By Harry Kent, former Desk Officer for our Southern Africa Conservation Program

I had been mentally preparing for the last 4 months for the cold I would experience when landing back in London, let me tell you it didn’t help, being propelled from 40 degrees African sun to barely 1 degree was a real shock to the system.

Living without electricity was far easier than I ever could have imagined (and a hard habit to kick), as after a welcome home party on Monday I was found by my girlfriends parents wandering around their house, in the pitch black using only my phone as a torch which was shortly followed by “we do have lights here Harry”.

Driving to the Office on the Monday was a far cry from transporting the volunteers around the Legodimo reserve, firstly a Nissan Micra doesn’t come close to a great green Land Rover, and by skidding off the road only to notice it was only a piece of tyre not a Black Mamba I was avoiding made me feel right at home.

So now I sit here in the UK office, and I am not saying Rich is not pretty but the view doesn’t come close to that of paradise.