Day 9

Today I got up a bit earlier to go and shower and wash my hair. There was no water (something was leaking somewhere), so no shower. I had breakfast (cornflakes) and then it was time for the first lecture of the day – Introduction To Guiding. It was quite a broad lecture, covering topics like the legal requirements needed to guide, your role as a guide, skills needed, vehicle checks you should do every day, what to include in a pre-drive brief, off roading ethics, radio procedures and we began to learn the animals in Shangaan (the language spoken here). It was really interesting and good to now have some work to do (read the relevant chapters in the books and start to fill in our workbooks).

Next it was time to learn how to change the wheels of the 4 x 4. We had a demonstration first, and then it was time for brunch. Today we had bread rolls, chips, steak, sausages, salad and watermelon. After we’d all been fed and watered it was time for us to change the wheels. We split into three groups and off we went. The first step is to get the spare wheel and jack out of the car, then you have to jack the car up. It’s not the same as a normal car, you have to use a ‘high lift jack’. They are much bigger and heavier, more temperamental and just awkward to use. They can also be very dangerous, so we had to learn the safe ways to use it. Once the car was jacked up we could change the wheel. This isn’t really any different from a normal car, just that the wheel is bigger and heavier and harder to put back on. We all managed though.

Then we had a bit of a break, so most of us sat around the pool and started to fill in our workbooks.

I walked back down to our little cabin and sorted out what I needed to take for the game drive – camera, binoculars, water, etc. Then I went to the LSSD shop and bought a Mars Bar (called a Bar One over here) and some fanta. Then we sorted out our hot boxes (like a cool box but opposite – where you put tea, coffee, sugar, milk and hot water for use on the drink break) and then off we went.

I was in Vaughan’s group. We drove along the dirt road to the Reserve.

We saw so much, it was one of the best days ever! As we entered Makalali Game Reserve Vaughan gave us a quick safety brief and asked if we had any special requests of animals we wanted to see. I requested giraffe of course. The first thing we saw was wildebeest, followed closely by zebra (even a couple of babies), and then giraffe (more babies too). Next, we saw a hippo, just sitting there in the water hole quite happily. After that was saw some more giraffe and wildebeest and then impala. Then we saw more wildebeest (some babies too) and then more giraffe. Next we saw two really cute little tortoises and a squirrel as well. After this we saw a water buck. Then we stopped for a drinks break by the water hole. Then, just after sunset (behind a cloud) but before it got dark, we saw an elephant, he came so close and was so relaxed, it was such a beautiful experience.

We also saw loads of birds, some of them have such beautiful colouring. I can’t wait to really start learning everything.

Periodically throughout the drive Vaughan would point out different animal tracks to us and began to explain how we can tell them apart, the telltale signs etc.

We began to drive back to the entrance of the reserve (quite a long way) using the spotlight to try and look for more animals. You have to look out for the reflection of their eyes and the silhouette too. If the animals are diurnal you pretty much just ignore them so that the light doesn’t disturb them, but we did spot a couple of giraffe and some impala. If the animals are nocturnal, it’s ok to stay and look at them but not shine the light directly on them. We also saw loads of birds, a jackal in the middle of killing a scorpion and an African wild cat (they only saw one the whole of the last course).

We left the Reserve and drove back to camp, we were the last group back (and the first group out) and got back about 2030! We had some dinner, beef strogganoff, rice and broccoli with the last of the milk pudding for dessert and then it was pretty much time for bed! It was such a fantastic day and a wonderful first game drive!

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