Take a walk on Africa's wild side during your gap year

Head to Sub-Saharan Africa and you could help conserve exotic animals in their natural habitat, says Andy Sharman

Published: 13 August 2007

Shaun Rambert, co-star of BBC's Vet Safari, knows a thing or two about life on Africa's big game reserves. "I've been chased by rhinos, chased by lions, chased by everything," he says, every bit the laconic South African you see on TV. Does getting in the way of these beasts sound like your idea of fun? If so, then you should know there are a number of gap year organisations out there offering a bit of life on the wild side.

Rambert and doctor wife Emma are lending their star status to gap year company Shumba Experience by leading its Game Capture project. The programme gives willing volunteers the chance to spend time with animals such as giraffe and impala on reserves across South Africa.

"It's an opportunity for people to join us on captures and be a part of the team," says Rambert. "There's more to moving and treating animals than what you see on TV. It can range from moving a very small wart hog to a very large elephant."

The great thing about it is that you are going to be constantly surprised, according to Gemma Simmons, who will be one of the first gappers to get the Vet Safari treatment. "You don't really know what you're going to be dealing with. You've got your big game creatures, your herbivores, and some more exotic ones... I've been watching the show every week and getting really excited!"

Simmons, 21, has just finished a degree in biology at Newcastle, and hopes to go on to do a PhD in animal behaviour, a field in which practical experience is a must. "I'm interested in biology, conservation and wildlife management, so game capture ticks all my boxes," she says.

"I want to enjoy myself after doing five years of study--and it'll give me a knowledge of conservation. More pragmatically, I think it's going to help me massively when I start out applying for jobs."

Simmons will be going to Kimberley, in South Africa's Northern Cape province, for four weeks, and then on to Karoo, near Port Elizabeth, for another four weeks. She is paying the £2,500 price tag by doing summer work.

"They're building a new base camp with a new veterinary centre, dealing with strays and animals injured in capture, which means I'll be up close with rehabilitation," she says. "That will be really cool.It sounded like something unpredictable and challenging and exciting. And I've always, always wanted to go to Africa."

Just what is it about Africa? "I think Africa is the unknown," says BBC vet Rambert. "It's very remote and a lot more wild than a lot of people are used to. Where we go, sometimes people haven't been there for the last 10 years.

"But the most important thing about the game capture experience is it opens your mind up a bit. People don't realise there's a huge industry behind this. The biggest benefit is realising there's more to the wildlife industry than what you see on TV. It's about moving animals and learning why they've been moved. It's a necessary part of conservation in modern day Africa."

But it's not just small organisations like Shumba offering these projects. Large gap year companies such as Bunac are now very much a part of modern day Africa, too, and Bunac UK, following the example of its international counterparts, is offering willing volunteers the chance to go on safari.

This brings up two issues: with large organisations getting involved in the Africa experience, can they ensure tight links with the local community? And, moreover, with large numbers of gappers pouring in, can companies ensure the quality of volunteers, to safeguard the industry from accusations of neo-colonialism and "voluntourism".

"Voluntourism is obviously a big issue," says Annette Holman, volunteer co-ordinator for Bunac UK. "What we do to make ourselves stand out is we give a thorough preparation. We hold interviews and discuss the applicants' skills, experiences and, most importantly, we ask them what they can contribute.' "

Gappers heading out to South Africa's Eastern Cape could find themselves participating in the capture and redistribution of animals, and even the hand-rearing of lion cubs. But Bunac is also keen to see volunteers engage with their temporary host country.

"It's very much about interaction with the local people," says Holman, who has direct experience of Bunac gap years, having gone to South Africa with the company. "We're giving people the opportunity to work with wildlife in South Africa. It's a unique project."

With that come some unique requirements: this isn't just any old gap year, and to do it, you need to bring something to the table. "We look for specific experience such as biology, or some experience outside of education, with animals or something like that," says Holman. "We then send the information we've gathered about you to the local hosts and they see if you've got the skills."

Bunac seeks to educate volunteers about the communities in which they will be working, providing a week's orientation based around local customs and culture and preparing gappers for the inevitable, bracing culture shock. The orientation is included in the £1,050 you pay for a four-week placement.

Added to that, the most popular length of stay is two to three-months, giving volunteers a chance to build real links with local communities.

"It's not just a week here or there," adds Holman. "You feel like you can actually go out there and make a difference."

Another gap year, called SoloLeap, is offered by the four-person outfit The Leap and it sounds like the antithesis of Bunac's large scale operation. Indeed, The Leap sends only 10-15 gappers a year on the project.

Gappers could find themselves spending three months in Kenya's Masai Mara working at a "super luxury" safari camp. They would be working in a service role in tourism, going out on safari, helping out with conservation and building projects, interacting with local people and wild animals - all in a gorgeous, typically African setting, which, for £2,400, is effectively a host of gap years rolled into one.

"I'd never heard of anything like it," says Alice Baines, one of the first ever SoloLeapers, who spent her SoloLeap on Kenya's Lake Baringo after her A-levels. "It was something original, and I knew I wouldn't bump into anyone from school."

The break had such an impact on Baines that it has influenced all she has done since. Having built up numerous contacts while working at the luxury lodge, she was able to go travelling for two-and-a-half months after finishing at the resort.

"I made so many contacts through the tourist lodges, with diplomats, ambassadors, celebrities - the guests tend to lead privileged lives - I was able to pretty much travel for free," she says.

Though Baines claims to have dearly wished to stay, she returned to Britain for university at Birmingham, studying English and, of course, African studies. She now moonlights as The Leap's very own Agony Aunt, in addition to her more staid role of overseas projects manager.

But is this really a do-it-yourself African experience? Is such a thing possible? "Solo doesn't mean you go it alone. You can meet up with other SoloLeapers - there's still a social network there. The projects are all voluntary work placements in varying degrees of remoteness.

"It's meant to give an extraordinary experience you wouldn't be able to have independently," says Baines, "a life changing experience."

www.shumbaexperience.co.uk, www.bunac.org/volunteer/southafrica, www.theleap.co.uk

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