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Published: December 18th 2005
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shadows
Shadows from the truck and beacon rock The last month has been wonderful, living away from cities and shops in a bush camp near Hoedspruit in the Lowveld. I was taking a course, run by
EcoTraining , to study the skills needed to be a safari guide.
My trip started ominously when firstly the taxi to Cape Town airport broke down and then South African Airlines left my bag in Johannesburg. The taxi driver hitched me a lift in a passing truck to the airport and I had to do a bit of emergency shopping (shorts, t-shirt and toothbrush) in Hoedspruit before transferring to the camp at Karongwe Reserve about 40 minutes drive out of town.
The first evening 17 students and 2 trainers (Rob and Andy) sat around the camp fire to get to know each other. We were joined for a while by two of the reserve elephants, Flippy and Fumbe, who wandered through trying to get a drink from the camps water tank and were duly chased off with well aimed stones. One of the first things we got to know was that after dark we would need an armed excort to our tents in case of elephants, lions or snakes. Where we ready
inchworm
Some of the biggest annoyances in camp were the insects. These inchworms were crawling everywhere for a few days, over the tables, chairs, us and in the tents. for this? ...
However the tents were comfortable (and far bigger than my overland tent) so I slept like a log and was ready for the 5am wake up call!
The format to each day was:
- 5am Wake up (4.30 if you were on duty for the day)
- 5.30am Morning walk or game drive
- 9am Breakfast
- 11am Lecture
- 3.30pm Afternoon tea
- 4pm Evening walk or game drive
- 8pm Dinner
The 17 of us were divided into two groups and we alternated walks and guides so that we got a variety of training and activities. During the middle of the day was our free time when we could sleep, read, study, swim in the river, play table tennis, or play UNO, which became very addictive.
The Karongwe is a small (9000 ha) reserve between the Drakensberg mountains and Kruger national park. It has 4 of the 'Big 5', lion. leopard, elephant and white rhino on the reserve and a buffalo breeding area in the north to make it all 5. We found that it was also an amazing birding area and I logged up over 100 species during the month.
The course was tremendously varied,
hyena
These hyena pups were playing around the truck. although I found learning to identify 40 species of tree was not my strength. We learnt to identify the mammals on the reserve and about their behaviour and characteristics. This was so different to a normal safari where you perhaps spend 10 minutes with an animal before driving on to let another vehicle in on the sighting. Here we could spend and hour watching the lions at a kill, the hyena cubs and mother at their den or the elephants eating or interacting. We would sometimes sit at one of the waterholes and watch the birds, spot lizards, identify trees or plants and try to listen and identify bird calls.
We learnt a great deal about the bush from Rob and Andy. The timboti tree that is deadly poisonous if burnt but can be used to cauterize a tooth nerve. The difference between elephant and rhino poo. What you should do if you are charged by a lion, a hippo, a rhino or a leopard. How dwarf mongoose and yellow-billed hornbills hunt together. and much more...
There were so many amazing experiences during the month it is difficult to write about them all. The highlights for me were:
elephants
Flippy and MrM just before they decided to include us in their games. walking through the bush tracking elephants and lion on foot, being on the tracker seat on the bonnet of the 4x4 a few metres away from a lioness or a rhino; driving the 4x4 through Spectre river crossing and not getting stuck (we had to push it on several other occasions), learning to shoot a rifle in case of attack (although I doubt any of us were proficient enough to hit anything in an emergency).
Watching the elephants was fascinating. There were 3 bull elephants that regularly appeared, Flippy, Mr M and Fumbe who was the most tempremental. On one afternoon drive we kept coming across the two elephants and Michelle, who was driving, had learnt to turn the 4x4 as necessary if we needed a quick escape route but then to wait and watch the elephants as they approached. They had been eating and sparring or play fighting every time we saw them. Then we had an amazing veiw of them pushing and shoving each other in Spectre Dam. Lots of noise and mock charges and trunk wressling. They continued to fight as they eventually came out of the waterhole and Rob calmly suggested that Mich should move
storm
Storm approaching our sleep out camp the vehicle ahead of them so they did not cut off our escape route. This she did but just as we moved off they increased speed and decide to include us in their game. "Go, go, go!", Rob instructed, Michelle escalated away, Mel held on tightly to the tracker seat and we passed a few yards in front of Mr M as ran towards us. 200 metres farther on Michelle stopped thinking we were out of the way and we all collapsed laughing, when from behind her I saw Flippy emerge from the bush on the other side. "Go, go, go!" Rob yelled again, but this time for a moment Michelle thought he was having fun, so by the time she realised it was for real several tons of grey flesh was only 5 metres away. The car gunned off again and didn't stop for some time.
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