The transition
When we finish our Africa Overland adventure, we've got a week or so to check out Cape Town, reputed to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world... Table Mountain, the harbour front, the winelands, the Cape of Good Hope... and quite possibly the first proper bed to sleep in since we left the UK (albeit in a a backpackers hostel).

The conservation experience
At the beginning of April, it's back to work... but not as we know it. No, we have no intention of going anywhere near an office for a long time yet. We wanted to do something totally different to what we've done previously... something that would give us more of an insight into the country than travelling alone could do and which would also keep us occupied, thereby reducing opportunities to spend money!

With such an abundance and variety of wildlife in Africa, what else but... voluntary work with animals. And we have no false hopes - we know we're going to be the ones doing the mucking out, the mending fences and the donkey work... but if any of our numerous visits to Monkey World in Dorset are anything to go by, we think it'll be worth it. And I'm hoping that I've matured somewhat since I got my first pet rabbit and the novelty wore off after a week when I realised I had to clean its hutch out.

The placements
One of the benefits of this work is that it is spread over 3 different placements, each one in a different area of South Africa (hence the confusing triangle of flights).

Klipkop nature and animal conservancy (April 2003)
We start our placement at Klipkop, a nature and wildlife sanctuary outside Johannesberg. Here, we'll receive training on African ecosystems and game management. Related 'nature' activities will include removing invader plants (aka 'weeding'), planting fruit trees (aka 'gardening') and inspecting fences (oh no, 'quality assurance'). Animal activities may include capturing wildlife for study, conducting small mammal and bird surveys, and rescuing and releasing animals.

APES monkey sanctuary (May 2003)
Our next month will be spent at APES, a developing monkey sanctuary near Durban on the south east coast of South Africa. Our activities here, other than the standard 'nature' activities, will include feeding and providing medication to orphaned monkeys whose parents have been killed by farmers. As they are brought back to health, we will be involved in preparing them for release and reintroduction to the wild through a 'training programme' with wild apes.

Penguin rehabilitation centre (June 2003)
Then it's back to the Cape Town area to work at a centre with the highest survival rate of bird rehabilitation programmes in the world. By rehabilitation, I think they mean exposure to marine fuel and oil spills rather than hard drugs.

Here, we'll be involved with handling and washing the penguins, as oil prevents them from swimming, feeding and reproducing, and we'll be hand feeding them until they've built up their strength (sounds particularly smelly that bit!). The birds are then released from nearby Robben Island, the site of the prison in which Nelson Mandela and many other freedom fighters were held.