So [if anyone is reading this] you might be wondering what the typical day for a volunteer would entail so here goes....

At 5.17 (or 4.47 after oct 1st) the alarm goes off so I can dive into the one bathroom before the other 5-8 volunteers doing morning drive get up. I then hunt around in the dark for my clothes trying not to wake those still sleeping - more often than now I just pull on what I wore the day before - its v laid back at leo & I've not worn most of what I packed!

If I'm just going along for the ride I just need to get my stuff ready & get some breakfast, but if I'm on phuza (refreshments) duty I need put the kettles on & pack the cool box for tea & coffee or if I'm on telemetry (t-lem) then I need to head outside & check signal for all animals. This is done by waving an antenna listening to beeps to identify the direction of the strongest signal & turning the 'game' down til the beeps can no longer be heard to identify the strength

At 6 (or now 5.30 from 1st oct) we pile onto a open air truck which has 3 rows of seats which in theory would seat 3 in each row but with the spare tyre, jack, spade, pick axe, phuza box, data box & tool box all under the seats it can be a little crampt if full! Luckily most days some volunteers go on excursions (eg Kruger, blyde canyon etc) or do the rhino drive so is often only 6 of us on lions

The drive will start going in the direction of the signal for the animals we're interested in that day or if there was no signal we'll head up a coppie to check again. we'll stop to look at anything we spot on the way - and if its a predator eg eagle or vulture or one of the rarer species we may have to log it - ie we make a note of where it was found & what it was doing. We also log those details if & when we find lions along with what they have killed if they're eating.

So generally we drive around til we find them, heading back to base around 10.30/11. We may also do some work to help manage the reserve such as building bolsters (speed bumps to redirect water away from the roads to stop them turning into rivers or removing fallen trees from the road)

The land is quite hilly & is generally rocky grassland with lots of small (say 4-6foot) mopani trees & some bigger trees making off road driving difficult. There are a few clearings where there are watering holes for the animals but there are no open plains like in other parts of Africa. There are also lots of coppies (or perhaps that should be koppie?) which are rocky mounds of varying sizes where our cats amongst others like to hide from us

After morning drive we then have around 3 hours before evening drive at 3.30 to check email, have a shower (water is heated via the fire & solar so the afternoon is the best time for getting hot water but still not guaranteed!), have a nap etc there is a rota for making lunch & clearing up afterwards etc there is also a housekeeper who will do your washing or you can use this time to do your own - and its all done by hand!

The 4 available plug sockets are powered by solar panels so charging of phones, ipads & camera batteries etc can only be done in the day when its sunny too - and if u wanted to use a hairdryer/straighteners - forget it - they just blow the circuits & we can't use them.

Evening drive is much the same as morning drive, we leave at 3.30 (or 3 if we need to collect wood for the fire) and return around 8.30 for dinner which is prepared by the staff (with washing up done by volunteers).

The lights (& wifi) are switched off at 10pm but given the 5am start most people are in bed by then anyway....and then it all starts again!

So today was my last full day and just like the last few was far from typical......

As is often the case the Lions were on coppie so we were unable to get a sighting of them. 3 new people joined this week so we stopped at the galon dam for them to admire the view & every impala on the way (I saw enough of them yesterday at Kruger!)

Given the lack of cats we made our way the north of the reserve where our mission for today was to give some sable antelope a pedicure but then suddenly we got a call about another mission at the south end of the reserve.....

Our guide for the drive Sabrina raced like an Italian f1 driver from one end if selati to the other. One of the animals we track has a problem with their collar but it had been spotted so a helicopter had been arranged and they were going to dart it, and while unconscious for just a couple of minutes we could go and have a stroke. We dashed through the 5 foot bushes getting scratched up on the way to get there in time - for the third time in 3 days I was up close with something that could kill me! It was all over in seconds though and then we had to race back through the bush to the car before it woke up!

So after that excitement we were then onto our next mission - we were off to give some sable antelopes a pedicure!!!

As ever we were on south African time so there was some sitting around until then get arrived but it gave us time to speak to the reserve manager & find out a bit more about selati & the animals

Sables antelope used to be quite common but they used to eat all the grass so cattle farmers (& lions) would hunt them. Those with the biggest horns were considered the biggest trophy & thee largest recorded horn fell from 50inches to 39inches

Numbers fell to less than 1000 in SA so 1992 selati was one of the first SA reserves to fence them of to protect them from predators, feed & breed them

And because they were rare, their value rose and landowners became pedigree breeders, monitoring the genetics & family tree etc to increase the horn size. These days horns are back up to 47inches - and a sable with 47in horns will set you back R1m (£70k) For one of the few with 48in its nearer R10m (£700k!) So people invest in breeding sable/s (is better returns than stock market) & selati is no different, it allows the reserve to be sustainable /& pays for the management & anti poaching teams & the landowners don't have to pay anything (they just have the joy of a holiday home with lions playing in the back yard!) Generating income in this way also protects the land from being turned into a mine like others around it

Anyway, back to the antelope.....

This time the vet used a truck to herd the sables. He watchednto identify those having trouble walking so they would be darted to have their hooves trimmed (as these sables live in a paddock & not on as coppie) their hooves dont wear down as they should.

Once darted to paralyse the sable they were moved ignto the shade & the vet use a circular saw to remove the overgrown part then sanded it down before painting them purple (antiseptic) & piercing its ear with a tag. The sable was then rubbed down with grass to try hide any strange smells so the other sables wouldn't bully it. It really was like a day at a spa!!!!

So rather an exciting morning!!

For my last evening drive i was on tlem again. First stop would be acacia, mfuti & the cub to see if they were interested in eating the remains of their eland caught 4 days earlier (so after dragging it back to base we were now taking it back out - and by now it really stank!)

We located the cats to lillie (a farm at the south of the resrrve) and had strong signal around the coppie (typical). While our guide Sabrina was checking the tyres I carried on trying to narrow down the direction & signal strength....the strength was rising from 5 to 5.5 to 6 (max is 7 & means you've probably ran them over!) when I suddenly saw a group of kudu running towards us - and they never run towards us....so something must be chasing them this way.......then we heard roaring (well it was more like a growl but dont lions roar rather than growl?)....and the baboons above us were screeching.....'Sabrina get back in the car! Lions 1o clock 50m!!'

Acacia & mfuti were trying to catch a kudu! They weren't going to be interested in the rotting eland - they wanted fresh meat!! They were however unsuccessful but we got to watch them and the cub for about half an hour as they continued their search for dinner

The cub was play fighting with mummy & Aunty mfuti. It would hide in the bushes & jump out, & try and clamber all over them as they walked round the coppie - so cute & a great end to the day.

Oh also - I cuddled 2 dogs today! Jack the dog at the sable paddock sat on my knee as we talked to the reserve manager then Bessie the Leo dog decided to sleep on me during the afternoon drive. Dogs still aren't as cute as cats tho (and these dogs were more cat like than most dogs!)