Sorry for the late blog post, been busy out in the bush today! All the South Africa Leapers are well and have settled well into the program, making fast friends with the other volunteers we have staying at Kwa right now. Over the past week we have done the community tour where the students went through to a few orphanages and other interesting sites in the community.

Richard and Larissa, our two trusty Horse Safari Leapers have also been kept busy. They have been on a few rides already and today they went out with Grant (who is also a professional qualified farrier) who showed them the basics of shoeing a horse and are currently out on a ride in the reserve.

Larissa and Meg on the tamed eles

The past few days have seen the start of conservation work and the all the Leapers have laid a new pipeline to one of the reserves dam so the animals can have water as the dam is beginning to dry up due to the long hot dry winter! They have also been getting stuck stuck into clearing the roads of overhanging branches and debris to improve access to remote parts of the reserve by our ranger teams. The team have been making themselves useful to the Elephant guides by helping out with harvesting branches for the tame elephants!

Wearing their new team colours with pride!

So far the highlight of the week was the Leapers attending the Bafana Bafana vs Niger match in Nelspruit stadium where SA won 2-0! It was a unique experience for the students being one of 30,000 spectators and around the same number of vuvuzelas! This weekend ahead we are off to Swaziland to visit the glass factory, candle factory, local markets as well as a traditional Swazi village.

All are in good health too and are getting stuck into everything…more news to come!

Thanks Luke