Amakhala Volunteers

Amakhala Game Reserve also offers a programme suitable for persons of all ages looking for that something different as part of a gap year or following a life change. This is your chance to contribute to conservation, to make a difference and to return to nature.

Programme Content

The programme could include:

  • Game drives (animal identification and tracking)
  • Lectures on conservation, reserve management and maintenance
  • General reserve maintenance
  • Game capture
  • Birding orientation and classification
  • Canoeing, boating
  • Xhosa culture
  • Sustainable Food production
  • Social Development (at Aids Orphanage and our conservation centre)
  • Assisting Veterinary work
  • Game management (culling, re-introducing, counts, bomas)
  • Land management (burning, grazing patterns, roads, water, and fencing)
  • Veterinary work with our resident vet (darting and post-mortems)
  • Guided walks
  • Medicinal use of plants
  • Vegetation biomes
  • Bush camping and Night Drives
  • Five Star lodge experience
  • Vehicle repairs
  • Target shooting
  • Anti-poaching control
  • Craft Centre Development
  • Beach clean-ups
  • Born Free Foundation visits
  • Giraffe identification and habitat monitoring
  • Predator Monitoring
  • Waterhole Surveys
  • Fishing in the Bushmans' River
  • Geology and paleontology
  • Stargazing and basic astronomy
  • Entomology collection
  • Alien vegetation management

Typical Working Day

Volunteers are busy from Monday to Friday, the average working day being 8 hours.
Weekends are free for volunteers to either relax at their house or to go sightseeing.
Exciting and interesting things frequently happen on a game reserve and these dynamics will as far as possible be included in the programme.
Volunteers are allocated a qualified game ranger as facilitator and Land Rover game viewer for their sole use for the duration of the programme. The programme is therefore flexible but an average day might include the following:

  • Breakfast at 07h00
  • Leave Volunteer house for duties on the reserve 07h30
  • Tracking of Lions with telemetry and monitor activities
  • Move through to the game reserve identifying antelope and to area allocated for vegetation survey
  • Lunch on the reserve around 13H00 til 14h00
  • Canoe on the river until 15h00 to survey bird behaviour
  • 16h00 Fence patrol on way back to volunteer house

Contact Us

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