I am backdating this blog from when I volunteered at a Big Cat Sanctuary called Felidae, in Kimberly, South Africa in January 2025, which has always been a must-do in my life (organised with the Go Eco Company). After staying overnight at Johannesburg Airport (with an amazing bathroom) I boarded an Airlink flight to Kimberly, one of the most flawless flights in a tiny jet I have ever been on, Kimberly airport is pretty much a small tin-like building which feels like it is in the middle of an outback. I was met by the owner of the Sanctuary and driven to the farm. What I noticed straight away was the amount of plastic rubbish and homeless living in the flat desert-like scrub. It was very much a landscape like Australia but with slightly different bushes with prickly pears everywhere. At the Sanctuary I met the rest of the family and two volunteers, one girl from Norway and the other from Belgium (a Swedish girl later joined) and was given an induction and quick tour of the farm and settled into one of the bunk rooms. It was definitely not glamorous, no aircon but a fan but there was a pool that we could relax in and around.
It was quite a busy week and a half that I was there with daily farm life and excursions that the family would take us on. It was very laid back and the family were extremely friendly, fun and welcoming. A typical day started with breakfast, then morning food prep, which including fruit chopping and…… meat distribution. I really had difficulty with the thought of dealing with working in a meat room everyday, and washing meat dishes every day. Then we would do the feeding rounds of all the animals, which included fruit to the Capuchin Monkeys, meat to the servals, caracals, Bat eared foxes, warthog, goats, a puppy jackal, baby warthogs, leopards, cheetah, meerkats and a civet, and some other animals which consisted of getting in and out of cages, or separate feeding cages. This would be followed by lunch and then a farm project (I learnt how to concrete – kindof) before the temperature got too hot, and it was quite hot, not many trees or wind, until a few amazing thunderstorms happened in during the nights. Thank goodness for powerbanks because we lost power at the end of the stay (not uncommon).
On a couple of occasions I was lucky enough to be involved in/see the lion pride feeding. The first time we drove into the fenced area and dropped cow parts and witnessed pride feeding dynamics from the open-range 4WD. The second time we watched bulldozers drop cows into the fenced enclosures. These enclosures are very large but still the lions are protected from the actual wild world. Other activities that we were able to do was visit the Diamond Mine and “Big Hole’ in Kimberly, the mall in Bloemfontein, eat a steakhouse dinner, engage with tourists on farm visit day (everyone loves an Aussie), visit nearby farms and shopping trips to downtown Kimberly, In South Africa, there is plenty of bars on windows and high fences with wire…….very intimidating. In summary, this was such a great experience and living locally with a very friendly and outgoing family with a love for animals was great. Plus, along with being able to pat foxes, a leopard and a puppy jackal, followed around by goats and a warthog, giggling at terrified baby warthogs try eat their food, watching caracals jump and hiss for food, watching a cheetah run like a dream, seeing lion pride feeding dynamics, eat braii (South African BBQ), pick prickly pears, have my luggage broken into by escaped meerkats, touching a lions mane plus, see some amazing African thunderstorms, and many other experiences that escape my memory right now (time to take a breath).
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