Today was the day we all finally parted ways. The others were all bound for the airport while I was due to leave for another hostel before setting off for Swaziland tomorrow. We had a last breakfast together and then I headed for the internet while the others went to finish packing. I got some bad news while I was in reception, not only were they unable to run the day trip of Pretoria I wanted to do but there was a problem with the three day trip into Swaziland as well. I went back to our room with the assurance they would sort something out in a couple of hours and arrived back in my own building to find there was no water and the others were complaining about not being able to get showers ... read more

I actually slept until 7.30 this morning and didn't wander up to the Lion park until later. I wasn't feeling dedicated enough to clean the lion enclosures when I didn't have to! I took the opportunity to walk around the campsite and take photos and then went up to the Lion Park and visited each of the animals in turn. The giraffe family were all together in the main camp and Georgina finally seems to be quite happy away from her old enclosure. I grabbed a bag of giraffe pellets and chatted to Gambit and Purdy over their breakfast snack before going to say good morning to the meerkats. I timed my arrival at the cub enclosures well as the cleaning had been finished but it was still really quiet. The visitors hadn't really started coming ... read more

I was back to the usual routine today after my trip away from the Lion Park yesterday. I set off for the early morning shift and got to see the cubs first thing today as I now have enclosure cleaning duty. Glenn, Tara and I quickly located the things we'd need for cleaning the enclosures in the hovel and set to work. I soon discovered that our cute little cubs are quite revolting creatures. We walked around the enclosures picking up the mess they'd made in the night while the cubs trailed along behind us and every so often lept onto the bin liner, or stuck their faces into our scoops to have a good sniff. I left Glenn scooping out the pools, a job that would be completely unecessary if the plugs weren't completely blocked ... read more

It's been a fairly quiet day at the Lion Park. The most excitment I had was at breakfast since Purdy was still loose in the camp. I was sitting on the bench outside the kitchen when a large shadow passed over the material covering and rippled over the wooden posts of the fence. I looked up to see a giant giraffe's head silhouette looming over me before she got bored and walked off. Glenn soon came to join me and as the two of us sat there Purdy returned. This time she managed to find the entrance to the fenced off area and took a few steps inside craning her neck right into the raise seating area where we were having breakfast and peering through into the kitchen. We managed to dissuade her from joining us ... read more

It was my last morning on truck duty today. Glenn, Tara and I walked up and stopped in the middle of an empty car park, no trucks in sight. We successfully located the trucks in the staff car park by the nursery. I picked a truck and struggled to get in while holding the cleaning things and my own bag. Fortunately a member of staff spotted me futile attempt to get in the truck and ran to my rescue. I've obviously got the knack of cleaning these trucks now and finsihed the job in twenty minutes. Tara walked up to see the end of my acrobatic routine hanging upside-down on the seats and then we hurried down to the cubs to make the most of our free time. Although we were expecting the day to be ... read more