Graduation
- Georgie Hall
- Jun 23, 2019
- 7 min read
So the last blog post was a loooooooooong time ago and a lot has happened since then... we are now fully qualified guides and back-up or "Apprentice" trails guides! We have also graduated Bushwise and moved on to our placement - African Impact. More about all of this later!
Since the last update, we completed our FGASA theory exam, our practical drive assessment, Advanced Rifle Handling (ARH), Back-up Trail Guiding exam, and our Back-up Trails practical exam! Ryan did particularly well as he nailed the ARH the first time around and got a near perfect score, winning a bet against Tyron who is an established hunter. He also had a leopard walk right in front on him on his assessment drive, and has now been dubbed as lucky with awesome sightings pretty much every drive since then!
I also got my ARH after a couple of attempts (thank you Trevor!) which meant both of us could be assessed to be a Back-up Trails Guide or 'Apprentice Trails Guide' as it is now called. So once we'd passed all of our exams at Bushwise, we headed off to do trails in the Timbavati, but not before we had a big celebration with the Bushwise awards ceremony at Mahlala!
The night started off with the prize giving, with both Ryan and I achieving our Bushwise certificate, birding specialist certificate, and social media certificate. Then to the exciting part, I got the Top Achiever certificate and Ryan got the best certificate of all... the Dung Beetle Award! This award is for the person who basically talks the most and causes the most 'kak' or is just generally the one who is silly and makes everyone laugh. It's everyone's favourite award so we had a great laugh about it.
The rest of the night was filled with lots of pool, music, dancing, and of course alcohol. Unfortunately for me, shot happy hour started at 7pm and I don't remember much after that which is disappointing considering how hilarious some of the videos were from after that time! We had great fun though, and a few tears were shed knowing that this was the last time we'd all celebrate together as students and staff.
After a very lazy and hungover weekend, we packed the last 6 months of our lives up and headed to the Timbavati to go walking for two weeks. For those who don't know, usually a safari is conducted in a vehicle and is pretty relaxing for the guests. In contrast, a walking safari is obviously more strenuous but gives you a very different perspective of the bush and the animals you may encounter. You also have the opportunity to learn about the small stuff that you may not necessarily look at whilst on a vehicle and you often feel more connected to the bush around you.
Any guide has the responsibility of their guests' experience and safety resting on their shoulders when they are out in the bush, but especially so if they are a trails guide. You have to become much more aware of your surroundings and almost hypersensitive to the slightest noise, smell, or any number of other factors. Viewing animals is obviously the goal for guests, but for the guide it is to ensure that all encounters are ethical, safe, and informative for both animals and the guests. There's a lot of things to be constantly aware of, especially the direction you're travelling as we found out! And these numerous factors all need to be considered whilst carrying a rifle and ensuring you never have to use it!
The course consisted of three nights spent on a 'primitive' trail, meaning no tents or camp. We walked to find a camp at the end of the day and brought all of our food with us and luckily there were water stops along the way. Each night we had to find our own wood and make a very small fire, taking care not to cause too much destruction to our surroundings. The first night we had a brilliant surprise whilst we were making fire by rubbing sticks (very hard to do!) when six white rhino wandered towards us in camp and came back again later in the night. How cool! I think a particular highlight for myself though was when we saw a small lion cub and a female fairly close by, but little did we know that there were actually four females and 10 lion cubs! Sadly, I didn't take many photos during the course as there was no electricity to charge my phone and I didn't want to risk damaging my camera.
Over the two weeks we spent with Lowveld Trails, we learned so many different techniques and rules for how to guide on foot and had some great encounters with lions, elephant, rhino, and buffalo. Although a tough few weeks, the lessons were learnt are invaluable and will not only aid us in our future trails guiding, but in our vehicle-based guiding careers as well.
Once we'd finished Lowveld Trails, we then had one last night left at Bushwise campus before we all went to our placements or home early the next morning. As you can imagine, a fair few beers were consumed and there was lots of singing and dancing to celebrate our time together. The goodbyes were hard and emotional but I know I'll be seeing most people again as soon as possible. I love the Bushwise family I have become a part of and I've made friends and family for life.
So from Bushwise we began the second half of our adventure at African Impact. We had a very relaxing day but were a bit nervous about all of the new stuff we needed to learn and adapt to. It's the busy season here and we will be working whilst they're at full capacity, so it will be a case of getting thrown in at the deep end which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
We are now one week in to our placement and so far is has been incredible. We've more or less got the hang of our duties and are starting to find our way around the various reserves that we will be working in. We've been on game drives, bush walks around the lodge, town trips, and sleep outs in Balule which borders Kruger. Funnily enough, the area we are working in in Balule is the same area that we studied in while we were doing the first year of IWB at university! So luckily the area and roads are familiar, but it's very strange now working in the same place that we studied.
The highlight of the week so far for me was a night drive in one of our local reserves, Buffaloland. It was my first game drive and I was being accompanied by Devon, another fairly new guide and who, like me, has no sense of direction. We found our way for most of the drive and were almost at the gate and ready to leave the reserve when we get a call over the radio that Ryan (lucky as ever) had a small female leopard walk right next to his vehicle. He wasn't too far away from us so I handed the map over to Devon and drove us there as quickly as possible. She was also moving quickly as she was scent marking her territory so she often disappeared from view. We caught up with Matt and did separate loops to locate her, when another vehicle from the reserve's lodge joined the hunt and managed to find her. Matt knows the reserve much better than Devon and I so he caught up fairly quickly and managed to get a good sighting. We, however, were a little clueless about where we were and when it's dark it's even harder to work out which road you need to take.
Eventually, we caught up to Matt who had lost sight of her and parked in a position where we hoped we'd get a gloms of her crossing the road. After about five minutes of waiting, Matt headed back to the gate as they had already had their leopard sighting. We were now the only vehicle who hadn't seen her and we couldn't go back empty handed. Five more minutes later and our patience was rewarded as she walked across the road about 20m in front of us. She was absolutely beautiful but very small, and was identified as a small 18 month old female from the neighbouring reserve, Kapama.
Spurred on by our sighting, we followed her down the road where she moved off into the bushes. I predicted her next movements and continued on the road until I found a clearing where I hoped she would emerge. Low and behold, a few minutes later she exits the tree line and scent marks a tree before continuing on down the road in front of us. What an incredible sighting! My second leopard of the year and the best encounter I have ever had with one. Again, I didn't get any pictures as I was focusing on trying to find her and navigate my way around a new reserve, but next time I'll definitely get a few snaps. Hopefully we'll see her again soon!
The rest of the week has been great fun teaching the volunteers about different animals, lots of tracks, birds, astronomy, and a whole host of other things. It's great to see their enthusiasm and how much knowledge they are gaining and reciting back to us.
Now that we're all settled in and new volunteers have arrived, the lodge is at full capacity with 60 or so volunteers. This means that next week all of us Bushwise students will be carrying out the activities on our on and somehow need to not get lost! Although it's a daunting task, I'm excited to get going on my own and see how my style, knowledge, and familiarity with the areas develop. I'll try to keep a weekly blog maintained once more, but if it's not quite on time it's probably because I'm pooped! Let's see what the next chapter has in store for us.
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