News Update from November 2003

This course went very well again and 7 out of the 8 students passed. Yet again some of the students went on to write the FGASA exams. Unfortunately for those 7 students they will have to wait until the New Year since the exams were not able to be marked due to the Christmas break being on us already.

This course was made up of 5 South Africans, and the rest were from Ireland, Australia and Mauritius. This was a fairly young group of students and many of them were interested in continuing with guiding as a career. For some of them it was their first ever visit to Africa and they appeared to enjoy the experience.

Unfortunately the course was disrupted slightly at the start in that the game viewing vehicle only returned to the centre halfway through the course and I had several visits to the dentist. However the students used the time wisely in studying for their various presentations that are set as well as revising for weekly exams.

We were quite fortunate on this course in that John and Peter were both very willing guinea pigs and we were able to demonstrate almost anything we wanted to. I think the one day that most of the students will remember was when the two of them volunteered to be stung by Poison Ivy and then treated using the inner bark of a nearby Marula tree. After much agony, and amusement to all the other students, the effects of the bark took over and the two brothers were unharmed. There were many other times that we able to call on them during the course to demonstrate other things.

One of the favourite activities during the course was our visit to the Swadini Reptile Park followed by a trip to Moholoholo Rehab. Centre. This gave the students a fantastic opportunity to get close up and personal with some of the birds and other animals they had been learning about. For some this trip was even more of a challenge in that some of the students had a fear of snakes or spiders and they had to overcome these for the day.

Now that summer was with us, there were in fact many encounters with snakes in and around the centre. Peter had a close encounter with a puff adder while lying down on the ground to check his private car, all of us had close encounters with 3 different puff adders in one night as we went in search of frogs, and the real highlight was catching a large African Rock python that had regurgitated a fully grown bushbuck and appeared to have damaged its mouth in the process. The snake was sent through to Swadini for examination and treatment if required. Fortunately there was no major damage and the snake will soon be returned to where it was caught.

Although the game viewing was not at the same intensity as that of the previous course we did get to experience sightings of elephant and hippo on the reserve as well as witness a few young animals, now that the calving season is here. Unfortunately the drought continues to keep its stranglehold on the veldt and a few animals have succumbed to starvation. However for us there was a bonus since we could observe vultures feeding in a frenzy and then monitor the effects of the decomposers over the next week or so. Needless to say the stench from the rotting carcasses was almost too much for some of the students!

 

4x4 driving skills required at Letaba Ranch	November 2003 Group Photo

 

 

The sleep out under the stars took on a totally different dimension on this course. Unfortunately I had not been able to finalise a deal with Letaba Ranch to operate on their property. However we still made the trip to this reserve North of Phalaborwa and we stayed at Mtomeni tented camp along the banks of the Letaba River. This was a bit luxurious for the students and many of them said they would have preferred to have slept outside. The temperatures were exceptionally high reaching 44°C on the first and second day and I am sure that the students would have said the opposite if they had been camping outdoors. The game viewing to start with was a bit scarce but then on the second morning drive we were lucky enough to see 2 male lions, a leopard and some buffalo. We also saw several herds of impala and some giraffe and zebra and a lone elephant. There were lots of tracks from rhino and other elephant but we couldn't find them.

The open Game Viewing vehicle had been for a facelift since the last course and was now licensed and registered for use on the open road. This afforded us the opportunity to do more game drives than walks and so much of the time was spent driving around the reserve but this too had its moments. On the first morning the clutch broke and once we had limped back to camp, it was time to go into Phalaborwa (60kms away) and try and fix it. Thankfully it was only a broken pipe and this was soon repaired. Next to break was the idler jet and so for the next Iwo days it was a case of driving around and trying to keep the engine from stalling. Thankfully all is now repaired and the vehicle is up and running again.

Although the game viewing was sparse the students at least had an introduction into some severe 4x4 driving since the state of the roads in this reserve leave a lot to be desired and some are most definitely only accessible to 4x4 vehicles. All in all it was a great week and all the students benefited from the experience.

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