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I hadn't really travelled much, or had the money or opportunity to go travelling for a long period of time, so I decided to book some short trips, enabling me to carry on working full time to pay for them. How did you feel before you joined the programme? Quite apprehensive, as Namibia is far away from home and the style of holiday was completely different to what I have experienced before. I was very excited though. I also felt a bit anxious about the content and the access to the animals and activities I would actually have whilst on my trip. How did Real Gap assist you? How did they compare with your expectations? Real Gap were very informative, the information provided was thorough and answered all my questions.
The accommodation was quite basic, but absolutely lovely. The working guests are all situated in the working guest village, which comprises of huts that sleep four. There is dedicated storage space for you. The toilets and showers are in a separate area, meaning, if you are unfortunate enough to need the toilet in the night, you need to arm yourself with your flash light and find your way to them, an adventure in itself!! What did you think of the programme? The programme, without a doubt, was absolutely fantastic; I have no negatives at all. I was concerned that I wouldn't have the volume of interaction with the animals that I hoped for, but I discovered you have so much freedom and contact with the animals, within a safe environment. For example, you cannot just go into the two young lions, Zion and Trust's enclosure, but you are able to go for walks with them. The working guests are split into teams, and are assigned a group of animals to look after. In my group, we had the two lions, 4 wild dogs, 5 baboons, rabbits, caracals, hawk, vulture and ducks: as you can see, quite diverse!! In your free time, you could still spend time with animals outside of your groups, so in my case, the cheetahs. Even the activities and tasks you do that are not directly about interacting with the animals are still enjoyable. I was involved one day in making huts for the wild caracals enclosure, which was fun and something to leave behind me when I left.
There are so many memorable moments for me, even from just two weeks. All the baboon walks. Even though you do come away with bruises, they are so much fun, you get to take the baboons out to a big tree which they clamber up and jump at you, you get to take them to a water hole where they swim and play-fight around you. The lion and cheetah walks were amazing. It was very surreal once back on UK soil to think that I had walked next to a lion and had cheetah's drinking water out of my hands and purring at me. The sky in Namibia is awe inspiring, it's so beautiful, to be able to spend time appreciating it and to stand outside, listening to the lions roar, the crickets sing whilst wishing on shooting star, perfection!
Did your programme and destination meet your expectations? Any anecdotes? It exceeded my expectations completely. I imagine this is a lot to do with my personal feelings about the trip and why I wanted to go in the first place. It was pure escapism for me. If you are planning on going do note, it is quite basic. You need to be able to look after yourself and to throw yourself into every activity, even the ones that may seem a little boring than others. After all, even though you are paying for the experience, you need to remember, you are a working guest and you need to participate at all times. You need to muck in with everyone in your team, for example, at food prep, quite often you have to prepare fresh meat. Nothing is wasted at Noah's Ark, even all the left over food from the previous day is used for the animals which you have to sort through. What do you feel you accomplished during your programme? This was my first trip away by myself and although at times it was quite daunting, I felt that I was able to get on with most people on the trip and to be a good team player and get involved.
I think I am more assertive now and have more of an idea about my own boundaries, what I can actually achieve and accomplish. I absolutely love animals, but I'm still quite proud that I was able to go in with the lions and feed them. We also fed the wild dogs, this was also quite scary. I feel that, for the majority of the trip, each experience I reacted positively to. For example, on the first day, one of the baboons that we looked after bit me. This made me determined to build a bond with them. At my last baboon walk, the 5 baboons were scared and when the baboons are scared, they will jump up at you and sit on your hips and hug you like a baby. I had one baboon sitting on my foot hugging my leg as I was walking and two others sitting on each hip. For me, this was an achievement. I've realised a lot about my own personality and some of the negatives to it. This has enabled me to assess the way I interact with others, and, how I can come across in a more positive light.
What advice could you offer to someone considering this programme? Just to be positive, to appreciate the opportunity you have as far too soon, you are saying goodbye, wondering where your time has gone and going back to normality. There are not a lot of opportunities where you get to have as much interaction and freedom with the animals as you do here. The family that run the programme are truly wonderful, they have sacrificed so much and dedicated so much time, land and money to their cause. Try not to go with too many expectations, just go with the flow! Appreciate that it's a completely different culture, you are not set to the rigid timescales or schedules that you are back home. Try everything once, even if you do have a bad experience, try not to let it affect you or the others around you. Remember, the animals in essence are wild and they are not like the domestic animals back home, they do not know you, so don't expect to be able to go up to the baboons and for them to take to you straight away. You need to be patient and invest your time into building up bonds
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