Quick Little Update!

Jess
Sep 6, 2018
2 min read

Updated: Sep 7, 2018

Hiya again! I've been so busy settling here and working, but I now finally have some time to sit and work on my website, yay! I'm currently sitting in a lovely local café with my laptop, free WiFi and a mint tea feeling very relaxed and ready to share what I've been up to over these past couple of weeks.

I started volunteering on Thursday 23rd August - it's been two weeks today but feels like so much longer! The first sanctuary I worked at was Jukani, the home of lots of big cats, zebras, springbucks, a honey badger and a zorilla (a striped pole cat that looks like a tiny skunk!). I initially didn't think I would spend that much time at Jukani because I thought I wouldn't have the chance to take great photos of the wildlife there; unlike Monkeyland and Birds of Eden, the big cats are in enclosures that we can't go inside (for obvious reasons) so I just presumed any photos I took would be from very far away from the animals and with a fence obscuring the view. I was so wrong! Just to give an idea of how close I could get to the big cats, on my first day alone a lioness bared her teeth at me and I got sprays of spit on my face. Yep. So cool (and slightly scary but mostly cool). Here are some of my favourite photos from Jukani!

I only worked at Jukani for 3 days and I can't wait to go back! As well as amazing photo opportunities, the sanctuary was a great place to work and the other rangers were such good company and really helped me out to take the best photos possible.

Since then, I have been working at Monkeyland and Birds of Eden. They're right next to each other, so I can go back and forth taking photos all day long if I want to! I don't know my way around the Monkeyland forest yet, so I've been tagging along on tours with the other rangers and visitors (which is also good because I get told all about the primates too!). The tours of Birds of Eden are self-guided, so I'm free to roam around for however long I like. Both sanctuaries are amazing - they're bigger and better than I could have imagined. It takes around an hour to walk around both sanctuaries (and much longer for me if I'm stopping every minute to take a hundred photos of one animal) and they're full of wonderful life! They're the perfect settings for great photos, and it even just feels magical to walk through these beautiful natural havens.

Take a look at some of my photos below. I'll be uploading content to my Gallery soon too, so be on the look out!

Outside Monkeyland and Birds of Eden