Well, hello stranger
Welcome back to our Namibia adventures! If you missed the post earlier this week you are more than welocome to go back to Adventures in Namibia: Fixing gates, a flat tyre, and giant carrots!. So far there are four parts to this adventure (this being part four), and you can find all the others on my blog. So stay tuned for more stories about our visit to the wonderful country of Namibia.
Today was one of those where you are excited at the start of the moring... work yourself to a point of no return... wish everything was over... find joy in the little moments... and than start wishing time would stand still so you can experience it just a little bit longer.
So what did we do today that made me feel this way? We went is search of a group of goats, again. This time it was more important than just moving them to a new camp. It was their annual vaccine day. Honestly I have no idea how many times a year they get vaccinated, but I do know it was the first time that the littles were vaccinated. While the day was long, hot and tiring, we did have a wonderful time with all the baby goats. So please do come along and be part of this wonderful adventures!
Before we headed out for the day we prepared a few flasks of coffee, packed lunch, got a bunch of snacks, hats, sunglasses and all the ingredients needed for a fresh rollie (even though I've quite smoking, think back to those smoke breaks makes one miss the moments enjoyed with friends). We packed all the medication for the goats, loaded some feed and headed out. Luckely we did remember the most important thing of all... sunscreen!
Lunch, snacks and coffee. I think we are set to go? Sooo let's go!
We made our way to the farm next door (the family owns two farms right next to each other). So one could say the camp was far far away from home... I think we drove about 20-30 minutes. Upon arriving we noticed that the gate of the camp has been pushed open and all the goats has wondered of. There was however only lonely lamb in the camp... We were extremely confused about this and to make it even more strange, the lamb had no marking on it. So we have no idea where he came from or to whom he belongs... We assumed that he was born in the field and that his mom left him behind (They round up the sheep before they lamb in order to keep track of all the lambs). So we named him lucky and his been grazing with the goats near the house ever since.
You can see Lucky is very attached to his goat mama. The goat had lost her baby and was more than happy to take care of Lucky.
Waiting for better days in the sun... I mean waiting for the goats 🐾...
Since the goats where not in their camp, we had to go look for them. The workers knew that the group usually split up, with some going down to the river and the others going to the hillside at the back of the camp. Since me and Tobia where keen on adventure we decided to head to the back of the camp.
We walked around for a while calling and keeping our eyes open, but didn't find any of the goats. No trail, no sound, just sun and grass. So yes, we got tired and took a little break. I mean what's the point of having such a lovely view and not even enjoying it for a few minutes? If you want you can enjoy the view as well, since I have added a very short video for you.
After our break we made our way up the hill to get a better look at the camp. We figured higher ground will allow us to find them easily... O boy we where wrong 😂. I think we spent almost an hour walking around on top of the hills until we heard the goats... We still couldn't see them. So we kept walking back and forth attempting to figure out where they were hiding.
Well it turns out that they have made themselves comfortable in the valley between two of the hills. It was completely in the shade and we couldn't spot them from afar. Since we had the bakkie with us, only one of us was able to hear the goats back to the camp... It was a long walk... I wounldn't really know since I'm the one who got to drive back 🤣. But I did arrive back at the camp wayyyy before Tobia. I must admit we were all impressed with her skills in bring back all the goats by herself.
With the goats back in their camp we decided to have launch before the drama of vaccinations started. I'm not sure how many of you know the process of getting goats into that narrow thingy... Clearly I need to spend more time on a farm. Let me just find an example for you guys.
This! Apparanlty it is called a chute. It was a hassle getting all the goats in and vaccinating all of them... I was tired at the end of the day and honoslty I didn't even do much...
Source: https://www.proagri.co.za/sheep-farming-made-easy-part-8-sheep-handling-equipment-and-restraining-devices/?lang=en
We spent a few hours working through the herd, getting knocked down, laughing and yelling at each other. We had to clean some wounds (I didn't like this part at all), separate the pregnant goats from the others, mark the ones vaccinated and count them all. I't felt like I was back in kindergarten at one point.
These two fascinated me. They where black where all the others where brown. I was informed that they where twins and their mother was also the only black goat in her herd.
After all the hard work we took these fellas back to the main camp. Here the kids (funny) were all waiting
patiently for their mothers return. You can view the video and hear them calling to their mothers. It sounds cute but after a while it feels like you're losing your mind...
This fella made himself comfortable on Tobia's back. They are extremely playfully and just wont leave you alone. You can see in the picture that they have numbers on them, the number corresponds with the mother. This way the current kid can be placed with the current mother. We split the herd into groups of ten and reunited them with their babies.
Our fellow passengers on our way back home.
The workers informed us of a few kids born in the fields. They have found them while doing their scouts around the camps. These kids were still unmarked and have not been checked. We loaded them into the bakkie to take them back home and make sure they are recorded. And it the kid goes, so does the mother... So the five mothers were also loaded on to the bakkie.
This little one was the cutest. All the others had straight coats while he had a curly coat. He also wanted to be alone, away from the others.
After a long day of running around in the sun it was finally time to head home. Manly because the sun was starting to set. While the ride back home was cramped with the six extra passengers in the bakkie, it was the best 30 min of the day. Cuteness overload is definitely a thing.
