In honour of the critically endangered Wattled Crane specie: two exclusive 6 night journeys to the Okavango Delta which holds the largest Wattled Crane population.
Scheduled for 5 – 11 March 2013 and the 20th – 26th of April 2013.
Reservation enquiries: connie.neubold@orient-express.com T+27(21) 483-1600

Proceeds of this journey are in aid of the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Wattled Crane project.

For me, to see the changes on these children’s faces is goose-bump stuff and brings tears to my eyes. Please be part of this fantastic initiative over this Christmas season and help give the gift of a smile. Simply swipe your card every time you shop and they will make an additional donation on your behalf to Operation Smile (besides the normal donation to your beneficiary).
As I say, ‘the greatest gift is giving’, and when we all DOT (Do One Thing) we reshape the future of our country. Let’s DOT together!

It was wonderful meeting you both in London and we hope you enjoyed the weekend as much as we did. We trust you both got home safely and have slipped back into the way of life in SA. Both Hazel and I wish to thank you again for the kindness you showed in stopping for Team Centrepoint and helping them. True camaraderie and friendship right there in a nutshell.

Below are the messages I sent to Jason and the Team(s) before, during and after the race. I sent the first one about two days before Christmas and the second one a day before they got to half way. We then discovered that Andrew had broken his arm and that Team Mission Possible (your good selves) had stopped and offered to share Andrew’s sledge load. What a gesture!! I then sent the third message a day before they finished to be read as they crossed the line.

It was just a Dad (me) trying to keep up his son’s and the teams’ spirits.

FIRST MESSAGE TO BE READ ON CHRISTMAS DAY

Dear Jason,
You are thousands of miles away, but we all feel we are really close to you.
You are soon to embark on the adventure of a lifetime, and our thoughts will be with you every step of the way.
You will be pushed to your physical and mental limits, so we will be beside you.
You will see things that only a handful of people have ever seen, and we will see them through your eyes.
You will experience things other people never experience, and we will share those times.
You will have immense highs and dark dark lows, but be assured you won’t ever be on your own.
Eventually, you will rejoice in your success and we will rejoice with you.
Do it for Centrepoint, do it for the team, do it for us, but most of all do it for yourself.
Enjoy every minute in what is the last great wilderness on earth, and when you have finished, come home and tell us all about it.
Good luck young man, words cannot express how proud we are of you. We’ll see you when it’s all over.

Love from Mum, Dad, Ryan and Nan. XXXX

SECOND MESSAGE TO BE READ AT THE HALFWAY POINT

Team Centrepoint
We know you are hurting
We know that you are hungry
We know that you are weary
We know that at times you have been chilled to the bone
We know that your sores will not heal
We know you have been to a bad place
But we also know that you have had highlights
We know that you are now at the half way point
We know that you can do this
Every step you now take is a step nearer home
Keep thinking of the good times in life
You, you Band of Brothers, pull for each other
In the words of your letter from Sir Ranulph Fiennes
“It will become a battle of Mind over Matter, a battle I’m sure they will win.”
Keep safe and stay together
May the force be with you

Love to you all from Alan, Hazel, Ryan & Nan XXXX

THIRD MESSAGE TO BE READ AT THE FINISH LINE

Team Centrepoint and Team Mission Possible
Jason, Andrew, Ben, Braam & Peter
What you two teams have done is extraordinary
The spirit and camaraderie you have shown is exemplary
The respect you have earned is beyond measure
and what you have achieved is nothing short of miraculous.
You will be cold
You will be exhausted
You will be starving
But the inner glow from what you have done will keep you warm
The feeling of togetherness will refresh you
and the knowledge of an immense job completed will feed you.
You have had an experience that will stay with you for ever
and you have made friends for life
There can be no better result than that.

Congratulations and love to you all from Alan, Hazel, Ryan & Nan XXXX

Best regards…….Alan Bolton

What is amazing is that they fertilise the savannah where honey badgers, mongooses, civets and hornbills will open them to feed on the juicy larvae. The ‘refined’ dung is further broken down and distributed over the veld thereby fertilising it. The rains come, the grass grows and a multitude of species benefit.

We are all just DOT’s on the Earth but if each of us Do One Thing, we create a critical mass, or tipping point whereby we become assets to an ailing planet…

#DOT Do One Thing

In my eulogy at Peter’s memorial service I spoke of the importance and power of ‘change’ and ‘choice’. It was Charles Darwin who said, “It is not the strongest that survives, nor the most intelligent, it is the one who embraces change.” All too often in our lives we blame externally. We find reason for our own problems in other people, institutions or organisations. I have found, from personal experience, that when I turn my attention to the problem inwards, I am invariably presented with solutions that involve personal change. The power to change is based on the knowledge I gain and the perceived rewards I am then incentivised by. In Nature, species don’t necessarily choose to change but are more driven to change in order to survive. This change, over decades and more often millennia, result in evolution. We, as human beings, have fallen into a dangerous trap where we avoid change in a desperate attempt to maintain our comfort zones. When we, with knowledge and understanding, embrace change as a process of personal growth, we become amazed at our inherent power. For me, it is this power that draws me closer to God.

I was asked, after completing the Great Wall of China expedition in 2006, where I spent a lot of time in the ‘wilderness’ of the Gobi Desert, if I believed in ‘sin’. I answered “if there is such a thing, for me it is mediocrity, living a compromised existence, a half-life.” I believe, in order to live ones fullest potential requires commitment to change and the ability to dream big. And then of course, we must choose to act!

I will not see Peter’s tragedy be in vain. I will show people that through death comes life. Indeed, I believe I already have! During the eulogy I asked friends and family to look inside themselves and ask firstly, “what is one thing I can do to improve my life?” and secondly, “what is one thing I can do to improve someone else’s life, or life on our planet Earth?” You see, I firmly believe that the greatest gift any of us have is the gift of ‘giving’. This simple truth is shown to us daily through Nature…every species gives to one or more other species, and, in so doing, ensure their own survival. A bee and a flower is a simple example of this. Life is sustained because of the principal of ‘connected sharing’.

So I ask you humbly, to consider the two questions I asked the mourners at my brother’s funeral, then to please act on them. If we all Do One Thing (DOT), we begin fix our tired Earth.

As usual, we gathered before the procedure to go through the plan. An
addition to the team today was Dr Gerhard Steenkamp who is a veterinary
surgeon from Onderstepoort. Dr Steenkamp, and his colleagues will be
bringing specialised skills and experience into Thandi’s continuing support
plan and his role today was to assess her facial injuries and begin applying
whatever surgical support the growing team of surgeons believe she may
require.

We worked with her for almost an hour today which was longer than we had
planned for. She was amazing once again, surprising us with her resilience
and tenacity having been through such a horrific experience and showing her
inner strength even at this stage of her recovery. Not once was I concerned
about her anaesthetic, her blood pressure and oxygen levels were good
throughout and this gave us the platform Dr Steenkamp needed to carry out
his surgical activities.

The first stage in her facial treatment today involved removing as much dead
tissue as possible. Most of what is not viable consists of bone which has
been severely exposed and separated from its blood supply. If we allow any
of this dead bone tissue to remain, it could end up as a decomposing
fragment of tissue inside a mass of healing flesh and hence a long term
source of infection. Extensive time was spent literally breaking off pieces
of bone until bleeding indicated viable tissue. The maggots are back and
some of the deep recesses of her mutilated skull where inhabited by them and
needed to be removed. Many other bone cavities contained compacted mud which
had dried into solid plugs which impede healing and so had to be scooped out
and flushed. Tragically, there are still panga marks deep into her skull
bones creating fissure lines and crevices which required attention.

Once as much dead tissue had been removed as possible, we could get a clear
picture of her healing progress. The outside extremities of the area are
clean and the recovering skin margin is creeping in slowly from the
peripheries one millimetre at a time. There are some good banks of new
tissue often referred to as granulation tissue which has encroached into
many of the deep trenches left by the pangas between the bone structures and
the skin. She still has significant areas of exposed bone towards the middle
of the wound but most surprising of all has been the amount of new tissue
which has been created inside the exposed sinuses. So there is real
measurable progress visable without any major stumbling blocks apparent at
this stage.

These are still early days yet as we still have a long way to go but what we
witnessed today was very encouraging. At this stage we are not sure how much
surgical assistance she may require but many of the building blocks of
re-construction are appearing, which for now is as much as we can expect.

Every time we work with her face I am both appalled by the extent of her
wounds, and encouraged by the determination that this body possesses to
recover. In spite of the destruction of her face to such a degree that 33
days later she still has a mutilated crater which is 37 cm long and 19 cm
wide. Regardless of the long hours she spent struggling on her side, in
shock and agony, she is determined to survive. Under the constant threat of
complications from maggots, infection and rotting bone fragments, Thandi has
made her choice, this girl wants to live and she wants to live well. In
spite of everything she has gone through, this living, breathing, feeling
animal just keeps marching down her road towards recovery.

What an inspiration, this one rhino called Thandiswa, is proving to be. What
a beacon of hope she is providing for us when there are so many horrendous
stories and statistics drawing dark clouds over the future of this species.
What and example of how we need to FACE-UP to the realities of poaching,
stop talking and start doing.

Thandi, you are a true champion of the cause. You are beautiful.

In honour of what this amazing rhino is teaching us, in admiration of her
courage to fight against indescribable odds, in amazement of the amount of
awareness she generates for her kind and out of respect for the example she
is to us, I would like to make a very personal request to every single
person who reads this. This request is not from Kariega Game Reserve, this
request is from me, Dr Will Fowlds.

“Please make a choice today to contribute to the care of SURVIVORS of rhino
poaching, like Thandi, across our country. This request is small and this
request is simple. I am asking you to donate the equivalent of the average
price of one injection, at least. On an average treatment day, Thandi will
get twenty-two medication injections at an average price of R 52-00. My
request is for at least one injection of R 50-00.”

The value of an “injection” excludes professional and labour fees, travel
and vehicle costs, helicopter expenses and other medications and anaesthetic
costs which are by far the bigger costs. I will be explaining in detail in
the following update how to go about this and how we intend managing and
using this fund. But, today you get to choose to do something active for
rhino like Thandi (meaning LOVE), today is your day to show you LOVE rhino,
today is your day to be an active part of the “Thandi Team”, today is your
day to give an INJECTION which will make a difference: Please support the
“Thandi Rhino Treatment Fund” initiative. You can start now by drawing up
your injections. Will Fowlds

Kariega rangers sent me fresh images of Thandi today which are packed with information that is very valuable in our planning for the next phase of treatment. We are processing the information we have learned from Themba, including blood samples which were taken less than 24 hours before he died as this tells us so much about what we need to be modifying in Thandi’s treatment plan. For example, the extent of muscle damage across the left side of Themba is very likely to have been mirrored in Thandi as she too lay for as long on her left side, possibly taking even more pressure on her ribs as we look back on the video images of day 1. It still amazes me, as I look at her most recent photo. What a walking miracle she is.

Comparative blood tests from Day 9, which give us an idea of acute muscle damage showed that Themba had a reading of 7715 (normal range between 60-1074) as against Thandi who had a reading of 1212. Both of these would have been higher than this in the days leading up to these tests.

Each blood sample taken had 31 different tests processed from it as well as other microscopic evaluations but in spite of this information, combined with observation, visual and photographic interpretations and hands on evaluation when we could, there were gaps in the information required to accurately assess everything. The challenge now is to find additional means to tell us what really goes on under that thick skin so that we can improve the chances of getting survivors back to health or end their suffering confident that they would not have made it even if we tried.

So, in spite of Themba’s passing, we still continue to learn from him as his serum samples have been sent away for electrophoresis (CZE). Prof Reyers is going to continue assisting us with his vast experience in clinical pathology and Themba will be the yard sick against which we measure Thandi’s parameters now that we understand the full extent of his injuries.

Des who is assisting Kariega with social media, posted official stats yesterday, provided by facebook, showing that through this channel alone over 45 000 people have followed the tragedy of Themba and Thandi. What is staggering is that if every one of us who have followed this story, shared it with all our facebook friends, we would potentially reach over 900 000 people. Many people ask me how they can make a difference in this war to save the rhino. My answer is always, awareness comes first, then worry about
the rest.

The story of three precious rhino who enjoyed life side by side in the green grass of paradise. Three of God’s creation who’s bond with one another allowed poachers to butcher them one after the other. Three magnificent rhino with three very different stories. Who among us, will give up just a fraction of our day to expose their story to the world. Even one more minute to post/forward/share or comment in honour of what they have gone through.These three victims have given us new ammunition to use in fighting this war. Ammunition which we choose to use passively, but which will change minds effectively. Our hearts and minds have been impacted by the reality of their suffering. In a war fought on many fronts, YOU have the ability to make an impact in the battle to win over the hearts and minds of inconsiderate man.

As you read this remember you have the same tools in your hands as I have tonight. You may not be making the bullets but you certainly have the ability to fire the guns. Will Fowlds

As I said on day 23 the benefit of hindsight would be the judge of my decisions and now that all information has been revealed, I have to concede that I made the wrong call two days ago. This is my burden, and mine alone.

From the start of this campaign to save these animals we have been determined to ensure that whatever the outcome, I would consult with as many people as possible, give whatever treatment we thought was necessary and ensure that whatever we learned from Themba and Thandi would be used to improve the chances of future survivors. To be true to this promise, under very difficult circumstances, I conducted a post mortem on him with the aid of some of the Kariega team who have been close to him.

What I found hidden under his thick protective skin, has extended my admiration for him even further. The evidence of that first night of assault and what his body endured as he lay there, weakened by pain, loss of blood and the poacher’s drugs, was astounding. It could never be ascertained how long he has been in that position against his left side with his back leg under the weight of his body, so we never knew the exact extent of his injuries. Our normal options to x-ray or scan his body, as we would a smaller animal or pet, simply were not available to us given the size of him. We did our best to use conventional tests on bloods cells and serum to try and get an indication of the extent and progress of conditions not visible from the outside. But the harsh truth of it all, is that Themba’s injuries we far more extensive and far more severe than any of these indicators were able to tell us.

Not only was his bad leg severely damaged by the absence of life giving blood on that first night, he also had extensive damage to the muscles down the left side of his rib cage (intercostals) as well as muscle damage into his left front leg (pectoral muscle groups). The fact that he was able to move as well as he did in the front part of his body is a testimony to the resilience of this rhino. What the post mortem has revealed is that he would never have regained adequate use of his leg and in my mind, with this information now at hand, I now know that his passing was a blessing.

We buried him where he lay and as the ground proudly accepted him back, he took with him the tension that had become a part of that beautiful valley for the past 24 days.

This ordeal he has endured, set in motion by the senseless greed of men who know nothing of their suffering and probably don’t care, this fight which has revealed to us a will to survive beyond our previous comprehension, this tragedy which has captured the hearts of so many; what will his story teach us? What will Themba’s legacy be?

Does that will to survive not tell us the story of his ancestors, who survived when hundreds of thousands of others didn’t? Does his ability to hide such extensive injuries not tell us of a species who have been through the worst of what man and nature could throw at them and made it? Is his story not entwined with other stories that tell of the good side of man, which show that when we do care enough, we do have the ability to bring species like this back from the brink? Themba fought with such bravery to overcome that which the poachers stole from him. Kariega stood with him and gave him the best chance that they could offer him. Many others poured their time and assistance in helping us be the best we could be for him, and still we failed. Still I failed.

The past day’s events have taken me to the lowest point of my battle to help save a species. I know many others feel the same. What we do now is the true test of our resolve to overcome the evil that threatens to overwhelm the worlds remaining rhino. Our ability to act, to actually do something to make a difference, will be the measure of who we are.

On Day 14 I wrote, “Themba and Thandi, surrounded by all we value in nature, live on as icons of animal suffering and the determination to survive. They stand guard at the gate, one strong and one weak, that will lead to the demise of thousands more species because of our apathy. They are adopted, as champions of a cause which goes far beyond “Saving the Rhino” because if we don’t save the Rhino, who move us to this extent, what hope do we have of saving the rest.”

Even though Themba’s life is ended, he has moved us and his legacy lives on. From now on we focus all our treatment efforts on Thandi, even more determined to keep searching for ways to do better for rhino than what we currently can. The legacy of Themba, and all he has taught us, remains at the gate, with Thandi, reminding us of our shortcomings, motivating us to do more, so much more. My promise to him was that I will do everything that I possibly can to make every single day that he suffered count.

I gave two talks to schools today one at Kingwood College and one at St Andrews Prep. Over 600 school children who face the very real possibility of their adult lives devoid of rhino. These young lives are hungry to help save this species and what a powerful force they could be. After the second talk the boys of St Andrews Prep placed out almost 900 crosses along the side of the busy road which passes the school. Each cross representing a rhino killed by poachers since the beginning of 2010. Themba who has carried the heaviest of crosses, is represented there with so many others in the killing fields, a symbol of our shame, an icon of their struggle, an ambassador who now has the freedom to take their story around the world…with your help. Will Fowlds

Previous update:
Kariega update Sat 24th March 5pm
I went to Kariega today convinced that I was going to have to put Themba to
sleep. The first report for the day, was not good, as he didn’t start today
off very alert. Yesterdays situation combined with this news added up to
only one thing. So with much trepidation I approached the reserve knowing
that unless his circumstances changed my mind, euthanasia was not going to
be avoided. By the time I had got there he had perked up and seemed no
different to what he had been for the past 4 days. He passed more loose dung
overnight which is not good but he did do a bit of grazing during the two
hours of deliberation I spent with him.

The lab finally received the blood samples from 4 days back and they ran
them onto their analysers immediately and let me know straight away, which
was such a help. I consulted with Prof Reyers who has been assisting with
the interpretation of the blood tests and of so much benefit when there are
elements of doubt creeping into this case. Clinically he has deteriorated
since these samples were taken so any sign of a marked deterioration in the
major indicators, compared to the week before that, would have confirmed
the worst for me. Surprisingly, although many indicators are still very
worrying, there were signs of some improvement in his liver circumstances,
his kidneys showed a very mild deterioration but these were only
fractionally over normal limits before. His indicators of inflammation do
show a shift some up and some down but there was still regeneration of these
cells indicating that his bone marrow was still functioning. The most
concerning indicators were that his protein levels have been dropping and
there are indicators of dehydration although mild. The conclusion was that
there are not indicators of major system collapse or organ failure. Four
days old, but positive.

I then approached Themba on foot to guage his levels of alertness and went
in very close on purpose to force him to use his leg. His temperament is
still encouraging in that he is responsive and while I was close to him he
took a few mouthfuls of food. The use of his leg remains the same as he can
hardly take any weight on it. The discharge from his leg has improved mildly
over the past 2 days and is more bloody than before. With this information I
decided to immobilised him with a very low dose of anaesthetic. The final
barrier for me was to do a quick evaluation of his leg which, to my great
relief, hadn’t got any worse since I was last in there. The decision to
delay his euthanasia was made. We kept him down just long enough to give him
a full spectrum of injections before waking him up. He recovered well and
has taken a few mouthfuls of food since.

This is such a tough call to make and I am sure that many will question my
judgement given 23 days of struggle for him. I am comfortable that full
consideration to all circumstances have taken us this far and consultation
with other veterinary experts has given some guidance from outside of his
case. Should I have to go back on this decision and put him down tomorrow or
later, we will all look back and know that I have made the wrong call. For
now, without the benefit of that hindsight, he lives to fight another day.
Will fowlds