Quest Overseas - Gap Year Travel

I HATE ICELAND! It changed everything, everyone was late...Two arrived at two in Joburg from Nairobi, they were tall Toby and the often oblivious Dave, it was supposed to be three...where was Whalley? He had lost his passport in Nairobi airport and was pretty much an illegal citizen for 2 days! Zac Effron-esque hard rocker James arrived later that night...Whalley then arrived finally on the Friday night! On Saturday we decided to go to a local Super 14 rugby game where the cheer leaders could not have led a pack of lemmings. Later that night we went out for same late night fun where James and Toby met some lovely ladies although we did think at first that we had sighted our first game! Richard requested that we risk assess the situation.

Danya 'the American' arrived a few days later and our team was almost complete. We lived in a hostel in Pretoria for a few days and there was also a dove, which Dave befriended then ate RAW! Josh came on plane from the wonderful world of Aberdeen and we all finally went off to Swaziland! We are working for another week in the Mbulizi game reserve. Here we are dominating predator holes and counting the hell out of giraffes. Our original idea of identifying them by the number of spots they had turned out to take a little too long but now it is a fine art! For the first half-week we were guided round and instructed by Chuck Norris' brother Tal. Tal knows what, where and who everything is in the bush! Tal once found a revolving door in the middle of the bush and then slammed it! There was a rogue lion in the game reserve which we were all very scared of while we were camping under the stars but the thought that Tal had once fought of a whole pack of lions with nothing but a pair of sunglasses made us feel safe!

This weekend we have been staying at Lidwala backpackers which has been really great fun! We went out on Friday night to the legendary club "House on Fire" - it was super sweet and the dancefloor was dominated by some sweet as dance moves from Rich 'ginger' King (our team leader, who is wise like an owl). Toby had the best night of his life. For all intents and purposes it was 'just like Fulham'! He genuinely still believes he was the DJ for the night lol! Then on Saturday we went river rafting which was again super sweet especially for Toby who could barely move...and here we are! Back to Mbuluzi...

Richard Whalley and team...

The Swaziland Team are hard at work in Mbuluzi game reserve at the moment, undertaking giraffe surveys and building predator passageways to allow predators to move easily within the reserve. The team have another week left at their Mbuluzi camp, baking fresh bread over their fire - all very domesticated - before heading to Mlawula Reserve to take part in some much needed renovation of Sara Camp. Sara Camp with it's wildlife and stunning views should be the jewel in the crown of the Mlawula Reserve, brining in much needed revenue for the park and local community. The Quest team will be working to get the camp up and running again with a week of maintenance tasks along with further giraffe surveys in the reserve. It's not been all work and no play however, last weekend the team took to the Great Usutu River, testing their nerves on the rapids with a day's white water rafting. Even a few wet team members and a lost paddle couldn't spoil the fun. Update from the team coming soon!