111 days since we left, 111 days to go...

We have now been in Australia for 1 month now, and Abi has only been called a pommie once! Also Sunday 18^th March pinpointed the midway point of our trip. We can’t believe that we are already halfway through our travels!

Warnbro Beach, North of Perth

The Black Swan of Swan River, Perth

10 days into our stay in Perth we left the city and relocated to a more rural setting, up in the hills of Mt Helena. Here we are not surrounded by high rise buildings and shops, but lots of bushland, big trees, local grocery stalls and tavernas...it was like stepping back in time, and the area has a real charm to it. It is like what we imagined outback Australia to be; it’s not often you spot kangaroos, an emu and bandicoots on the way to the corner shop!

Late afternoon in one of the paddocks

Mundaring reservior which supplies the water to Kalgoorlie

In Mt Helena we have been helping out at a Australian warmblood stud which is owned by A Danish lady. We found this place through a site called HelpX, where basically you sign up to do voluntary work and homestays with a family or business in return for food and board. It is a really good idea, and a great way to experience a different side to the country you are visiting as well as meeting new people and gain new skills (HelpX is worldwide so you can apply for work in almost any country!).

Having an afternoon rest 'n' roll

Two of the resident Alpacas at the stud!

Middays can get very hot and dry up here in the hills, as well as very dusty too! So we are up at 6.30am each day in order to get most of the horse related work done before it gets too hot- lots of poo picking, feeding, grooming, handling, exercising and training! There are 20 horses here at present, which is made up of a mixture of yearlings, foals and brood mares...so as you can imagine there is alot of horses to feed and subsequently alot of poo to collect (luckily we have a trailer pulled by a quad bike to help with that!).

Some 6:30AM poop picking in the paddocks!

Max and the poop collecting quad!

During our stay here at the stud we have fallen in love with a thoroughbred horse called Beauty, she is about 4 years old and is an ex racehorse from Perth. Together we have been working on re-schooling her, which has involved taking her back to basics and lots of lunging, free schooling and riding in the round yard. Her previous racing trainers decided she wouldn’t make a desirable race horse as she wasn’t up to speed! She is a great horse though, with a lovely temperament, so we are working on making her a suitable riding horse for a prospective buyer...fingers crossed! 

Lunging Beauty the thoroughbred horse at the stud

Also whilst at they stud we have had the opportunity to visit other breeders of Australian warmbloods, aswell as attend a lecture on Veterinary dentistry where we discovered the ins and outs of horses teeth which was really interesting as it was something we didn’t go into detail with whilst studying at uni.

So we leave Perth the first Monday of April to head down to Victoria where we will be staying in Melbourne! We’ve been told that it might not be as hot as sunny in comparison to Perth though, so maybe a coat may need to be purchased?! We also need advice on places to go and visit whilst in Melbourne, as we will have a week being a tourist before embarking on our some more HelpX homestays, including a Dutch family and lots of animals :-)

Watch out! Roo crossing!

Kwaheri Kenya. G'day Australia.

Dear blog...we haven’t forgotten you, promise! 

Our last month in Kenya flew by! Saying goodbye to little Betsy, the colobus we have spent a great amount of time with over the past 3 months, was hard! we was also sad to leave the colobus trust in Diani, and the extra special people we have met during our stay (you know who you are!) :-) but we was also equally as excited about embarking on the next leg of our trip!

Betsy relaxing on her last full day with us

To mark the end of our stay at the colobus trust, we did something that is a must for anyone visiting Kenya, and that is to experience a safari of course! The safari took place in Tsavo national park, which is one of the oldest national parks in Kenya! As the park is so vast and huge it is split into Tsavo east and Tsavo west. So the first day of our safari was spent in the jeep with our driver travelling to Tsavo east, which from Mombasa took almost 4 hours. 

At one of the entrance gates to Tsavo eats national park!

The park was very flat, and dry which worked in our favour as within the first 10 minutes or so we already spotted one of the big five- elephants! After that animals seemed to pop up everywhere, from zebra to eagles to buffalo (another one of the big five) and different types of antelope! An hour into the drive we spotted a leopard (which we was told we only had a 40-50% chance of finding!) high up resting in the tree with his dinner (a big warthog)- so that’s three out of the big five within the hour! 

A male elephant wandering past our jeep- wow!

Arriving at our lodge in Tsavo east for lunch after a lucky morning of wildlife spotting, we was already looking forward to the evening drive which would follow as we was told the chance of seeing lions was higher...although this didn’t quite go as plan! Unfortunately as we set off for the evening drive, we managed to drive about 200 metres away from the lodge and the jeep cut out. Luckily the battery died as we was viewing some gazelle, rather than a pride of hungry lions! So basically we were stranded until we could call for help, so the driver had to run back to the lodge to ask for assistance... After an hour or so of failing to jump start the engine, the only option was to push the 2 tonne jeep back to the lodge (best watch out for them hungry lions...). It was unfortunate that we missed out on an evening drive, but we still got to see lots of elephants and giraffes in the horizon as the sun set whilst sat on top of the jeep waiting for it to be fixed...

Observing the jeep being fixed...

 The 2^nd day of safari was spent driving through Tsavo east in the direction of Tsavo west! The second day was probably our luckiest day as during the morning we finally got to see a pride of lions, which was made up of 2 females and 3 males. The driver nicely pointed out a pair “making honeymoon” in the bush, and let us use his binoculars so we could get a better view... Next we spotted cheetah, a mother and her two juvenile cubs, which was pretty amazing!

A not so clear photo of the cheetah family we spotted in Tsavo east!

 As we were leaving Tsavo east a large herd of elephants were drinking by the waterhole, which was also occupied by buffalo, zebra and a little family of warthogs! Arriving in Tsavo west midday it was very hot and the surroundings are alot more dense than east, with more bushes, trees, hills and lots of large rocks which makes searching for wildlife more of a challenge! But as we neared our lodge, a huge male elephant stepped out onto the road, looked at us, and carried on walking until he disappeared into the dense bushes. 

Watching a family of elephants drink at the manmade waterhol as we ate dinner

We were also lucky to spot our second Leopard of the trip, but this is most likely due to the big juicy piece of meat that the staff at the lodge left out for the leopard each night, so tourists would have a chance to take photos...not quite sure what we thought to this, it’s much better seeing them in more natural situations. 

On our final day in Tsavo we visited Mzima springs, which is home to resident hippos and nile crocodiles- both of which we saw from a distance!  Going on safari in Kenya was great experience and we felt so lucky at the amount of wildlife we got to see- so make sure you put safari on your list of things to do before you die!! 

"Catch up mum!" an excited little zebra foal and it's mum :-)

 

We didn't find any rhino, but we did spot something it had left behind!

It wasn’t long after our return to Diani that we were packing our backpacks and saying our goodbyes! We have gained some invaluable experience and memories whilst volunteering at the colobus trust, and also enjoyed living in the Mombasa area. 

Kenya has a real charm to it, and although we both felt slightly unsure and out of our comfort zone when we arrived, we quickly fell in love with the place! 

What will we miss the most? The crazy matatus, the friendly locals, haggling in the markets, buying a meal and a drink for less than £1, and of course the wildlife (incl. Betsy of course!!).

Things we will miss not so much? The constant humidity induced sweating, ugali [Abi] and the mosquitoes/ sleeping under a mozzi net!! 

Volunteer's weekly sunday dinner at the sundowner cafe in Diani!

So our last few days in Kenya were spent in the place where we started our adventure, in Mombasa at nirvana backpackers! It felt odd to be back, as though we had never left! From there we got the night train to Nairobi, which took 8 hours... As for Nairobi, don’t listen to all the bad press about this city, it seemed liked a really cool place, with very genuine and honest people. 

Our time there was short and sweet, visiting the local giraffe orphanage, observing a dog being trained for a dettol advert and inviting ourselves to a private meeting with the Kenyan wildlife service’s (KWS) assistant director of conservation and education!

Feeding time for the hippo (along with ducks and vervet monkeys!) in Mombasa

So thats it. Our Kenyan adventure is over! For now anyway... we will be back! Asante sana Kenya :-)

So now we are “down under” in Perth, western Australia! Australia’s sunniest capital, and so far it is living up to its expectations as its very sunny, warm and has a very nice summary feeling to it!  We plan to spend the first weeks exploring Perth and adjusting to the ozzie way of life, before we proceed onto our next line of voluntary work -this time with horses!

We shall keep you update on our Australian adventures... Hooroo for now!