Volunteering · South Africa
Get closer to conservation.
One week minimum, from €800 per week. Meals and accommodation included. A handful of volunteers at a time.
The experience
You join the work, not a tour.
From your first morning you are on the rounds: feed prep, cleaning, enrichment, meat cutting, the afternoon feeding. The team explains as they go. Nothing is staged for you, which is why it is worth being there.
Hands at work — feeding round in progress
Who it's for
Ages 16 to 70. No experience needed.
Wildlife enthusiasts, students, gap-year travellers, career-breakers, retired travellers, parents and teenagers travelling together. What matters is that you are willing to work in the heat and take instruction from the people who know these animals.
A day on the project
The shape of a day — and what changes.
This is the rhythm most days follow. The animals decide the rest.
Breakfast
Everyone eats together before the heat arrives. The day gets sketched out over coffee.
Breakfast table on the project, early light
Animal feeding and cleaning duties
The longest block of the day. Enclosures cleaned, water checked, feeding rounds worked through with the animal team.
Hands at work — enclosure cleaning, morning light
Lunch break
Out of the midday sun. Most people sleep, write, or sort photographs.
Shaded stoep at midday
Food prep and meat cutting
Portions weighed and cut for every animal on the property. Not glamorous. Entirely necessary.
Hands at work — meat prep on the block
The afternoon feeding round
Cheetahs first, then the lions, the servals and caracals, and the meerkats. The best hour of the day, and the one you will remember.
Servals and caracals close up at feeding time
Day's end
Duties done. The evening is yours, and the light is worth staying outside for.
Meerkats at last light
Every day is different. Some days there are cheetah walks or game drives — they happen when the animals and the day allow, never to a timetable and never promised.
Your week
What the rate covers — and what it doesn't.
From €800 per week. [WEEKLY RATE — full rate table by length of stay to follow.]
Included
Accommodation on the project
Three meals a day
Wifi
Laundry
Daily work alongside the animal team
Not included
Flights
Transfers to the reserve
[TRANSFER INFORMATION]
Travel insurance
[SAFETY & INSURANCE]
Visas
Personal extras and additional activities
A gentler pace
The Working Holiday option.
Same project, same cheetahs, a different rhythm. If you would rather spend your time with the animals than race to keep up with their care, ask about the Working Holiday — a gentler, more relaxed way through the same volunteering week.
Less fence-line and food-prep, more unhurried time in the enclosures with the team. It runs on the same project, at the same site — you simply move through the week more slowly. The team on the ground sometimes calls it ‘posh volunteering’; we just call it the gentler option. [DURATION AND RATE — to be confirmed with the project.]
Go deeper
The 2-week veterinary assistant course.
A scheduled 2-week course, open to beginners — enquire for the next intake. It is run by our partner conservancy on set dates, so it does not follow the open volunteering calendar.
Two weeks of structured learning alongside the animal team, built for people starting from nothing. [COURSE CONTENT AND CERTIFICATION — to be confirmed with the project.]
Before you come
What we'll sort out together.
Nothing here is guesswork — each of these is filled in with you before you book anything.
Getting to the reserve
[TRANSFER INFORMATION]
Visas and entry
[VISA GUIDANCE]
Insurance and safety
[SAFETY & INSURANCE]
What to pack
[PACKING LIST]
Arrival day
[ARRIVAL DETAIL]
Questions
Volunteering, in detail.
Feeding and cleaning duties through the morning, meat prep after lunch, then the afternoon feeding round — cheetahs, lions, servals, caracals and the meerkats. Physical, hot, and genuinely useful.
No. You need to take instruction, work in the heat, and be reliable at seven in the morning.
A handful. It is a small operation and it stays that way, which is why you end up working directly with the people who run it.
You stay on the project with three meals a day, wifi and laundry included. [ACCOMMODATION DETAILS — rooms and sharing arrangements to be confirmed.]
[TRANSFER INFORMATION.] Flights and transfers are not included in the rate, but we help you work out the route before you book anything.
Yes — it is a scheduled 2-week course run by our partner conservancy on set dates, open to beginners. The next intake is not confirmed; enquire and we will tell you as soon as it is.
Next step
Tell us when you can get here.
One week minimum. No deposit to enquire.