Food, Lodging and Travel
Volunteers will stay at the Kariega Conservation Center (KCC), on the periphery of the Big 5 Kariega Game Reserve. You will be accommodated in either Cheetah or Hyena quarters. The facility is newly renovated and fully furnished.
The house / Hyena quarters has a lovely lounge where you can relax, a refreshing swimming pool and a covered braai (BBQ) area. There are 3 shared bedrooms in the Hyena quarters.
At Cheetah quarters, there are 3 bedrooms on the side of the hall. They are all en suite with their own shower, basin and toilet. There is an entertainment area with comfortable seating, a coffee / drinks station, pool table & library. All volunteers can use any of these areas.
The spacious garden allows you to stretch your legs or do some sport activities.
You will be sharing a bedroom and bathroom with up to two roommates of the same gender. Couples can be allocated in their own room if possible. Bedding and bath towels are provided, please bring your own beach towel.
There is free Wi-Fi and a complimentary laundry service is provided during weekdays at KCC.
Food
There is a fully equipped kitchen with a large fridge, freezers, gas stoves, microwave, cutlery, crockery and cooking utensils. It is located in the hall. All the ingredients for three basic meals a day are provided. Volunteers are divided into cooking teams and all meals are made by the volunteers themselves. Volunteers are also responsible for washing up and keeping the kitchen clean and tidy. The meals are basic but wholesome, for example cereals, porridge and/or toast for breakfast, sandwiches or wraps for lunch and spaghetti bolognaise, chicken stew or lasagne with veggies and salad for supper.
Please note: We don’t cater for special dietary requirements. If volunteers wish to add ingredients to meals that are not provided, they can buy them in town at their own expense.
For example, if you have a gluten or dairy allergy, you will need to buy your own gluten-free crackers, bread or soy milk. These special products are readily available at our local supermarkets.
Meals that volunteers choose to eat at restaurants, are at own expense.
Working Hours & Free Time
The working week at Kariega is from Monday to Friday. Working hours depend on the season and may vary from 7 – 9 hours per day. The evenings are at your leisure. Saturdays are reserved for a town trip (either to Kenton-On-Sea, Port Alfred or Grahamstown) where volunteers can do their shopping, eat out, visit all the sites of the local towns. Sundays are off time.
Kenton-On-Sea is a beautiful small coastal town only 15 minutes drive from the reserve. The beaches are absolutely breath taking and pristine. Your local “hang-out” is a pub / restaurant overlooking this stunning beach! After your Saturday morning shopping in Kenton (volunteers can stock up on everyday essentials), volunteers often laze around on the beach, swim in the waves or sit in the beach bar while sipping away on a cold drink and taking in the scenery. There are also additional activities that can be organised for you on a Saturday (at your own cost and on condition that a few others in the group also want to partake in the activity), including:
Horseback riding on the beach or in a game reserve
Sky diving – tandem (that means you are strapped to an instructor!)
Deep sea fishing
Two day canoe trail on the Kowie river (this is a hit with many of our volunteer groups)
Addo Elephant National Park field trip
Weekend trips away can include bungee jumping, canopy tours and shark cage diving
Conservation volunteer requirements:
- Volunteers should be 18 to 65 years old (18 to 25 yrs being the average). Volunteers aged 17 years old are only considered when accompanied by a parent/guardian. Anyone over 40 yrs will be asked to complete a mature volunteers questionnaire, to assess suitability in terms of group dynamics and age ranges for the dates in question.
- Interest/field of study: conservation, environmental science, wildlife management, ecology or wildlife biology, wildlife journalism, wildlife photography, veterinary science, animal behaviour studies.
- Personal qualities of flexibility and adaptability.
Self-motivated: a carefully structured full programme is provided each week, but volunteers need to be adaptable to some programme changes depending on variables in the running of the project. Free time is also factored in, and volunteers need to be independent and mature enough to make constructive use of such recreational time.
How to get there
You need to arrange to fly to Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape of South Africa – connecting flights from Johannesburg. The Game Reserve is a two hours drive from Port Elizabeth (140 kms) and you can get collected and dropped off at the Reserve at an extra cost.
Passport and visa
A valid passport with at least 2 blank pages in it, is necessary to enter South Africa. Since visa requirements vary from country to country, please check with your local embassy as to whether a visa is required to enter South Africa.
