Daily Mail, Saturday, August 17, 2019 Page 11The mum with TWO
Well, actually a whole troop
of orphaned baboons. And
here, former London banker
Samantha tells how she
swapped the City for the
savannah and found love, too!
Family tree: Samantha with partner Stephen, Sophia and two friendsCheeky
mOnkeys
Rita’s house which was also the
hub of the centre.
‘My orphaned baby baboons
were sleeping on the ground floor
of the house and Rita was asleep
on the upper floor,’ says Saman-
tha. ‘We all ran down the hill.
Stephen ran through the house
but the flames were too much. He
just couldn’t get to the upper
floor, which was thatched, where
Rita slept with Bobby, the first-
ever baboon she’d rescued.
‘I managed to grab my babies
from the lower level and a vet who
was with us salvaged some medi-
cation. Two fire crews arrived but
they couldn’t save Rita. She died,
aged 81, in the fire along with her
beloved Bobby. All the upper
floors of the building werecompletely destroyed. The clinic,
office and kitchen were ruined.’
Rita, who founded C.A.R.E. in
1989 on her 32-acre farm on the
edge of the Kruger National Park
after her daughter and husband
died in a plane crash, had been its
only leader.
Now she was gone, Samantha
and Stephen, who has a degree in
animal welfare, decided to step in
and take her role. The rebuilding
of the centre has been slow
and painstaking.
‘But there was no going back
after Rita died,’ says Samantha.
‘We couldn’t let the work of
C.A.R.E. stop. We couldn’t see it
close down.’
Sophia was born in England,
and two months later, Samanthawas on a plane with her healthy,
sweet-faced newborn, going back
to South Africa. ‘Suddenly I had
this teeny-weeny child,’ she
remembers. ‘I had no idea of the
impact she’d make on our lives,
but somehow we made it all fit.’
Next year, Sophia will start
school. The two round trips will
take four hours out of Samantha’s
day, but she will drive through the
savannah with its spectacular
wildlife, her own daily safari.
‘People think we’re a bit crazy to
live here,’ she says. ‘And we are!
But it’s a stunning place. And
baboons are incredible animals.
They steal your heart.’
n To volunteer with CARE or
donate, go to primatecare.org