We had an amazing 10 days volunteering at the Riverside Wildlife center that takes care of orphaned monkeys, baboons, and other creatures. Work started at 7am, cleaning cages and preparing food until 9am, then we volunteers would get a quick breakfast before finishing chores. In the afternoon we observed monkeys, took care of injured ones, prepared the afternoon food for them, and at night we usually had a basket of monkey babies in our room to feed and put to sleep. In our spare time we could take the baby baboons to the pool, go in the cage with them and hang out... Jay spent hours in the baby baboon cafe with his best baboon friend Bonnie, who would not let him leave the cage!).

On the weekend we went on a safari to Kruger national park, say all of the big 5 except for a leopard (so saw buffalo, elephants, lions and rhinos). Anna found a puff adder in the bathroom but was not bitten. A honey badger wandered through the camp. Also saw hyenas, cheetahs, giraffe, and nearly all of the 152,000 impala. Riverside owner Bob Venter is worried that the kids may be the last generation to see a live rhino in the wild. Very sad that so much poaching still happens.

We left our friends (humans and monkeys) on tuesday February 12, followed by one night in Johannesburg. Aki thought we might not survive, but the suburb of Melville was safe. Then on to Tanzania for a 9 day safari, hoping to find the elusive leopard this time...