Track and sign

We started this week with lectures on Anthropods and Amphibians, but defiantly the main focus of the week is tracking. Our car was having battery issues and let me tell you it isn't the best thing when your batter dies this close to a lion, but defiantly a memory.

Our guest instructor is a guy named Colin Patrick who is one of about 4 Master trackers in the country, and after 10 minutes with him you can understand why he is bounds above even 'senior' level trackers. His main two jobs are running a small lodge and training people across SA and other countries how to read animal signs. He is also one of the guys who trains anti-pouching teams how to manhunt. And with tracking being my main interest here it's definitely a privilege to walk with him. The days are a bit different staying out from 5 till 11 and then a 3 hour rest before going back out till sunset, but I'm more disappointed that it only lasts for 5 days then anything else. Even though it does take up our last weekend before the next off week.

Scrub hare with a millipede over it and one of the wood pigeon near the top 

A zebra was eaten here by Lion, that is stomach contents

African trackers are considered the best in the world simply because it's a daily exercise and they have such a large variety of animals. And these skills are applicable all over the world, Colin has run courses for groups from the US and has gone up to Germany to teach even though there isn't any of these animals around. But a rabbit/hare makes the same track no matter which species it is.

A big male leopard

And not just foot prints, we are looking for bedding sites and everything from a frog's jump to a gerbil digging. Two of my favorite characters from books (Halt from Ranger's apprentice and Aragorn from LOTR) are master trackers themselves so since I was young this skill has been of great interest to me, which is also obvious from the 2 or 3 tracking books currently on my bookshelves; and there are few things more satisfying then taking a glance at a print and knowing what you're looking at, if it's fresh or old, male or female, walking or running. It's a wonderful combo of skill, science and art.

First pride

Here are the pictures from last weeks game drives, and our first real lion sighting. We come across lion tracks about once a week. But having them be within two meters of your car is alot more exciting. They, like most animals, like to walk along the soft sand of the road to go long distances before cutting off into one of the veld blocks.

Right near twilight so it was great lighting to capture them, we could smell the faint odder of carcass so they probably killed a small antelope and finished it not long before we got there.

Night adder

This week we split into two groups; one went to Kruger for the day and the other went on a all day game drive, then the groups swapped the next day. With the all day drive we left early and went on our first walking safari for about three hours following a river and cutting though a section of the reserve called thorny thicket. It was perfect weather with nice stratoculumus clouds covering the sky making a nice cool day.

Driving to our walking site

For Kruger we got up at about 3am so we could get to the gate at the 5 am opening time. Then we drove all the way till 12 when we had a lecture set up in Kruger's elephant museum, the lecture focused mostly on the elephant history in the park, why they are proving a problem, and what is being done to try and combat it without just demolishing the population.

Kruger Museum skull

The rest of this week was the two lectures yesterday, one on grass and one on geology both of which might seem uninteresting but I'd have happily sat through lectures twice as long to get more info on them. So expect pictures of rocks and grass if we don't find any game on our next drives.

Still got a few pages of work book to get through and revising for the next three exams on Saturday, and try to get a head start on tracking which is the focus for all of next week. Defiantly excited for that even though it takes our weekend away. The end of that has our first real assessment so we will get our first field-guide qualification once the instructor gives us the exams.

Every day is on the go

Male and female Nyala 

So this last week we focused on off roading with our 4x4 course. We split into two groups and so the first two day I was with the group doing game-drives in the morning and evening learning of plants and all that jazz. For Thursday and Friday w started our theory part of the 4x4, a lot of book work and theory goes into this stuff. Like tire pressure and the whole working mechanics from the engine to the wheels.

Red Toad

Along with this is about 150 extra pages of work books to do , along with about 100 in the normal course and game drives and camp chores and normal study and photo editing and odds and ends so time is not on my side. Really the only reason I’d choose to be a vampire over a werewolf (In the Twilight versions of them) is that vampires don’t have to sleep, although it’s nice to wake up refreshed after a good night’s sleep I’d be nice to not have to do it during times like these.  

Expect another post in a day or two, tomorrow is a whole day trip to Kruger and a lecture on Elephants so another long day and late night with studying in between, but can't say it isn't worth it.

The Dragon Mountains

So during the off week 6 other students and I went for a day trip up to the mountains about two hours from campus. It’s called the Drakensberg mountains and in Afrikaans it means the Dragon Mountains 

 The name fits the place quite nicely as it seems to be something from Middle earth itself and it’s quite easy to imagine a dragon flying through its deeply cut gorges draped in mist and perching a lot the sheer rock ledges overlooking the river.

 The hike we did took about 5 hours and we where glad to have the fog during the first part as it heated up after the morning

This is what part of the trial went through, some of those vines have thorns easily 2 inches long

 A Dward Flat lizard, the only dragon we came across

It took about 2 hours to get form the top down to the rivers below, and these rivers and waterfalls lead to the large river that runs through the mountains. After two hours of walking these would be a perfect place to cool off.

  

These mountains run have a scenic rout, after our walk we grabbed lunch back at the top and then went from look out to look out following the main river and deep cliffs down and around until the sun set

These weeks

So this is the end of the week off, gotta return the rental car and pick up one or two more things before being brought back. It’s about an hour to the nearest town. Although they say town it’s more like a big four way stop with a airport, don’t even have a nando’s. But it’s what we got and they have a nice biltong shop (biltong- is a variety of dried, cured meat that originated in Southern Africa).

Next week we are learning about viewing potentially dangerous animals (VPDA) and we have a 4x4 off roading course in the game reserve, and one of those guys said he’ll bring a few of his old knives to see if I wanna buy one off him (cus you can never have too many sharp pointing things)… So all in all it should be another great busy week.

First Semester over

So the first few weeks are over, finally have time to do things other than study, since I was a week behind I had to catch up on things as well as keep up with what was going on. But it’s now coming to the end of the week off and looking forward to the upcoming activities. Should be able to keep up with this now but here is a few things from the past few weeks.

Cape Turtle Dove- taking flight

European Roller- Grasshopper lunch

These are from our trip to the reptile park 

Black Mamba

Python

Chinese Alligator 

Snouted Cobra

Snouted Cobra

Puff Adder

Out on Game Drives