The experience of a lifetime!

Where to start! My stay at African Dawn was the experience of a lifetime and I was 19 at the time when I went to stay. I had always wanted to travel because I love to: challenge myself, experience new things, meet new people from lots of different places and backgrounds and from a young age watching animal planet I had always said that I'd love to go out and do something involved with animals! I have done all of these things while at African Dawn! It was an amazing opportunity which I was lucky enough to have, I feel that while travelling I have found more confidence and maturity that I believe I didn’t have before I started and I believe I found it at African Dawn.
While at African Dawn a normal day starts with waking up and heading to the Prep room in the main building. Plates of food for the animals are already set up and waiting, (If you are on morning prep you come up earlier and help the managers set up the plates) you will already of been assigned a route and you will be with a more experienced volunteer who will teach you the routes and show you the animals you will be feeding. Therefore you get to learn about the animals and what they eat. I thought this was fascinating as all the animals, I found (especially with the birds) all have their own little personalities which you get to learn about when you do the routes! So you go along and give fresh food and water and check the animals are all okay! When you get back all the dishes are taken to chicken dishes and the prep room is cleaned, after that it’s breakfast time! After breakfast is finished, about 9 o’clock! Everyone gathers and the daily jobs list gets read, you can volunteer for any of the jobs that you want to do (for your first week or two you will get put with a more experienced volunteer and they will show you how to do the jobs on the jobs list, if they don’t know or you don’t you can always ask the managers because they are more than happy to help)! Then there are chicken dishes which means all the animal food dishes need to be cleaned, sounds a bit yuck but you always have a laugh, this gets done twice a day after both feeding routes, there is a rota so that it gets evenly shared out so you don’t need to keep doing it! Usually after the first 2 weeks or so you get the chance to teach people the routes and pass on your knowledge!
Then if you finish all of your jobs you can help the others. There is usually a bit of free time before lunch, after lunch the feeding routes are started again at 2pm, this time everyone works together to set up the prep room and depending on your route you will have various different tasks such as chipping apples, cutting meat, making jam bread, etc. Everyone then sets out on their feeding route and when it is complete, the dishes are taken to chicken dishes and the prep room is then cleaned.
Unless you have any PM jobs (such as seed dish bring in or aviary water) you are usually finished for the day, so you can spend your time with the animals or relaxing, sun bathing, playing cards, listening to music or whatever you want to do! A lot of people go jogging on the game farm as there is a game farm with zebras, giraffes and a few other animals on the back of the lodges! It’s a good fun walk! Then dinner time is about 6, I’m a really fussy eater and I thought the food I was always extremely yummy, all the managers are great cooks! Also they can cater if you are vegan or vegetarian!
The lodges are very basic, which was what I was expecting but they have comfy mattresses, good powerful shower’s and it is a good communal space for all the volunteers. There is an old barn type building which is used as entertainment room, it has lots of sofa’s and a TV with loads of DVD’s, so it’s a good way to spend the nights! You can also play loads of games in here and there is a space for a camp fire just outside, which is always good fun! While you are out in Jeffery’s Bay there is also a hostel where you can stay on your days off!
Then other days you have project days to mix it up a bit and project days mean that you help out doing various tasks that need doing around the park, it can be a hard graft but personally I found this very rewarding as I helped build new enclosures and plant trees for the animals! To stand back and see it nearly all finished was amazing! You also get 2 days off a week, in which I have done some fantastic activities! I have done a sky dive, a bungee jump, horse riding along the beach, elephant back riding and a trunk in hand walk and I have also walked a cheetah on a lead or really, it took me for a walk! These are memories that I will cherish forever and will never forget, I wouldn’t have experienced all these amazing things if I hadn’t of came to South Africa on my trip! The trips are very easy to book and the managers help you organise these, they help you sort the transport with a man called Clinton (who I think is the best taxi driver in South Africa!) he has been working with the sanctuary for a long time and provides taxi services for the volunteers, he also has another taxi driver who works with him and they are a great team as I always felt safe in their company!
One of my favourite experiences was just before I left I got to go into the enclosure with some of the cheetah’s they have at the sanctuary! It was amazing to be stood next to the fastest land animal and surreal when it licks your arm and it’s like wet sand paper, it was amazing!
Personally the only thing I would of done differently was that I came through a company rather than direct with the African Dawn website, I would of researched more and maybe would of come directly because I think I would of saved myself a fortune, but it was the first time I’ve been away from home for longer than 2 weeks and 2 months is a lot longer, so I’ll know for next time! And I most definitely hope there will be a next time because I would love to go back soon and see how much everything has changed and grown and see how all the animals are!
Can’t thank African Dawn enough for all the experiences it has given me and can’t say enough how much the managers do a fantastic job, I have had so many brilliant opportunities and fun memories so I would most definitely recommend it to all of my friends, I have met so many fantastic people at African Dawn that I want to stay friends with for life, as for me I’ve got the travel bug now and I want to travel to as many places as I can, better get saving haha!