News Update from January 2007
We started off 2007 with 6 students, 3 from the UK and 3 local students. 4 of the 6 passed the course. This group was generally much younger than other courses with the oldest student being 29.
The weather was very hot for the most part of the course and we had little rain. The prospects for an easy winter are ominous as we seem to be heading into another drought stricken year. The first couple of weeks of the course saw many elephants, several bulls as well as a couple of herds visiting the waterhole. Their unquenchable thirst put great pressure on the waterhole and there were times when we battled to keep it filled up. The last 2 weeks of the course also proved to be disastrous for the waterhole, in that the borehole pump packed up and it took 2 weeks to get a replacement pump installed. The end result was that the waterhole has since dried up completely and the fish have all died off. Maybe this will be an opportunity to rest the veld in the area as we will probably leave the waterhole empty for a couple of months now. Once we refill it we will restock with more fish and hope to get the ecosystem restored again.
The large elephant herds that we have experienced for the past 6 months have dispersed now and we just have the occasional bulls coming through. I am sure they will be back as always once winter comes and the animals come in search of the longer lasting Mopane leaves. The wildebeest herd has done very well this year with some 22 calves having been seen in the past week. There have also been reports of at least 4 zebra foals. I am sure this will soon attract the predators back to this side of the reserve.
We were lucky enough to track down a pride of 5 lions one evening which was a highlight for the students. Unfortunately they were a little shy and soon headed off into the darkness and we had to leave them alone. The students were given a fright on the way home afterwards as we went past 2 elephants in quick succession standing on the side of the road. The second one trumpeted his annoyance at having been disturbed and the students on his side of the vehicle found themselves shifted a couple of feet sideways and with their heart racing somewhat.
The First Aid section of the course saw us make use of a new provider and the results were far more satisfactory. The scenario on the last day saw the students have to recover a motor vehicle crash victim about 1 km away from camp and bring them back on a spineboard. The whole exercise was very realistic and it made everyone, myself included, appreciate the difficulties that one may eventually be exposed to.
As can be expected at this time of the year we also had a few snakes to look at, ranging from cobras to pythons. The one student was a fanatic on reptiles and he felt in his element whenever we came across one. For me the real prize was have rescued a 2m python from one of the other lodges on the reserve and releasing it at the centre where we hope it will stay. Sadly there are still many people who would gladly destroy a snake than have it removed. Fortunately in this case the owners were one of the few that contacted me and asked me to remove it.
The Kruger trip went off well, although the first night had myself and Mel worrying a little. The wind got up and we had these visions of a repeat performance from the previous course. We even tied the tent to the landrover to give it extra support. Gladly the wind eventually abated and we were able to enjoy the rest of the week with no further incidents. Although we saw no cats we did enjoy some excellent birding with some rare species being seen along with a number of elephants.
All in all I think the course was a great success and the students all went away agreeing that they had learnt a great deal about the bush and felt better equipped to answer any future questions a guest may send their way. I wish them all well in their quest for work, and for those that were doing the course for their own benefit, may you enjoy the results of your hard work as you travel through Africa enjoying the splendours of nature.