Help out as a horse trail guide in the mountains of the Garden Route, South Africa

Details

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  Description

  My name is Lyndsay with my husband Stephan and our two children Jazper (12) & Tabitha (10) live on a small holding against the mountains and forests and run our horse trail riding business.
  
  Our days are filled with horses, animals, tourists and running our businesses, a trail riding business, a restaurant and coffee shop, rental cottage and a little coffee shop on the farm for guests.
  
  Our area the Garden Route is very well known for it's natural beauty with abundant forests, mountains, beaches fun activities and seasonal tourists. Our high season is December and January when its extremely busy. May is our quietest month of the year and the rest of the year is moderate going up and down depending on school holidays and tourism.
  
  We are looking for special people from around the globe to be apart of our family and business for an extended moment in all of our lives. We have been enjoying our workawayers for 8 years now so are not new to the concept of trading our time and energy for yours. We have 6 dogs and chickens, sheep, alpacas and cats between us.
  
  What you need to have is tons of experience with horses. There more the better. Please do not apply if you are not an exceptionally experienced rider as we really need our horses and clients to be in capable hands and need to trust the person out on our horse alone in the mountains and forests with tourists . It would be great if you had experience in schooling and longing so the horses get some good extra work in.
  
  The training we put into you is pretty intense and time consuming for us so we prefer stays of a minimum of 2 months so you can get to the point of helping us after training, otherwise it ends up being too one sided.
  
  Our kids also like to interact with our workawayers so it is important that you enjoy kids and make them apart of your life here. They will be almost as much a part of your life as the animals.
  
  We are asking for 5 hours a day 5x a week but would appreciate flexibility as ride bookings can be unpredictable.
  
  We eat very basic food which we provide. If you have any specific dietary preferences then please provide your own food. I found from many previous experiences that its much easier for you to buy your own and eat what you like if you have particular taste. We are home most evenings so you are welcome to join us at the table and share a meal with us as obviously we want to spend time with you too. But breakfast and lunch is erratic here so you help yourself at those times.
  
  
  On your days and afternoons off you can either chill on the farm or go hiking, beaching, shopping, eating, riding (If horses no too tired) or whatever you like. Previous volunteers that hired a car found it easier to travel around.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Hospitality/Tourism

  General Maintenance
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Stephan is Afrikaans and I'm English speaking. We live in a very multicultural part of the world.

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  Help

  We are looking for experienced horsey, animal loving people to assist us in our trail riding business. Please remember this is just as much about the clients as it is about the

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  Languages spoken

  Afrikaans: Fluent
  English: Fluent

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  Accommodation

  We have a external cottage with 2 single beds, separate bathroom and kitchenette.
  
  You prepare your own food yourself in your cottage and most dinners are shared with the family. We would love a meal a week cooked by you for the family. Helping with cleaning up after meals is expected and you are responsible for cleaning up your own accommodation.

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  What else ...

  We have had quitea few volunteers and have enjoyed all of them so far, our area is filled with things to do. We work in Timberlake Village about 25km from our house so we drive in to work everyday and run the Restaurant and coffee shop.
  
  We have two very good surf spots and many walking trails into forests and to waterfalls. The Garden route where we live is a very popular tourist destination in South Africa and we get many foreign and local tourists visiting. It is therefore very seasonal. It is a very green forested area with pine plantations and beautiful indigenous forests. The beach is about 20km from where we live and 2km from the restaurant. Our area is very safe! We live a very free and relaxed life style and can run, ride and walk around the forests very safely. The animals in our area include baboons (skittish wild ones so not aggressive ones), monkeys, wild bore, lots of bush buck, loads of birds, snakes, caracol and leopard.
  
  The town of Wilderness is small but nice with lots of restaurants and a few bars and shops. Our closest big town is George about 30km from our house where we do all our shopping. It has malls, a home affairs (For visa extensions) office, bus stations and an airport (In other words not deep dark Africa!)
  
  There are lovely day trips that we take our volunteers on. We go to nearby towns and beaches which are very beautiful. We include our workawayers in most of our social occasions and try to make sure you get off the farm on your off days if you prefer. We also like to have two volunteers at a time if possible so you have company and a partner to be productive with. There is a local care hire place in Sedgefield, a neighbouring town which rents out cars for R300 a day. we advise volunteers to consider this option for days off to make exploring easier.
  
  
  
  We are looking forward to meeting you!

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Space for parking camper vans

  This host can provide space for campervans.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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  Hours expected

  25 hours a week

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