End of July, group 2 “always expect the unexpected” (Aussie honeymoon couple)
“Aussie couple! Where is the Aussie couple? I need your keys!” yelled Frikkie over the lunch chatter. “A baboon is in your room!” After grabbing the keys Frikkie screamed, dust flying, leaving us in slight bewilderment, wondering what to do next. As in most cases of panic, we decided to run! Very fast-well as fast as we could, back to the scene of the crime. As we approached the Lappa area we met a very angry and slightly shaken Frikkie and Schlak, who had managed to imprison the escapee. We discovered at this time that the escaped culprit was in fact Harnas very own “pick-pocket”, more known as Hodini the baboon. After seeing that Hodini was safely locked away it was time to face the mess an adult baboon can create. As the door creaked open, all I could see was smeared chocolate and biltong and to my absolute horror I realised it was our last, prized pack of Oreos that had been tried, tested and then spat our randomly all over our room. This act could not be forgiven! If he had eaten them and no trace of left-overs, then fine, but to rub it in our face like this, would take a lot of primate grovelling to fix. After discovering that our wedding rings were definitely not as exciting as Oreos, we breathed a sigh of relief, looked at eachother and laughed.Just another day at Harnas…Always expect the unexpected! Special thanx to Frikkie and Schalk for getting Hodini out of our room without any significant damage and to Jo who put us up in a guesthouse for the next two nights and last but not least to Tracey and Shaan for donating their Oreos to us….
4th of August 08 “The first baboon walk” Group 3
Well being a “newbie” I should have been busy with “foodprep” etc. But the others needed someone out of the “foodprep” team to come to a baboon walk. Until we are ready to leave another hour is passing by. We all pose in a column to guide the “baby monkeys” in the right direction. Someone is shouting:” They’re coming!” We hope that the little guys will run directly to the bridge- error! Three of them have conquered the Lappa and the bar and are scaring the guests (specially the young ones). One has nicked a can of Fanta, another one is comfortably sitting on the head of a girl…oh my word…With all tricks we try to catch the monkey babies, but only with the help of one of the San who is armed with a broomstick we succeed. When we finally have brought them outside they seem to enjoy their walk, sit on our shoulders, we can even cuddle them while also enjoying the walk…
4th of August 08 (Rhys, UK)
I arrived at Harnas in the middle of the night on Wednesday to find 40 volunteers sitting there waiting for the Lappa dinner. This came as a bit of a surprise as last time I was here we had half the amount of volunteers. After I was introduced as the new guy everybody looked pretty shocked, that I had arrived. Once I was kicked off with lots of singing and dancing with the N’koshi. After the Lappa party all the volunteers made their way to the village. This took a bit of getting used to, as the year we all stayed where the guests stay now. This wasn’t the only difference the next day I noticed, that a lot of the animals that I knew from last year had been moved or set free into the lifeline. I did take a bit of getting used to things, but now I feel that my time here will be as good, if not better than last year…
08/08/08 Our first experiment with baby baboons
The day following our arrival at Harnas, a few members of our group invited us to join as they were going into the baby baboons enclosure. We accepted and followed them, a bit excited! When we arrived there, they told us, that they would go in first and if we felt comfortable we could go in as well. So we observed how the baboons were acting with the others and after a few minutes we joined them. The baboons were great, jumping on our heads, playing with us, trying to groom us etc. It was a fantastic experience to get to know these cute baby baboons and we thank Harnas for this opportunity.
