As delegates made their way back to camp after a wonderful night out under the stars, discussions ranged from how thoughtful the Ubungani staff were to give them warm water bottles to sleep with at night, to how they were looking forward to a nice looong hot shower to wash off the dust and smoke of the previous night. It was a real test in leadership and maturity when they arrived back at the ‘luxury’ of our tented camp just to discover a problem with the generator – i.e. NO WATER, NEITHER HOT OR COLD!!

Delegates were given an opportunity to practice their cultural events for the last evening, and afterwards asked to gather in the big tent for a surprise. Everybody joined the guessing game as to what this surprise could be about, until Hanneke introduced Marilyn,   from de Wildt Cheetah Breeding Centre to us. ‘Oh, how great, a talk about cheetah!’, was a delegates happy remark. After an emotional talk about cheetah, their conservation status and ways to put principles into action that would help save cheetah and other endangered animals, it was time for the REAL surprise, as Marilyn’s helper appeared with Byron, a three year old male cheetah. Delegates were deeply moved, and many had to quickly pick away a tear as they lined up for the once-in-a-lifetime experience to touch the cheetah. The impact this experience had on us all, has turned us into (bigger) cheetah conservationists for life!

After this experience, delegates departed for Entabeni Nature Reserve for the ‘fig tree activity’. There was a lot of discussion about what this activity would be as we made our way up the Yellowwood Gorge for the last time on the open game drive vehicles. What a delightful sight it was to see the delegates faces as a helicopter landed in front of them, and they were informed that it was time for a ‘flip’ over the reserve!

For many this was the biggest adrenalin rush of the whole camp, and words like ‘awesome’ and ‘now I’ve seen it all!’, were used to describe their feelings.

When the helicopter disappeared into the sinking sun, it was time to make our way to the most spectacular breathtakingly beautiful lookout point for final reflections. Delegates were given the opportunity to think and relive the past 8 days and write it down, both as a keepsake and an evaluation for the Ubungani officers to help and improve an already wonderful experience.

It was a tired, yet deeply satisfied group of delegates who made their way back down the Gorge in the dark, as we realized that this would be the last time we had to drive in the Big Five Reserve…