Week 6
A sleep-in this Monday morning was more than welcomed especially as we didn’t have the sound of our alarms going off at 5am for a gym session. Instead we had a relaxed morning as we were all exhausted and our bodies were aching from the long night of fire-fighting the previous night.
We packed for yet another adventure, this one to Cawston Game Ranch…
The road is bumpy as we enter through the main gate of the ranch. I feel the excitement of the unknown and have tried to mentally prepare myself for what is ahead of me, ready to become one with nature.
Tuesday calls for an early start. Contrary to what I thought would happen, game capturing was a lot more serious and involves large plastic bomas, a helicopter, heavy tonne animal transport trucks and once again the opportunity to work with numerous dedicated and experienced people. Half of our team was lucky enough to man the gates inside the boma as the helicopter directed the first of the animals, a herd of giraffe. I felt nervous as I was hiding behind the plastic gate, but adrenalin suddenly kicked in as the helicopter horn went off, signalling that the animals had entered my area. I rushed to help close my gate as soon as the giraffe gracefully galloped past by me. They were huge, I would know as I had the opportunity to get up close and personal with them when they were in the crush area, about to be loaded onto the truck. When they were on the truck some of us got the chance to help put dip down their necks and rub these wild animals behind their ears.
That afternoon half of us went bird shooting. It was yet another first for me. I was standing on the back of the cruiser when I spotted a flock of helmeted guinea fowl running past. I had found my target. I lifted the gun, placed it firmly in my shoulder and lined it up with my target. Pausing for a few moments, I pulled the trigger, not expecting to be lucky enough to hit my target. I lowered my gun, to find that I had been successful, which I later regretted as Oli and I got blooded as neither of us had ever shot an animal before. That evening, as an appetiser to dinner, we had to indulge in a piece of liver a la guinea fowl. RAW!!!! Can’t say I felt like I was up for dinner after that and I was definitely not up for the guinea fowl stew we had the next night.
As I hid in the grass on the Wednesday morning, in the net boma that the other half of the team had assembled the afternoon before when we were hunting, my adrenalin was pumping as I heard the helicopter circling above us. The siren went off and I looked up to see a group of impala running towards me. My heart was thumping, fear gripped me and suddenly they changed direction. A few escaped from the boma as the person fell while he was closing the gate but the others ran into the nets. As Sam and I scrambled to our feet, we witnessed an unfortunate casualty as one of the impala ran into the net and because of the impact, it’s body swung around a nearby tree causing it’s neck to break. This was especially heartbreaking as it was pregnant. But the opportunity to wrangle an impala presented itself once again as we were unable to get the required number of impala the first time around. It was extremely thrilling to be able to get so close to these animals and it’s definitely one for the storybooks!
Thursday morning, our last day, started off with a quick bowl of cereal and we made our way to the plastic boma to capture some zebra. We were unprepared for the expected let alone prepared for the unexpected. I was walking behind one of the closed gates with Sam behind me, oblivious to what was going on, we heard shouting. Before we knew it, the zebras had broken through the closed gate and suddenly I felt an impact against my hip. It took me a few moments to register that it was a zebra. If the curtain hadn’t been there it probably would have mowed me down!
We were also able to capture a wildebeest for Quiet Waters. Having got back to Quest we were put straight to work putting sheeting around the boma for the new addition. As the clouds rolled over, lightning, thunder and rain were upon us and before we knew it we were attacked by hail. Our fingers were aching in pain from securing the sheeting with wire but we still kept going, even though our shoes were full of water and our clothes were drenched. It doesn’t matter what the elements are but determination is what gets the job done. We were rewarded as we watched the wildebeest run into its temporary home and Rob closed the gate.
Dylan Rackham