P.A.W.S

I spent 2 wonderful weeks with Clive and Roma at PAWS, who are so welcoming, kind and patient! Their place is great, so cosy and personal, and what I loved was that the cheetahs & leopards are truly wild, yet Roma & Clive know them all individually (also the hyenas and porcupines!) and it’s so nice to share in that plus on the first afternoon at PAWS we saw more animals than I saw in Etosha in 3 days - and Etosha was bloody good! It was fantastic - indescribable - to brush this darted cheetah here in the photo, and many thanks to both of you for making such an effort for all volunteers to experience close contact with the animals at every available opportunity. We learned such a lot - Clive is a mine of fascinating information. We learned about the problems of interraction between big cats & humans, and the solutions, such as regular visits to Africat by local schoolchildren. All good stuff!

The design of the camp, out in the middle of the bush, is fantastic……I loved the ‘loo with a view’ and the lovely little waterhole where colourful tropical birds gathered……I could sit there for ages, mesmerised……Clive also told us about the history of the area & the skillful ways of the bushmen - he’s a great storyteller & really knows how to bring it all alive, plus we got to create fire from sticks and to make impressive rope out of a local plant.  Food cooked on the fire ! Wow, what recipes…..and lots of it ! I’m still trying to lose the kilos I put on at PAWS ! We were made to feel our daily work was really important to the project, and it was vital, of course, to work together as a group. As we were a mixture of ages, from various different countries & backgrounds, we had to learn to gel right from the start, and this was made easy by the fact that we worked in pairs, different ‘buddy’ pairs every morning, and then we had games, wildlife quizzes and football matches which really did the trick! I was so sad to leave my new friends! The football match against the local village was a great experience …….. I’m 55 and have never ever played football before……I loved it. We also played/chatted with the local kids & learned about the local families’ lives.

Then there was the exciting ‘feeding run’ of cheetahs, leopards and lions, the night-time game-drive, the sleep-out with fire & marshmallows, under the stars………wow, what a truly fantastic 2 weeks…….THANKYOU!!!!!!!!