Mock drives

As usual, Monday morning started with our last module tests! But luckily for us, Gerhard forgot to create the slides and sounds test so we got off lightly! Our mock drives started again in the afternoon, so it was fair to say we had a stressful week again of us to start us off.

Tuesday morning Sharin gave us a lecture on what to expect in the guiding industry which I think we were all grateful for before going out on our placements. We then waited for our wine tasting which started at 12pm. This came and went with no sign of any wine so of course we started wondering what was happening. It turns out that the wine guy was stuck in protests on the main road heading in our direction, so we had to reschedule for next Monday instead, much to our disappointment. The rest of the day was therefore full of studying and was much needed!

It was an exciting day for a few of us on Wednesday morning as we were heading off to our placement interviews. Ryan, myself, and Jack headed to African Impact (AI) while Gabe and Becka went to Bundox, a company I know after previously doing a course with them. I knew Gabe and Becka would love it there and smash their interview, but we were nervous about how things would go at AI. Thankfully we had nothing to worry about as Stacey made us feel so welcome and we had a great chat and tour around the place, they even gave us lunch! Later in the week we heard the fantastic news that they would be happy to have us on our placement so of course we were thrilled!

The rest of the week continued with mock drives and placement interviews, which everyone did brilliantly in. My mock drive was on Friday morning and was the first time I’ve done my full assessment route. I was really pleased with the way it went and know there are still areas I can improve upon, but I was a little over the time allocated so I need to factor that in as the next drives we’ll be doing are the assessment drives, eek!

The favourite drive of the week, however, was definitely Tyron’s as we sat in the middle of a large herd of elephants that came so close! He did a fantastic job of keeping his cool for the first time being in a situation like that!

We couldn’t rest even after we’d finished mock drives as Saturday morning we had the big practical test on mammals, arthropods, amphibians, fish, and reptiles. I think we were all fairly happy with how it went, with just a few tricky questions being thrown in.

We now only have three more tests to go before our FGASA exam – bird identification and sounds on Monday, practical observations on Wednesday morning, and the radio practical on Wednesday afternoon. It’s going to be pretty full on so I’m sure the blogs won’t be quite so entertaining, but there’s still a few fun things to come!

P.S. I've tried to post this blog with photos for over a week but the WiFi just isn't good enough, sorry!