African Dawn :)

A typical day would be starting work at 7am, for the morning feed; usually the plates will be completely prepped and laid out for you (by Sarah/Em/Ali), so you just pick and go. You'll be with someone who knows what they're doing for the first few days, until you get to know the routes. This takes an hour or two, depending on how many volunteers/weather/which route you're doing. Breakfast is about 9 o'clock, then there are some jobs from a daily rota (washing the animal dishes, checking the clinic etc) that get done first, then a jobs list that varies from day to day - this is usually raking enclosures, moving supplies about etc, which might sound boring but you're pretty much always somewhere that animals are, so you get plenty of contact. Then, depending on how quickly you finish your jobs, you might have a bit of a break before lunch from 1 until 2. After lunch is the afternoon feed, which is pretty much the same as the morning only the volunteers help with the prep this time - chopping fruit mainly! Then there are a few afternoon jobs to do but you're usually done by about 4 and then you'll definitely need a shower because you get covered in all sorts throughout the day! Dinner is at 6 and from then on you're free to do whatever you like; there's an entertainment room for the volunteers, with a TV and DVD player and a big log fire and tables and sofas, so you can play cards or just sit and chat. In your free time during the day you can go into most of the enclosures and spend time with the animals but after it gets dark, we stay out of the park because the noise can startle the birds and cause them to fly into the fences or trees - not good!

The animals are an absolute joy to work with. There are a lot of birds (a lot of people seems surprised, so I'll give you a heads up!) but there are also servals, cheetahs, lynx, squirrels, monkeys, buck (deer), as well as tortoises and rabbits that wander all over the park. You can spend time with the servals if Ali/Sarah/Em go with you and meeting the cheetahs is usually kept as a special experience for just before you leave.

Volunteers get two days off a week and there is loads to do! You can go to Jeffrey's Bay, which is the nearest town (about half an hour), and get surfing lessons, go shopping or go to the beach and there are lots of nice cafes etc. or Port Elizabeth, which is about an hours drive, where there's a cinema and a big mall. There are lots of attractions nearby as well, like the Elephant park, endangered cat centre, skydiving and bungee jumping (recommended!) and you can take a day trip to do a safari on a game reserve.

The people working there are incredibly committed and passionate about what they're doing and are always keen to share this with volunteers, so everyone becomes very invested in the project no matter how long you're there for. You get a great sense of achievement from working at African Dawn because you're so involved in the running of the place and you really get to see the difference that you make as a volunteer.