N/a’an ku sê Wildlife Sanctuary 12 - 26 Sept 09

I’ve just spent the last two weeks at the N/a'an ku se Wildlife Sanctuary. What an amazing way to start the trip.

Our daily activities included feeding the animals – cheetahs, lions, wild dogs, leopards, baboons, caracals, rabbits, tortoises, duiker and pigs, spending time with different animals or doing project work like building animal shelters.

My highlight was definitely the baby baboons and I have to add that Marlin was my favourite. I got to go on walks with them (this usually involved us walking and the baboons sitting on our shoulders), I also got to sleep with some of them (that’s a story of its own) and I have come away with some great scabs and bruises from baboon bites.

My first experience of having a baby baboon over night…
· Collect Sarafina (my allocated baby) from the enclosure (this went well as I had a bottle of milk to entice her).
· Sarafina runs around the room yelling, I give her a dummy, she settles down, I pick her up, she stays put for a couple of minutes then decides it’s time to run around screaming again, and we start again several times. In all of the excitement she pees herself and the next time I pick her up she jumps on my head and slaps me in the face with her now moist tail.
· Finally settle her down enough and it’s time for a bath.
· Plastic container full, time for baboon to go in.
· After an initial wrestling session I finally win and she melts (relaxed with eyes drooping and satisfied sounds escapingher mouth).
· I shampoo and am rinsing…
· Oops, Fina is no longer making satisfied sounds and she is no longer in the bath. She jumps onto the top of the shower wall, then to the ground, then around the bathroom before finally jumping onto my shoulder (and yes we are both saturated!
· Fina has decided the bath is over but as she is still covered in shampoo we both end up in the shower to finish rinsing.
· Back to the room and time to dry off – Fina that is because she is running this show and I have finally figured that it is all about her, not me.
· Nappy on. I don’t have enough hands to hold her still and put the nappy on so I holkd while Tana does nappy duty.
· Fina again runs around the room until I turn the light off (she’s scared of the dark).
· Me and Fina in my bed, her bum on my pillow, face, arm, wherever she plops it and she is a restless sleeper.
· Next morning – all going smooth – bottle of milk being drunk on the way to the enclosure and nappies off while she is preoccupied. In enclosure, bottle finished, she now wants lots of hugs and also sits on my shoulder. Top tip – WIPE BUM AS TAKING NAPPY OFF.
· I am now stuck in the baboon enclosure with Sejal (she made the same mistake) and the baboons and we're all covered in poo!

It was so entertaining I babysat three more times.
Of those, the most entertaining was when Saje and I decided to babysit Lala and Fina in the same room. When we first arrived in the room Saje was determined to put nappies on (baboons have a deserved reputation of leaving stinking messes if they are not wearing the appropriate attire). The only problem was that even though Lala was lying on the bed letting Sejal put her nappy on, I had no control over Fina and she continually jumped up and pulled on Lala’s head until she jumped up and run around the room losing her half attached nappy (this was not helped by the fact that I was rolling in hysterics on another bed). We did get the nappies on and after the girls ran around taking turns turning the lights off and trying to break into Saje’s suitcase they did kind of settle down. Throughout the night we either had one or the other baboon or both. Again they were more in charge than us. It was one of the best stomach muscle workouts I’ve had in a while. (Sejal, notice I didn't mention the bit where Fina ran across your head dragging my metal drink bottle.)

Aside from the baboons I got to pat a cheetah, caracals and meerkats and just spend time hanging out with them. I also got to throw some horse ribs to a lioness and feed a wild cheetah and her cubs (from the other side of the fence of course).

Night time with the other volunteers could also be just as entertaining as hanging out with the animals during the day.

Amazing animals, great people, an unbelievable experience. I totally recommend it.