News
Update from March 2004
There were 6 students again on this course, varying in ages from school
leavers to 40-something. They all made it through the course successfully
but the one student however did not manage to get through the FGASA
exam at the end of the course.
The game viewing throughout the course was indifferent. We had no sightings of any of the "Big 5" animals except for the back of an elephant disappearing into the bush during the final week. However the students had good sightings of general game on regular occasions including visiting porcupines at night. Some of them made up for their lack of large game on Grietjie by visiting the Kruger Park for a weekend and coming face to face with a large bull elephant in musth, and with nowhere to drive as they were trapped in a cul-de-sac. After a few shaking knees and some choice words, they were able to get out of their predicament and arrived safely back at Antares.
We had one day on the course when we visited Otter's Den, about an hours drive away, and had a whole morning being taught about freshwater ecology and searching for various invertebrates in the Blyde River. The students seemed to enjoy the experience, and other trips similar to this may be planned for the future.
One other highlight was going out one evening to look for a leopard that had killed a bushbuck in the morning. Unfortunately we were not able to see anything due to the dense bush and inaccessibility of the site, but we did hear the leopard eating on the carcass at least. We went back the next day but a crocodile had come and stolen the kill and so the leopard had moved off.
As always the sleep out at the end of the course was great fun. This course we went back to the Timbavati Reserve where we slept out under the stars again. The last night was spent sleeping in a hide overlooking a dam but unfortunately nothing showed up. To many of the students one of the most memorable aspects of the sleep out was that they had forgotten to pack all the cutlery and so for the first afternoon everyone spent time carving their own knives and spoons from pieces of wood. The different styles left something to be desired but it created some good team spirit and a lot of fun. Who knows maybe we should do this as a regular exercise in the future!!
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Spoons
in the making
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Comparing
results over dinner
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