News
Update from January 2004
There were unfortunately only 6 students on this course. It was interesting
in that half were locals and half from outside SA, and the sexes were
split evenly too. The guys came under a lot of competition and to be
fair they lost hands down to the girls. 3 of the students passed the
Antares course although 5 of them went on to pass their FGASA exam at
the end of the course. Congratulations to those 5.
There was a noticeable lack of Large Game seen during this course. The rains had arrived and the veldt was looking much better. The general game all had their young and we saw the baby zebras and wildebeest on occasions as well as some late arrivals among the impala. However with the new growth on the trees the elephants went back to their summer feeding grounds and we only heard the odd report of them elsewhere on the reserve.
However the lack of Large Game was made up for in more than adequate quantities of insects, spiders, frogs and all the smaller things that we so often take for granted in the bush.
The highlight of the course undoubtedly was again the week at the end where we once again visited the Letaba ranch. We booked into the Ivory Trail camp, Mtomeni, again and everyone was thankful for the tents as on the Tuesday we had a downpour that most people rarely get to encounter. The river rose by about 8 feet overnight and we were stranded in the reserve. The exit roads were totally flooded and thankfully we were only due to depart on the Thursday by which time the waters had receded.
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We managed to get out and about on the Wednesday using the smaller roads around the reserve but we found these all flooded and the small tributaries were all flowing. It all made for a memorable experience for the students and gave them an introduction into how to deal with difficult driving conditions. At one point we had all the students out of the vehicle and pushing so that we could cross the river. We had also been asked by the local bird club to do a survey during our stay and we managed to count 135 different species without too much effort. Some of the students were more interested in relaxing on the back of the vehicle and enjoying the game drive, rather than actively birding, but we all enjoyed it. We made up for the lack of Large Game earlier in the course by spotting Elephant, White Rhino and Buffalo during our 4 days as well as many other species.
The largest disappointment came on our return to camp on the Thursday when our staff informed us that a pride of 8 lion had taken up residence at the waterhole from the Monday until Thursday morning. We were convinced that they must have had a kill somewhere in the area to have spent so long in one area. Anyway we only got to see their tracks, but it will be something for future students to keep a watch for.