So the day finally arrived and I left home for what turned out to be a 26 hour journey to Tzaneen. Flight delayed, security check delayed, had to change trians, traffic jam on bus and pick up truck got puncture, but apparently thats TIA (time in Africa).

Spent the first full day being shown around sanctury which is enormous and cares for 400 monkeys who live in 12 enclosures covering 22 hecters. All enclosures have sub cages which house monkeys waiting to be integrated into a troop or ones that for various reasons have to remain segregated. There are also bandit monkeys who live outside the enclosures. It is a non- breeding santuary and all male monkeys have vasectomys but they seem to be re-attaching themselves because there were five babies born last year. The food, although vegan is very good with cereal fruit and toast for breakfast, cooked lunch and dinner. There are 20 staff/volunteers here at the moment but by next week there will be 30. Superwoman aka Susan does all the cooking, cleaning and washing for everybody.

The accomodation is a small cabin with two beds and a table and no electricity. I am sharing with an American lady who is 71, widowed and does this sort of thing all the time. She is an absolute scream. I have never laughed so much.

The toilets are eco friendly, i.e. holes in the ground with worms that eat poo. I thought they were special poo eating worms that you bought but apparently they are just maggots.

The days are split into two morning shifts and one afternoon shift, We start at 7.00 am and finish around 5.00 pm. Various jobs are done on a rota system, feeding, watering, cleaning, preparing food, sickbay, babysitting, helping Susan and some admin. The work is very hard and dirty but great fun. Apparently I will be able to find my way around without getting lost and will be able to tell one monkey from another, but I can't see that happening. I get 1 1/2 days off a week and on Sunday I am going on a trip to a waterfall. We have one baby at the moment called Whisper who was found on the road and another coming in next week. We also have a tiny bushbaby called Boz found last week. He will live here now. The new baby Vervets are hand reared until they can drink from a feeding cage (a small cage on the edge of the enclosure with milk bottles in it) then they are adopted by a female into a troop.

All the enclosures have electric fences to stop the bandit monkeys getting in and mating with the rescued monkeys so obviously I have electrocuted myself by touching one already ( not as bad as my little American friend who electrocuted a monkey today and nearly killed it) told you she was mad.

The weather is extreme. Either really hot or thunderstorms and cold.

Got a lift into the local township today to get money for the trip to Kruger National Park. Involved flat back truck shared with 5 volunteers and 4 black workers who were being given a lift home, experience to say the least.

Well that's it for this week. Kruger National Park for three days next week so look out for next installment. (photos already uploaded).