Vegans Love Carnivores

This will probably be the last blog I send before I leave Namibia.   What a strange feeling!   I’ve been living in Africa now for almost a year and have done so many things that I find it weird that all of it has happened in such a short amount of time.   Here is a rundown of the major events: 1)       Got to watch captive-bred lions take down and kill prey right in front of my eyes 2)       Helped to dart a fully-grown lioness 3)       Helped to re-release a wild cheetah 4)       Rode an elephant at night (and nearly got thrown off) 5)       Walked with lion cubs in the bush 6)       Walked with cheetahs in the field 7)       Saw a lioness take down a vulture mid-flight 8)       Saw a whole bunch of awesome wildlife, e.g. leopards, cheetahs, honey badge...

If you have been reading my blog for a while now, you will have begun to realise that I may be what some people class as “accident prone”, at least when it comes to living in Africa.   The problem I find is that there are so many things here that try to harm or kill you!    Last week whilst idly walking home at night time, I was gazing up to the sky and looking out for shooting stars.   Alas, I didn’t see any shooting stars; what I did see is a rather large black and white ball-shaped animal scoot from next to my feet into the buses!   This happened to be a porcupine – an 80 cm long, 25 kg in weight large spiky rodent complete with quills that it sometimes likes to shake off when it feels in danger!   Fortunately for the porcupine and for myself, I marginally escaped treading on this poor creature.   I was, however, slightly shaken up whilst walking the rest of the way home and kept looking into the bushes around me just in case there were any othe...

One of the things that I love the most about living in the middle of nowhere is the sheer amount of stars that we see on a nightly basis.   I can barely remember ever seeing the Milky Way back in the UK, whereas we see it often here. As well as the stars, the Moon seems so bigger, brighter and more magnificent in the African bush.   In fact, a Moonrise is just as impression as a sunrise!   The other night we were standing on top of the water tower that overlooks some of CCF’s land watching the moon rise above the Waterberg Plateau; a beautiful sight. We are unfortunately saying goodbye to our vet (who also happened to be a doctor for me on many occasions) as she has been offered a fully-paid PhD studying pygmy hippos in the Ivory Coast!   We were out on the Big Field a few nights ago for a sundowner (drinks in the bush whilst watching the sun go down).   Usually we climb up Carl’s hide (a thatch-roofed hide that overlooks the Big Field and Waterberg)...

A few weeks whilst walking back from the common room to my house, I was idly watching the cheetahs in their enclosure and thinking how nice of a day it was.   However, my thoughts were rudely interrupted with a metre-long Mozambique spitting cobra , of whom I’d neglected to notice was sharing my footpath and didn’t quite like the idea of me getting any closer.   It reared up, spread out its menacing-looking hood, stuck out its tongue and hissed at me!   In total shock, horror and surprise, I yelped and jumped into the air away from this terrifying creature, just as a volunteer was heading in my direction.   She laughed at me until she realised the cause for my concern, and then promptly looked terrified!   Mozambique spitting cobras are one of the most dangerous snakes in Africa and are renowned for spitting burning venom into the eyes of their victim.   Fortunately this one slinked away into the bushes rather than undertaking an attack on me – phew! ...