in Windhoek, I decided to go back to the farm for these three nights (and paid €260 for that😵‍💫🤑) For dinner, we had Chinese noodles with fried chicken and then cheesecake for dessert.

On Monday, we had to have breakfast a bit earlier because we had booked the cheetah walk🐆 It's really amazing😍 The cheetah walk is done with the three brothers Bullett, Flash, and I forgot his name🤨 They were raised by hand and it takes place in a huge fenced area. Usually, the cheetahs show you the way and they can choose where they want to walk. Sometimes, they brush against your leg😱 Sometimes they climb trees or start hunting and running away. That's what I heard, but our three cheetahs were actually really lazy. They maybe moved about 10 meters away from the entrance and then just dozed in the shade😴 But we could get really close to them, and it was just amazing, especially because there was no fence between us😱 After we returned to the lodge, we went to the pool and sunbathed. After lunch, which consisted of fries with mushroom cream sauce for me, we went back to the pool. Then we got a visit from wild baboons. From the pool, you can see a small gorge with many rocks. Usually, we only saw small brown animals there that we called potatoes until we found out that they are called rock hyraxes. This time, however, there was a huge group of monkeys, and two of them even came to the pool to drink from it🙊 We watched them for a while, and when it eventually got too hot for us, we went to our room. We started packing and it was really chaotic. I wanted to give Johannes some things to take back with him because otherwise, I wouldn't have had enough space for all the souvenirs. So we had to rearrange everything😵‍💫 As a reward, we had a delicious dinner: breaded zucchini with garlic mayo, oryx fillet with vegetables, and apple crumble with berries🤤😍 Then we watched "Too Hot to Handle" in our room😂

On Tuesday, after a later breakfast, we went straight to the pool, and Johannes tried to get as much sun tan as possible. After lunch, we packed the rest of our things, and then Johannes was taken to the airport. So, unfortunately, we had to say goodbye for the second time, and in that moment, I really thought that I could also fly home with him. However, I had to wait in the lodge for a long time. A receptionist told me that she could take me to the farm shortly after 17:00 because she had to go in that direction anyway. But at around 17:30, I asked another employee if she could tell me how long her colleague still needed. It turned out that she probably forgot about me... although I wasn't told that, the colleague called a guide who drove me to the farm. It was really strange to be back there, especially because I only knew five people anymore. After dinner, I went to my new hut for the first time. Unfortunately, it wasn't my usual hut, but at least I was alone. Then we sat together in the lapa for a long time. Cassidy was very happy that I was back because I'm her Hunters Dry drinking buddy and all the others always go to bed very early, so we were the only ones who stayed up late. When we finally went to bed around 2:30 am, I immediately fell asleep. However, I woke up very often because it was freezing cold in the tent🥶

On Wednesday, I went to breakfast, which I definitely didn't miss. Then we had the morning activity: I was not so lucky and had to clean the baboon enclosure. Unfortunately, we had a relatively new coordinator this time who had probably never done it before. So it took forever. Plus, the baby baboon Pamela was with us in the enclosure. Her baby baboon friend is sick right now, so she stayed home. But the enclosure where we babysit now is open at the top, and she recently learned to climb over the fence, so she always escaped. So she was with us, but everyone still had their jewelry on because we didn't expect any contact with the baboons. Of course, good old Pamela then jumped on me and tried to hang on to one of my necklaces, and she broke it. Another girl had an earring stolen, which Pamela then chewed on for a long time, but luckily, she eventually spat it out a bit bent. After we finally finished cleaning, we had enrichment. We had to finish a project we had started: papier-mâché balloons for the baboons. We were supposed to just paint the already finished balloons, but unfortunately, some of them were damaged. So we had to make more papier-mâché balloons. They use flour and water here instead of paste, but it was just as messy. After what felt like 10 hours, we eventually stopped because there was a presentation about animals for the volunteers, and we had to attend that. However, it continued after lunch🙄 When we came back, we were really shocked. Even though we had put the balloons out of reach of the goats, they somehow managed to get to them and nibble on them. Some of the balloons popped, so it felt like we had to start over again. But we still weren't finished and had to design signs for the new food prep area. When I arrived at Naankuse, they had a very run-down room for food prep, and the meetings always took place outside in the sun. During my time there, they completely renovated it and now it mainly consists of a room where everything is stored and the main part is outside but covered. It was cool to see the process, and thanks to the signs, I also contributed my part. However, we didn't finish until 5:20 pm (official end time is 5 pm, but you're usually finished earlier). After a very long day, I was really looking forward to taking a shower. In the evening, we played cards and billiards together again. For the others' standards, they stayed up late today, but in the end, it was just Cassidy and me again. It was our last evening together and this time really my very last day at Naankuse🤯