Harnas

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Before you sit down to read this, I just want to warn you that it is quite long! I just had to put that out there before you all blame me for taking up minutes or hours or even days of your time!....

Ever since I left Tanzania, time has flown by! I arrived in Windhoek, Namibia on a Wednesday in mid-march. At the airport, I waited with my transfer driver for a girl named Gemma. We were driven to Chameleon Backpacker’s Lodge. We were in a room with 6 other strangers and we all shared one bathroom. The following morning, I took a REAL shower with hot water (from solar heating- very environmentally conscious… they had compost and recycling too!) Gemma and I spent that Thursday in a shopping mall 5 minutes from our hotel. It was the first time both of us had seen real stores and restaurants in ages! She has been traveling for the past 1.5 years, so we both had quite a few stories to share. We both purchased $7 fleece blankets which turned out to be the best purchases we could have ever made.

On Friday we were picked up and transferred to Harnas farm… about four hours away from Windhoek. We drove around the city for about two hours before actually setting on our way. We picked up various people, pool equipment, and we all seriously doubted whether or not we would actually ever be brought to the farm! We stopped in Gobabis on the way there where I purchased enough chocolate to last me for a few days. It was then that I found the best chocolate bar on earth- it is called a Tempo bar and it has caramel and tiny balls of biscuit covered in milk chocolate! My obsession with chocolate has not gone unnoticed!

When we finally got to Harnas we were given and introduction meeting and went to our cabins. I was finally able to unpack on shelves! I shared a cabin with three other girls- Karen, Ria, and Kirsty. We were in a cabin called Basters which was just about the farthest you could get in the volunteer village from both the eating area and the bathrooms- just my luck!

At first, it seemed as though we were never going to get used to life at Harnas, but soon after it began to change me and I fell in love with the place! The first morning we had there we had an orientation meeting and were given more information about Harnas. At that meeting they brought in one of the baby baby lions named Pinky. She was 6 weeks old at the time and adorable! They let us each touch her head and we all prayed it would not be the last time we saw her- It wasn’t!

Just to quickly explain the layout of the farm… It consists of 10,000 hectares. About 2,000 are for the farm, volunteer village, owner’s house, and the bigger animals. There are 8,000 hectares which are called the Lifeline. It is here that they hope to release some of the lions, cheetahs, and any other animals they can. Our volunteer village (where we live) is about a ten minute walk from where we do all of our activities. Within all of that lands there are a bunch of different types of antelope type animals. Oryx, duikers, wildebeest, spring bok, bless boks, kudus, elands, you name it! I eventually became so accustomed to seeing them that I didn’t give it a second thought. The place where we ate looked out onto a waterhole so during our meals we could watch all of the game come to drink. There was even a family of wild giraffes (mother, father, and son) who would come every few weeks. It was incredible and we always had to remind ourselves not to take it for granted!

That afternoon we were split into our teams. I was put on Team One. Our animals include Cleo, Pride, Tumela, 6 baby cheetahs, Sule, the mice, baboons, and the cape foxes. For the last 3 or 4 weeks, we changed around a few animals. We then had: 6 baby cheetahs, Asem, Finn, Audrey, mice, Sule, roosters, baby chicks and ducks, chicken house, and baboons. At first we mainly did food prep which is where you prepare all of the food for your animals for the day. We feed them in the morning and in the afternoon. Here comes the big shocker- I actually had to cut meat off of the leg of a donkey/horse every day! I even have pictures to prove it. The first day the guy training me said, “Who is a vegetarian?” I said I was, and then he made me cut first! I held my right hand behind my back while I attempted to cut it with the knife in my left hand. He helped me out a bit. I was quite nervous about touching meat for my first few days/weeks, but by the end of my time at Harnas, I was ripping skin and hair off of the legs that we had on the food prep table. I was even told that I should think about becoming a butcher… maybe I don’t need a college degree after all! Despite all of the information that we had to memorize in preparing the food, eventually I knew it like the back of my hand. I had to start training new volunteers after only my second week there which tested me quite a bit.

Besides food prep there were tons of other activities.
The lion walk was with the four bigger lions (about 8 or 9 months old) named Maddox, Knox, Pax, and Brad. We would also walk the two dogs that live with them named Tara and Zippy. We would be dropped off in the bush near a road for a few hours with the lions. We quickly learned that they were incredibly lazy. Apparently lions sleep for 21 hours in a day! It took quite a bit of effort to make them walk. We would walk way in front of them calling “leos! Come come come!” Eventually they would come, but we never stopped worrying that they would go after some poor antelope.
Enclosure patrol was when we would go to check the outside fences where wild dogs, wilder cheetahs, leopards, baboons, caracals, and adult lions were kept. We had to walk in the enclosure with some of the wild dogs which was a bit nerve racking seeing at the liked to lunge at my heels! It took about 2 hours but it was a good opportunity to take pictures of the bigger animals.
Cheetah walk included walking either Cleo and Pride OR Duma and Joaney. We would either take them to a big enclosure or in the outside area. It was crazy to have a cheetah on a leash because they seemed so much like dogs! I am guilty of taking over 100 pictures on every cheetah and lion walk I went on…
Tour was when we would take guests out to see the bigger animals (where we did enclosure patrol). We would assist the tour guides with feeding the animals. The worst was throwing food in for the baboons because it was made with maize flour and thus stuck to your hands.
Frikkie and Gracie walk is a walk with two baby baboons who are about 8 months old. It took quite a lot of effort to get them out of their enclosure, but then once you were out in the bush, it was wonderful. One time when I went with a girl named Anu, they fell asleep in our laps. In their sleep and when they woke up, the decided I was an excellent loo. I was peed on 4 times that day. Then on the way back in, we had to hold on tightly to them so that they would not freak out, and Frikkie pooped on my leg. It was extremely pleasant especially since they were having issues with diarrhea. Thank goodness I had extra clothing in the volunteer room that day.
Baby baby lion walk was with the four youngest lions (6 weeks when I got there… over 3 months old when I left). There we 2 girls- Shiloh and Angie- and 2 boys - Viv and Z. They were adorable! We would have to carry them out to the car. Somehow even at that age they weigh a lot! They are bundles of energy and would run in all different directions. They don’t respond very well to our calling them so we basically just had to chase after them in the bush. They don’t quite realize that it is a bit harder for us to duck under thorn bushes than it is for them! Again… millions of pictures!
We could also be on farm work which is doing work that needs to get done around the farm. That could include clearing grasses from next to the electric fences, picking up bones from enclosures, collecting rocks, shoveling gravel, and various other jobs. It was quite often very hard work, but it was rewarding. It was also helpful to know that anything we did would be helping the animals in some way.
In the afternoons, many of the activities were the same. If you were on food prep in the morning, you were on food prep in the afternoon. For most other activities you switched in the afternoon.
There were also baboon walks in the afternoons and with a human male (baboons listen a lot better to men than they do to women!) we would take out groups of 4-5 baboons. We would walk with them to trees where they would play around before getting bored when we would have to move to the next tree. We would crack open pods off of the trees that have seeds in them to give to the baboons. We all learned that when a baboon wanted something, it got it. There was no saying no. There was a baboon named Jacoby who knew how to open zippers, so there was always the worry that your shorts would be taken off! He would check every single pocket so we all had to double check to make sure that we had nothing. The hardest thing was that we knew that baboons were capable of really hurting us (full grown baboons have the strength of 7 men) but the one big rule was that we were relaxed! They always told us that baboons could sense our fear. I eventually came to the conclusion that whether I liked it or not, the baboons would do what they wanted to me and there was nothing I could do about that. If they wanted to bite me and attack me- go for it! While you were walking they would reach up to you to pull them onto your hip or they would sit on your shoulder. You always had to hope that they did not have a little poo still stuck on their beautiful pink bums. They found my hair particularly exciting and loved to pull it and groom me. I wonder what in fact they found in my scalp!


In any free time we had we were allowed to go sit with the animals… as for the animals- There were TONS! A quick list of the animals:
Vanessa, Sharon, Freya, Jason, Maika, and Sagira. MY BABIES. These are my 6 baby cheetahs who are about 8 or 9 months old. Four of them are related (Vanessa, Sharon, Jason and Maika) while the other two came separately. They are an amazing group of 6 cheetahs. They are extremely timid around people. It took me ages to form a bond with them but it was worth it. They tend to hiss a lot at people and even after I knew them quite well, they would hiss just to let me know that I could not pull any funny stuff. The only one I could touch is named Vanessa. She has the most incredible eyes and I could tell it was her just by the way she looked at me. She would lick my hand and let me pet her. She would even let me pull burrs off of her. Leaving her was so hard… On my last day, Vanessa was next to Sharon and I was petting Vanessa. I reached over and pet Sharon. Then Vanessa got up and moved and I got to pet Sharon for over 20 minutes! It was the most incredible moment I have ever had. It was as though she knew I was leaving and therefore gave me that gift. She even licked my hand! It was incredible. Absolutely incredible. My babies are just about the wildest animals they have that are still young and that makes me so happy. I am crossing my fingers, toes, arms, and legs that they will be released someday!
Maddox, Know, Pax, and Brad- four 9 month old lions
Tara- dog, but the surrogate mother for the four above lions
Zippy- an AMAZING dog about the same age as the above mentioned lions… he acts just like a lion!
Pickles- an adorable little jack Russell terrier who I called kosher dill… a joke only Americans seemed to understand!
Gumbi- a brown hyena- very, very dangerous!
Shiloh, Angie, Z, and Viv- four 3 month old lions
Cleo, Pride, Duma, and Joaney- four VERY tame cheetahs
Goeters- 23 or 28 year old cheetah- the oldest cheetah alive
Audrey- 25 year old blind vervet monkey… I am not sure exactly why she is blind. I have heard a few stories: she was fed alcohol and/or she was kept in a small space with no light so when she got out she stared at the sun because she didn’t know what it was and became blind.
Frikkie and Gracie- 8 month old baby baboons
Asem- white backed vulture. He and his siblings were hidden in a tube and someone was trying to cross the border with them. They were rescued and released but Asem kept coming back. One time when he was flying back, he landed in the baboon enclosure and they stripped him of all his feathers (they have grown back since).
Finn- buzzard with a broken wing
Dixie- a mountain hyrax which is an animal distantly related to the elephant although she is the size of a squirrel
Mr. Nielson- the same adorable little monkey and named after the monkey in Pippy Longstocking.
Roosters, ducks, geese, chickens, and various other birds around the farm in the birds’ cage and elsewhere
Tumela- African Gray Parrot who can talk… she can even swear! She is amazing!
The mongoose, mongeese, mongooses- we are not quite sure which is correct in the plural. They are banded mongoose and they are scary little devils. They can eat snakes but they also quite like human toes. If you have flip flops on, they tend to follow you across the main lawn. The building where guests eat is called The Lapa in front of which is that lawn. When they follow you, you can lunge at them and they run away temporarily… until they decide that your toes look tasty again! There is one tame one named Colin. Colin the mongoose. Probably THE best name ever for a mongoose. At snack time under the tree (on that lawn) at two every day, Colin will come over, sit in your lap, and share your cookie with you…whether you like it or not.
Willy and Etosha- two young vervet monkeys who run around the farm and cause all sorts of trouble! Willy particularly likes to suck on your earlobes which he is not allowed to do. Willy is just about the cutest little monkey I have ever seen. He will fall asleep anywhere in any position… if he is not being a trouble maker.
Sir Roger- a very young little baboon who rides on a dog. The dog is named Brolicks and is a black lab… he is the best baby sitter for that little baboon!
Slim, Blacky, Mo, Mickey, Uma, Bubbles, and Keara- The 7 food prep dogs! They all live where we prepare food in the mornings. It is half covered, half outside. They look like a group of misfits. Slim is a greyhound who is amazing. He will sit in your lap! Blacky is a black lab who loves to give kisses. Mo has a Mohawk running down his back! Mickey was found in the wild dog enclosure and rescued… he has a hole under his chin but he is such a sweet dog. He could never be happier than to hear his name called. He is caramel colored. Uma and Bubbles are what they call “white stuff” and are fuzzy little white dogs. Uma is Bubbles’ mom. Keara walks on three paws because she has a problem with the fourth. She is small and black.
Lizzy- a baby spring bok who has no tongue!
Kiki- a common duiker.
5 big cheetahs- Aphram, Luiki, Jeanie, Nakita, and Shangela.
Sule- African spotted cat… she is smaller than a house cat, but has more attitude than a lion!
House cats- Over 40! We named a few- Salem, Rob, Oreo, Phantom, Snowflake, Stella, Fat Max, Stalker, and Sheffield… to name a few!
Mice, Rats, Rabbits… not exactly my favorite of the bunch!
Doo Doo- the owl.
Pythons- they are raising them and eventually releasing them to the lifeline… they feed my poor mice to them!
Lost- a 1.5 year old leopard who lives in the lifeline… I got to pet her one day which was incredible!
Baboons up the wazoo! Jacoby, Ita, Mimi, Kevin, Tenisball, Schalk, Jaws, Houdini, Tripod, and a bunch of other characters.
Tree squirrels
Bat eared foxes- super fuzzy with giant ears!
Klippie- a 1.5 year old giraffe
Animals surround the farm… but included in the 2,000 hectares (not the 8,000 lifeline) are a bunch of big lions (Macho, Simba, Sheri-Khan, Teri, Elsa, Sara, Lerato, Dewi, Sam, Zion, and Trust), more than 40 wild dogs (one of the females just had 9 or 10 babies!), 23 wild cheetahs, 6 caracals, and more than 60 wild baboons.
I am SURE that I am forgetting quite a few very important animals… but there are too many to keep track of!

I did quite a few CRAZY things while I was at Harnas. We had a survival trek, a fear factor, and the Harnas Olympics. The survival trek was an experience I will never forget. We were given a clue and a compass and two liters of water… of which one was dumped out by the boy who dropped us off! We had to trek through the bush for hours to finally get back to the place where we would spend the night under the stars. It went very well at first… until we had to pick up a wheelbarrow with no wheel, logs, a water jug, and a few other little knick knacks. Then to make it even worse, our compass stopped working! It was insane and by the end of it I had cuts up and down my legs- and now the scars to prove it. We were literally walking through thorn bushes in the dark! The fear factor was insane as well. We ate cat food, horse food, baboon food, and GIRAFFE POOP! Seeing as I thought that giraffe poop was the only guaranteed vegetarian food, I ate it. Very dry, very hard to swallow, but I now forever get to say that I ate giraffe poop! We had to do all sorts of things including running through the wild dog enclosure, digging for a coke and drinking the coke in the baboon enclosure (what they want, they get… very risky!), running with a baboon in my arms, drinking milk with Tabasco sauce and moths on the top (I made my team drink the moths off before it got to me), and a few other crazy little stunts. Thinking back, they all seem a bit stupid to do, but I guess the aggressive part of me makes me forget about danger and just go for it!

Just about the best thing we got to do at Harnas was to sleep out with the animals. We were allowed to sleep in the enclosures with the lions, cheetahs, baboons, anything really. We slept in sleeping bags that past volunteers had left at Harnas for sleep outs. Sometimes we would bring mattresses (usually not with the lions because they tend to destroy things). I slept with the lions and cheetahs mostly. When I slept with the four bigger lions and the 2 dogs, it was so much fun. Zippy would sleep in between my legs and I would have lions piled up on top of me. Sometimes they would cuddle right next to you. In the morning they always wanted to cause a little ruckus, so they would run on top of you, bite and pull your hair, bite any part of you they could find, bite your sleeping bag, swat at you with their paws and big claws, you name it! When they caused trouble we had to tap them on their noses until they stopped. It was amazing!! Sleeping with the cheetahs was a bit more peaceful. They would come spoon with us and cuddle all night. Sometimes you would even have multiple cheetahs which helped provide body warmth. The days were hot in Namibia, but the nights were freezing! One night, Pride got on top of me at 4:57 AM and started to lick my face. Cheetahs and lions have tongues that feel like sand paper so it was incredibly painful. They can even make you bleed in a matter of a few licks. I tried to move my head, but she put her paw on my head with the claws out (not into my scalp but enough for me to know that I was NOT going to have any chance of moving) and she kept on licking my face. The only issue was that cheetahs will pee where they are sleeping so I was peed on by them quite a few times. It was not so pleasant to wake up with soaking wet feet or a wet back, but I guess it is a small price to pay! Sleeping with the baby baby lions though was CRAZY. They are little devils! They want to bit everything… and if you walk with your butt to them, they do not hesitate to run up and…. BITE! And it hurts! Sleeping with them is insane but a good laugh. They managed to create quite a few new holes in the sleeping bag I was using. I would sleep with my baby cheetahs sometimes, mainly just so I could see them play in the morning. Since it was not too hot when they woke up, they would chase each other through the grass and it was incredible to watch them.
Harnas was incredible. The food was good, we could have hot showers so long as people lit the fire like they were supposed to, and the animals were more than I could have ever asked for. There is something about bonding with a cheetah and a lion that changes you. When they finally recognize you, it is an amazing feeling. I am leaving with a million new scars- including one on my hand from the bite of a baboon, but they all tell the stories of my spectacular 8 weeks at Harnas. I wish I could spend many more months there, but I guess I would never really be ready to leave. No TV for 8 weeks, no cell phone, 3 phone calls from my parents, and internet access for 30 minutes every two weeks were a blessing. It was pretty much back to basics. Most of us stopped caring about whether or not we had showered that day or if our t-shirts and shorts had blood stains on them. None of it really mattered when you could spend time with the animals. It became obvious that animals don’t care at all about what people look like outside. Someone can be showered, well dressed, and dolled up in makeup… but an animal doesn’t care at all. What matters for them is what lies within people and they can sense whatever love we have for them. Not only was I with hundreds of animals, but I was surrounded by volunteers of all different ages and from all over the world. Ages 18-51, and from countries including the US, England, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, etc. Harnas is one of the best places to sit at night, look up the stars, and realize how small we actually are, but how amazing life can be.

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