Gap year & Travel News

Hello from (very hot and sunny!) Kwa Madwala.

From frozen England to sunny Safari!

Gazebo Lodge - home sweet home!

The January 2010 team (Charlie, Catherine, Freddie, James, Claire, James, Imogen, Charlotte, Tom, Elaine, David, Emma, Tom, Georgie, Kirsty and Chloe..phew!) are great fun and settling in well. They were kept busy in their first week with bush walks, game drives and farm orientations and also helping the rangers with wood collecting, clearing etc.

Out spotting Ellies in week 1

They have been to visit the traditional healer and Orphanages in our nearby townships which everyone seemed to enjoy.

Elaine with kids at the orphanage

They also let their hair down with their first party evening…a sign of things to come! Week two’s been really busy too with group 1 spending a full day with the orphaned elephants while the others did conservation work,they collected and planted grasses for elephant feed, everyone went on night game drives for two nights and early evening game drives for the rest of the time. They also went to Swaziland for the night and Marloth Park having a blast.

The Girls soak up the sun by the pool in Gazebo lodge

They started doing their microlight flights on Tuesday and are carrying on this week with the bona grass and elephant food harvesting and pm game drives. Mark and Conrad are going out leopard baiting tonight (dragging an impala and hoisting it into a tree at the Riverbed) and the Leap team are going to go along with them, so expect news of sightings soon!

Manyatta Rock Camp in Kwa Madwala Private Reserve...currently staffed by Leapers!

We’ve also had a couple of Leapers helping up at the guest lodge, Manyatta for a day, where they helped in the kitchen and also packed all the guests amenities for the rooms.

More News coming soon!