Hi Guy,

The leapers have been very busy during the last few weeks.

The first week: They removed fences from the old horse paddock for the new elephant paddock. The started to build the dam in the elephant camp for the tame elephants going in there too.

On Friday the leapers left for their excursion to Sabie, there they did an assortment of adventure sports, bridge swinging, caving, canyoning etc. The second week: This week was community week, so we took them to a school in the local community where they started sanding the walls of one of the classes to repaint it for the kids. On tuesday they started painting the base coat and the first two layers. It was raining and after lunch the rain was so bad that we had to abandon the painting as the water was washing the paint of the walls. The next day (wednesday)  was even worst rain, and we had to stay on the reserve. We couldn’t do any work on the reserve either as there was so much rain.

On Thursday we did some much needed road maintenance on the reserve as the roads were too bad to drive to the community. On the Friday we fixed a section of the fence at the river bed that was washed away when the river came down. On Saturday the volunteers did a morning bushwalk and then had some time to relax after which they went to town to do some shopping and stop by the internet cafe. Saturday night was Party night! Sunday was again a day to relax and do some reading and/or swimming.

The third week: Monday everyone went to the local school to finish painting the classroom. On Tuesday they helped plant poles and string wire on the fence of the new elephant enclosure. This morning they did a bird drive, where we split them into two teams and they tried to spot as many birds as possible. This afternoon they are doing road maintenance as the roads are only drying up enough now to really do something to them.

On Thursday and Friday everyone will be going back to the community to put the finishing touches on the wall and then help the children with lessons and teaching and playing sports with them. This weekend they will be going to moholoholo animal rehabilitation centre, which will be fun and a chance to get up close to some more African wildlife.

On Tuesday next week, we will be darting the 2 tame elephants to bring them into the new enclosure. The leapers will have the opportunity to see this happen and to touch the elephants before they are woken up.  This will truly be a once in a lifetime experience for them!

Thanks,

Charlotte x