Ashton, Mila, Cleo & Hugo

Marakele National Park

We had the best day at Marakele National Park. Our game ranger was awesome, and knew all the right places to go. We heard from some people that we shouldn`t go there, because we wouldn`t see any animals, but luckily because of Sidney, our game ranger, we saw more than we could have dreamt of!

First we saw some rhinos far away, and were super-excited, but then Sidney told us to go out of the Landrover and towards the rhinos (WTF?). I`d recently read a story in the newspaper about a couple doing the same thing in another park, getting badly injured, so I was so nervous as we walked closer and closer to the rhinos. The wild rhinos. They were so calm as we walked just a few meters away from them and we sat down and watched them for a while. I fell in love with the rhinos that day. One of the best experiences of my life - something poachers can never take away!

Later we found some lions - with a kill! It was so cool to see wild lions with their giraffe, and we stood there for hours watching them, and they got used to the vehicle and started eating, mating and doing what lions do. 

On the way back we also met an elephant. 

We got to see everything we wanted to see that day, and more!

Life in South Africa

Overwhelmed

Wow... I really don`t know what to say! Almost 2 million views on YouTube and lots of emails everyday.  Unfortunately I`m not able to answer all the emails, but I`m hoping you`ll find places to volunteer, and follow your dreams.

Be the change you want to see in this world. 

"Who will now care for the animals, for they cannot look after themselves? Are there young men and women who are willing to take on this charge? Who will raise their 

voices, when mine is carried away on the wind, to plead their case?"

- George Adamson

"Since we humans have the better brain, isn't it our responsibility to protect our fellow creatures from, oddly enough, ourselves?"

- Joy Adamson

About Volunteering With Predators

 The love of my life

I would like to thank everyone for all of the kind words, and inspiring emails that you people out there are sending me. You really make me smile the rest of the day after reading your emails!! I never thought I would have readers from all over the world, and I`m truly amazed that my not so professional videos on youtube has been watched over 150.000 times already! (crazy!)

As I recieve many emails about volunteering with predators, I thought I might write something about it here as well since I`m not able to answer every single email unfortunately... 

There are so many places to volunteer with animals, not only in Africa! But I`m sure that if you decide to go to Africa, you`ll want to go back. As they say; once you get the sand of Africa in your shoes, it will always bring you back! The first time I went to Africa, I went to Namibia to Harnas Wildlife Foundation, where I mainly cared for cheetahs and baboons. It was a great first trip to Africa, but for me it was too many volunteers, and very expensive. My next trip to Africa, I went to a park in South Africa, where they has lots of lions and tigers, and we were only 6 volunteers at the most. I fell in love with the animals, and loved spending time with them. Not one day goes by without missing all of the animals I worked with there!

My favorite lion Sky.

Many people look at my pictures and think that I got to cuddle with the lions and tigers the whole day. That`s just a small part about volunteering. Most of the day the volunteers cut up meat, fed the animals, cleaned the enclosures, built enclosures, cleaned waterholes etc. It`s hard work, but it`s definitely worth it!

If you want to volunteer you should search for places to volunteer, and you should try to find blogs about volunteering at the place you want to go, so you get a view of what it`s like at that place. Unfortunately it is quite expensive to volunteer at some places, so you should compare a few parks before you make a decision. 

Good luck to everyone out there that wants to follow their dream to work with these precious animals. I`m sure you`ll love it as much as I have!

Lion Walks