The main aim of the Cambodian Animal Sanctuary is to protect the jungle which has suffered at the hands of logging and over farming, while given a safe haven to animals which need a home. They have monkeys, elephants, geese, roosters and dogs within their grounds but also intermittently have other animals. While we were there a monkey was rescued as mentioned in an earlier post but also two squirrels which had been handed in as kittens a couple of months earlier, were released back to the wild.
The sanctuary tries to grow as much of its own food for both the people and animals that live there. This involves a lot of planting, weeding and harvesting of crops. During our stay we were involved in all of these jobs and more.
Cutting down corn. Several times during the week we were given machetes to work with, a first for us! We used them to cut down crops and to chop up melons and banana trees for the elephants.
After dinner there was a short time for a nap, here David is having a rest alongside Jenny one of the dogs.
Making trellises for the beans, we first of all went into the jungle and got some sticks, which we then sharpened at one end so it would go in the ground easier. We used machetes for this too.
There were a lot of ants in the jungle, most of them were fine but the red ones were awful, they really knew how to bite, my feet still have bite marks on them now over a week later. Stung like crazy.
To try and help the jungle to flourish again we planted more trees, especially in areas where there recently have been fires. On one of the days we planted over 200 trees. This is us going out with one load of trees, when we go into the jungle we are accompanied by some soldiers who are based at the sanctuary. The soldiers were really nice, as were all the people in the sanctuary and all pitched in to help.
David planting one of the trees, if you look carefully you will see the soil is very black around him, this is because there had been a fire there recently. The grass was already starting to regrow though.
We also kept an eye on the dam to check that it was holding up after the recent damage from the heavy rain. While we were there the dam held and the water soon built up to its proper height, allowing the elephant to get her bath.
The water was actually really nice to go into even though it looks a bit murky, David and Chet loved having a swim in it.
One of the weekly jobs is cleaning out the duck pond, we started doing this quickly and keenly but soon realised it was back breaking work, and once we got to the bottom very smelly. While we did this the geese squawked non stop, I do not think they were impressed.
The rain brought many visitors to our hut, we often had huntsmen spiders in with us, plus a couple of smaller spiders but still bigger than what we are used to. This spider is about one metre above my side of the bed, thank goodness for the mosquito net! One of the nights we heard rustling coming from the spare bed, David shone a torch on it and something quickly scampered away, he thought it was a mouse, I am saying it was a squirrel as that seems nicer. The squirrels there are a lot smaller and have short fluffy tails.
We also saw and heard geckos but I do not mind these at all and actually think they are quite cute. I also had a couple of brushes with what could have been quite nasty beasties. Grabbing my towel from where it was hanging on the wall one day my hand felt something rough and quite prickly. I looked to see what it was and it was a Vietnamese centipede, it was huge and I must admit I threw the towel to the ground. It was only when I googled it that I realised what it was and that it could give a nasty bite, which thankfully it didn't, in fact it made no attempt to attack or defend itself. We took it outside, still on the towel, and let it crawl away.
On another occasion when we went out to plant trees, the truck we were in became stuck in the mud, we decided to pile wood under the tyres to give them something to grip onto. Luckily around the place were still bits of wood left over from the burnt trees, me and Leanne the other volunteer went to pick up a bigger piece, Leanne being an Aussie gave the log a kick first whereas I just grabbed it with my hands. On moving it we uncovered a big, black shiny scorpion who was not very happy to be
disturbed, thankfully again it made no attempt to get me. I also saw a scorpion behind the toilet door one night but it looked more scared than I did. That was a quick visit to the loo for me!
Some of the geese having a midday nap I felt like waking them up as they had been very noisy during the night.
This is Jenny one of the dogs, she has recently been in a fight with a wild boar in the jungle leaving her with this nasty scar. She is lucky that no major damage was done and that she lives at the sanctuary so has access to a vet.
Feeding the elephants.
This is the view from my hut, some of the huts are being done up at the moment.
The sky before one of the storms. We had a lot of thunderstorms there which luckily usually started in the evenings. However, at times this caused all the midgies from outside into our eating area which on a couple of days was a bit overwhelming, with everybody making a hasty retreat. The volunteers braved it out by sitting at a table in the dark.
On one of the evenings the rangers, soldiers, mahouts and other members of staff came to the eating area for an English lesson, which was led by Leanne. She was doing a months volunteering there so had done it the previous three weeks. The next day the volunteers got together to make up statements and questions which we thought would be useful both for volunteers and staff, these were written on a board. They all seemed to enjoy the lesson and it was a nice time for everyone to socialise together. Chet really struggled to understand David and told him he should listen to the lesson too, so he could learn how to speak English!
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