Monday started off a little different from usual. The rifle group had a lie in and study session while us trackers finished our practical assessment on the reserve due to the rain on Saturday. I felt a lot more confident with how this session went, only getting two wrong. We were so relieved to have finished the assessment, we came back to campus and awaited our results. The best news was that everyone achieved a Level, and two of us got a Level 3, myself included! Colin told me that had I not got the ants’ nest wrong I would have achieved higher than the 93% I got, but I was unbelievably happy anyway, so I’ll leave that for something to work on in the future. I am now officially a Level 3 tracker, I can’t believe it! My love for tracking has definitely grown and I’m constantly trying to practice to improve my skills. Look out Professional Level 4, I’m coming for you!
The afternoon we had an interesting lecture on Arthropods given by Vaughan. For myself and Ryan this was mostly a recap of the things we learnt at university, but it was great to refresh our memory and apply our knowledge to South African species. The more I learn about the awesome species here the more I’m interested, though don’t expect me to turn into an entomologist!
Tuesday morning, we had a lecture on ecology from Gerhard, which again was a recap of our university work but applied to South African ecosystems.
We then started our individual drives in the afternoon. We now have to conduct the entire drive ourselves including briefings and radio usage as if we were taking paying guests, so it’s a great chance to get us used to guiding and practice for our assessments. Becka went first and did a fantastic job, she really set the bar for the rest of us, especially because she did such a good job of driving the old Land Rover which threw a few problems her way. She also took us to a fantastic sighting of some young male lions walking along the fence line, though sadly it was too dark to get any decent photos. It’s pretty amazing to see them like this as most of the time you’ll just see them lying down like other cats.
For us keen photographers, Wednesday was a good day. For those who aren’t really interested, sorry! We had a wildlife photography workshop from Vaughan who briefly explained the basics of photography and editing in Lightroom. He set us a challenge to take five photos between 4-6pm in different styles. They had to be one of each of abstract, a bird or mammal, macro, landscape, and a panning photo. This was a great exercise to get us thinking about how we want to create our image rather than just pointing and shooting. It was a tricky time of day as well due to the heat and most animals not yet being active. Most of us managed to get some great shots though, and I’m pretty happy with mine given the time frame, even if they’re not perfect.
After all of the rain in the previous week, this one turned out to be a scorcher. Thursday was a beautiful day but was roasting, not quite the weather you want when you’re doing reserve work. We started early in the morning and split up into groups to clear bush that was encroaching on the main road through Makalali. Cutting down trees is hard work at the best of times, but when a lot of them are trying to kill you with thorns and spines it becomes ten times harder. I ended up getting stuck in a blue thorn (Senegalia erubescens) for around 10 minutes while Megan had to slowly extract me from hooked thorns and everyone else looked on laughing. We ended up working really hard and cleared a good section of the road before having brunch in the bush by White Dam. Poor Matt got really sunburnt though, despite using almost an entire bottle of suncream! I think he’s the first South African I’ve met who burns more easily than me with my British skin. After all of our hard work, we got back to camp and had a well-deserved relaxing afternoon in the pool and catching up with some studying.
Another four of us did our practical drives on Friday, with me going in the afternoon. I was actually pretty happy with how it went, making sure I tried to include a lot of facts and describing the behaviour of the animals as we drove. The one thing I know I need to improve on is my radio use (I forget!) and my botany. I want to start planning my assessment route and practicing it now for when the time comes so I know the basic things that I can include such as trees and plants. Overall though, I felt like I made a good start and identified what I can do better.
On Saturday morning we all did our mammal presentations that we had been preparing for the last few weeks. Mine was on eland which is a pretty impressive antelope – the largest in the world. We all did really well considering some people were not comfortable with public speaking, but there was some really valuable and interesting information that we gained from listening to each other. We were all glad when it was finished though!
The weekend was a relatively quiet one for us as no one went to party at Mahlahla. Instead, there was lots of studying and catching up on all-important sleep!
I can’t believe how quickly this semester is going already, we’re halfway through! It’s absolutely storming by and we’re starting to get into the practical application of our knowledge a bit more. We’ve still got some exciting things to learn in the next few weeks though, so it’s time to knuckle down!
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