Do it

On your gap year/career break

This section offers advice on how to make your gap year go smoothly, by:

• keeping in touch with friends and family through an interactive online journal

• preparing you for the possibility of culture shock when you arrive

• explaining the importance of a local Agent/Representative to assist you

Darting a cheetah - a day I’ll never forget!

I will never forget the day when we darted a cheetah who had escaped into the next farm and bought her back. We had to get the vet in and I was able to go in the helicopter to try and locate her. It had no doors and the views were awesome. I managed to spot her running below us with a cub in her mouth. It then turned out that there were even more cubs, about four. When it was time to dart the mother I was on ground patrol in the landrover following the chopper. We put the cheetah in the back of the vehicle once she had been darted. I helped keep her eyes from getting dry by placing my cap over them. When we got back to the house I helped the vet hydrate her by pouring game (a type of lucozade) down her throat which was awesome. I then helped pick her up and take her to an area where she could recover and even helped bottle feed the cubs until she came around. A day I’ll never forget!

Lucy Harper, 2009, on a conservation project with African Conservation Experience

• Interactive online journal
• Culture shock
• Agents