A Surprise for the Students

Sunday, 8th March

First thing this morning - Sundays being our days off - I decided to do a bit of running along the dam wall. At 9am the sun was already well into the sky and beating down its warmth onto my skin and the added altitude strained my lungs (compared to a sea level Cambridge, Imire is at 1,600m or 4,800 feet). Afterwards I jumped into the dam's little reservoir; unlike the murky waters of the River Cam back home this water was pristine, though surprisingly chilly. Swimming surrounded by the African savannah was an incredible opportunity to get up close to wildlife; only my head was visible above water as I quietly breaststroked along. Fishing eagles soared overhead and swallows darted about just inches from my face. It was complete peace, a meditation almost - that is until Nyasha started chasing me when I got out and refused to give me my towel back. I can tell you, a serval's claws and teeth are a bit more than your average domestic cat's!

After lunch we were told that we had a surprise in store and were driven to Castle Kopjie. Phil (another student whom I got on extremely well with) and I had an explore around while we waited for our surprise to arrive. We found the graves of Norman and Gilly travers, the husband and wife who founded Imire back in 1950; the location was serene in the Miombo woodland and I felt moved standing there, knowing the amazing place that they had created.

Our surprise turned out to be a genet, brought along in a cage having been found in Harare. Imire had offered to take it and give a much better home than the bustling capital. Genets are beautiful creatures with bright, beady bushbaby-like eyes, a mongoose's long, slender body and a long busy tail, though they are more closely related to cats. This one was a large spotted genet - distinguished with a black tipped tail instead of a white tip in the case of small spotted genets - and shot off up the bolders as soon as the cage was opened. It was such a privilege to see the release of a wild animal back into the wild where it would have a long and happy life.

http://www.krugerpark.co.za/africa_large-spotted_genet.html