It is amazing how quickly and completely life can change. I got on a plane at Heathrow airport one dark, cold, wet evening in early January. Barely twenty four hours later, whilst eating my first meal at the Bushwise camp, the radio sounded. We left the table immediately, got in the Land Rover and ten minutes later were watching a young, female leopard in the fading evening light. I could hardly have imagined a better start to the course.

At that point we barely knew each other, staff and students, but after one of the most rich and intense months of my life we have become quite a team and are facing our first exam, immediately to be followed by a week on holiday. Some are off to Kruger, some to Durban and others will stay and explore the local area.

Our first week was spent getting used to the camp, each other and the rhythm of our new life. Nothing here is routine which is exciting, but the critical points of the day are 11am and 6pm. Rosemary, ‘chef extraordaire’, serves the most delicious and plentiful food for brunch and early supper. She has also begun to introduce us to local home made specialities such as Marula beer and Mopane worms. On Sundays we are left to fend for ourselves where cooking is concerned, but luckily Israel has proved to be a great chef and a willing one too.

Completing paperwork and our first lectures, on first aid, were interspersed with game drives in Makalali. I don’t think I will ever lose that feeling of excitement that comes when driving along orange–red dirt roads in the bush knowing that lion could be just around the corner along with all the other game that southern Africa has to offer. And Makalali, where we have done all our game drives so far, is a game rich reserve.

A lot of time in camp was spent in tracking down mobile signal hot spots around the camp. Climbing trees, standing on walls, walking to high ground up and down the road….no potential signal zone was left unexplored. Another way of exploring camp came in the form of Robin’s early Sunday morning walks, a not to be missed way of gleaning knowledge.

Our first visit to Hoedspruit, the nearest ‘town’ at one hour away, caused great excitement. Bushwise camp really is in the bush, so an expedition to purchase our uniforms at Kalahari Fever (!) started with breakfast at Wimpy, hours of shopping, a chance to e-mail friends and family topped off with lunch at the local deli.

The highlights of our second week were both urban and bush. We spent two fascinating days in Tzaneen at the Driving Department, queuing to get appointments to do our driving theory tests. Chaos appeared to reign, with hundreds of people and ‘flexible’ queuing, yet we all emerged with our appointments and began the process of studying the South African Highway code.

More important for some was getting the pool clean. Despite being cloudy for much of the time, the temperatures are in the high twenties to low thirties and the humidity is high as well. Turning the pool from a sludge green pond full of dubious creatures into a luxury facility led to lots of sweaty manual filtering and scrubbing. It is now almost blue, very refreshing and a great way to relax between lectures whilst watching our very own dam or gazing at the distant Drakensburg mountains.

Our Saturday game drive was the first in full uniform and we really felt dropped in at the deep end; giving our first pre game drive briefings, driving the Land Rover as if escorting guests and with one of us on the bonnet seat as tracker – FANTASTIC. Luckily Robin, our intrepid instructor, took control when we encountered an elephant in musth and were mock charged as well as when we met our two favourite Kalahari lions on a zebra kill.

Closer to home we explored the rich variety of life that co-inhabits our camp. We have great scorpions, scary looking baboon spiders, several friendly boemslangs, not to mention some very clever, colourful frogs. The dam attracts waterbuck, impala, kudu and provides a perfect mud bath for our resident warthogs and their young. Maggie, the camp ostrich keeps trying to join us for supper. Tom now loves spiders and there are plenty of those, including the beautiful garden and golden orbs.

Monday of our third week found us nervous after a weekend of preparing for our driving theory exam. We didn’t all pass which took the edge off the day, but a commiseration party outside room four emptied the tuck shop of Castle beer and student reserves of Amarula, Savannah Dry, Pinotage and other local exotic drinks, watermelon vodka being universally popular.

By Wednesday we had been lectured on rifles and were off to Mica to shoot, some of us firing a weapon for the first time. Our instructor was hugely reassuring, showed a real love of shooting and enjoyed making the experience rewarding for us all. Moving from a light .22 to a military .223 and finally a .306, we began to move closer to the ‘heavy duty’ .375s that we will be drilled with for use on out placements.

Learning how to prepare a vehicle for a game drive took a day. Its amazing how clean they have to be, how long it takes to polish them and how many checks have to be made before they can be said to be ready. Changing tyres was entertaining with two people needed to lift the spare into place.

The week ended with a ‘party’ on Saturday night at a neighbouring lodge, Twines where international volunteers are housed whilst supporting research projects. Its certainly the first party that I have been to with a game drive on the way there and back. Hyaena, or Crocuta crocuta as we now refer to them, inspected our vehicle on the way home. Sadly they missed the dancing in the kitchen that lasted till 4am.

Despite rising tension caused by the approach of our first exam in week four, Mark and Robin kept us distracted with a full day game drive followed by our first sleep out in Makalali. Setting up camp in a dry river bed, sleeping under the stars and keeping watch in turns must be the highlight of the course to date, especially as we saw three lion that evening and two beautiful male cheetah on our way home the next day.

Saturday dawned on a camp full of exam fever. Starting at 7am and lasting a marathon 5 hours for some, we tried to show how much we have learnt this past month. It has happened so fast, been so enriching and been great fun too. Even grasses now hold our attention. Of course it helps to have an open classroom in the bush where lectures blend into walks to examine trees or follow up bird song.

As the first intrepid explorers were about to leave camp for our first week off potential disaster struck. Casper, on a mission to restock the fridge with beers, was attacked by a Mozambican Spitting Cobra. With clear headed sense and amazing calm, he did exactly the right thing, rinsing his eyes under the tap for about 40 minutes. This is written 24 hours after the attack and he is absolutely fine, but our exposure to the wild side of Africa is very real and immediate.

Jonathan

After our week off, the four of us went a week to the Kruger National Park, some people went Tzaneen whilst three others stayed at the Bushwise camp to study, everybody was nice and fresh to start the 2nd semester.

Monday started at 7 am in the classroom with ecology theory which carried on into the afternoon theory lessons.

During the brunch break at 11 am I received some late birthday cards. It was great fun reading these birthday cards from family and friends when you are so far away from home. I spent my birthday on the 5th of February in the Kruger park and it was the ‘Wildest Party’ I’ve ever had. During the game drive of that day I received a special birthday present in the form of a Leopard the crossed the road right in front of us.

Tuesday was an early start of the day. We got up at 4:30 am to have some coffee and rusks before we were going to leave at 5:30 am for a game drive at Makalali Game Reserve to put our ecology lessons into practice. However at the vehicle check before departure of our game drive one of the land rovers had a leak in the cooling system of the engine, so that group A went on a game drive whilst group B, where I belong to, went on a three hour game walk on the Bushwise grounds. In the afternoon the roles were reversed and we went for a game drive at Makalali. This time it was my turn to drive the game vehicle, which is always great fun. All students change turns at driving the game vehicle and must do the pre-game drive briefing before departing, just like the real thing. After spotting only the more common animals in the park, Impala, Zebra, Giraffe etc, we stopped for our ‘sundowner’ to enjoy the beautiful sunset. On the way back, finishing off with a night game drive with one of the students in the role of a tracker with a spotlight on the front of the vehicle, we were lucky enough to come across a Black Backed Jackal.

Wednesday at 7 am our class started and we had lessons all about grasses. Boring! No! Not at all, it turned out to be very interesting. I never knew the importance of grass and what role it plays in nature. In my home town I never even paid attention to the grass surrounding my home and here I am identifying all kinds of grass and even learning the scientific names for them. Great fun.

The afternoon class session was spent outdoors on a game walk on the Bushwise campus looking for grasses and identifying them with our instructor Sean. During the game walk our knowledge was tested further by Sean over everything that we came across; birds, trees and insects. He asked us all kind of questions about this and we usually responded with deadly silence, since the most of us have only been here for one month we had no idea what he was asking us. He usually responded with the words: “Go look it up in the books. Next time I come here I want you to tell me all about it.”

Thursday group B left at 5:30 am for game drive at Makalali to put our grass lessons into practice. As we got into the reserve we heard that there were Rhino spotted. On our way to the Rhino sighting we came across 4 Hyenas walking toward us on the road. They walked up to a few meters from us, looked at us and walked past the vehicle. Exiting! After some off road driving through the bush we saw our first glimpse of the three Rhinos. It was a mother with two youngsters. One male was approximately seven years old and the other only one year old. We kept on following them till they went down to a waterhole where they decided to have a drink and a mud bath. The youngest of the juveniles found a big rock and started to play ‘rock ball’ with it. Which was a wonderful and funny sight. The afternoon was spent on studying at the Bushwise campus whilst group A went for there game drive.

Friday was another exiting day as we had rifle practice. This time we got to shoot the .375 rifle which we will be using during our placements. We will shoot a minimum of ten rounds every month. The shooting went very well for me thanks to the military experience I had in earlier years. The rest of the day was spent on studying again.

Saturday group B had to do their presentations about birds, trees and mammals. The presentation was to be held in such a way as if you were on a game drive with guests and came across the subject, explaining the subject to the guests. It was my first time I had to speak before a group of people and I was a little bit nervous, but in the end it turned out to go pretty well. In the afternoon there was a soccer game organized against a nearby lodge ‘Twines’. In the heat of the day at 35 degrees Celsius and under the burning sun our ‘Bushwise’ team came to victory with an end score of 5-2. In the evening we went to the Mahlahla lodge to go and have a drink and eat delicious hamburgers. After we came back at midnight to the Bushwise campus some people continued to party on.

Sunday morning we went on a voluntary and relaxing game walk with Robin on the Bushwise campus extending our knowledge about the flora and fauna. Of course after the wild party yesterday night only a few students turned up at the early hour at 7 am. I always like to attend these walks as they are very educational for me. After the walk I wrote this journal ending another lovely and enjoyable week at Bushwise.

Geoffrey

Our week started off on a very high note. We were on a morning game drive when we heard over the radio about some leopards that had been spotted in a drainage line close to one of the camps in Makalali. We had to make sure that we got to the sighting so the drive there was quite adventurous. When we got there we were greeted with the sight of a 6 month old leopard cub relaxing on a tree branch. He was very relaxed and it was a wonderful thing to see. We then saw his sister and eventually we saw the mother, who was resting after eating some of the nearby kill. She eventually came closer to call the cubs as she was obviously annoyed by the squirrels who were making a lot of noise over her presence. I had to drive the landrover into the sighting and this experience I can log in my dangerous game logbook. All went well. Great!

The rest of the week followed the usual routine of learning interesting things in class and eating our cook Rosemary’s amazing food. The end of the week saw our second exam of the course. We were tested on Ecology, the Biomes of South Africa, Trees of the region and our knowledge of Grasses was also tested considerably. The test showed me what knowledge I should work on to get to the desired Level 1 Field Guiding.

The week was ended off once again with a nice social gathering were we met the local people plus a good steak at Mahlahla.

Casper

Sunday 16th began with everyone coming back from our week off. On the week off some headed over to Kruger, some to Kwa Zulu Natal and some even ventured as far away as Cape Town to meet with friends, whilst some stayed within camp to catch up on studies or to buy themselves a car. I couldn’t say everyone came back refreshed as the journeys were long, but we were all definitely ready for the new week ahead.

On Monday, which was St Patrick’s Day incidentally, almost everybody went to the now dreaded Tzaneen driving centre to attempt our driving tests as it is a requirement for non-South Africans to have a South African driving licence if they want to drive paying guests around. The whole point of getting this licence is that we can then apply for the Professional Driver’s Permit, which is a prerequisite to drive holiday makers around on game reserves. A shamrock emblem was placed on the dashboard of one car but St Patrick wasn’t smiling down on everyone. Out of everybody only two passed their driving tests, but the two that did pass drove the car with the shamrock and one of those guys was Irish! Everyone else is not disheartened though and they will be back with a vengeance on the 31st of March to rebook – GOOD LUCK GUYS!

Tuesday was a straightforward day of studying in the classroom, followed by some marvellous food that was prepared by Rosemary. We all had a pretty relaxed day and it was great to catch up on what everybody else did on their week off.

Wednesday was a double game drive day in Makalali for some, whilst the guys who passed their drivers test went back to Tzaneen to start the process of their PDP’s. The guys on the game drive were extremely lucky as they had almost every elephant in Makalali walk around their vehicles, that is almost 60 elephants! Some of the elephants couldn’t care less about the presence of the vehicles whilst some showed their interest with a staring match. This may be a sight that never to be witnessed again. Needless to say that the guys who went to Tzaneen were a little green with envy, but that is Africa for you as you never know what is around the next corner.

We all started to revise a lot for our next two exams that were on arthropods and reptiles. Everyone performed exceptionally by being well above the pass mark of 75%.

Saturday saw the now ritual, well almost, braai. There was lots of food, fun and frolics to be had, and even some impromptu guitar solos, brilliant!

Sunday nursed a few hangovers from the night before and the camp was very quiet but it was pleasant to sit outside the rondavel and listen to the birds and insects. Sitting there and listening to those African sounds is what it is all about.

David

Monday - kicked the week off with a visit to a place that is fast becoming our second home. Yebo, you guessed it. TZANEEN! The Driving Centre beckoned once again. So, the remaining 5 of us (yet to pass our driving tests) went along to re-book. Along the way we dropped David off at Sophie’s house, as he was going with her to The Wildlife College for Nathan’s service. It was great that David went along to pass on both his & our condolences. Even though we arrived there at 6:30 in the am, there was a long queue of people along the gate. Some people had set up a small fire there for the night. (In hindsight, not a bad idea). After the laborious process of queuing, writing our names on the entry list, patiently sitting & waiting, we were told to come back tomorrow. It turns out they were only taking bookings for the first 60 people. Quite frustrating, but something that we have come to expect from the Traffic Department.

We got back just time to bid a fond farewell to Lucy, as she was leaving to work for Sophie.

Tuesday - the 5 of us trundled off to Tzaneen once again in the early hours. Things went much smoother than the previous day’s excursion. There were less people there for starters, and we were at the front of the queue. We had taken our eye tests & booked our tests quicker than you could say; “OBSERVATION! LY-ONS!!” Jenny, Vickie, Jo & Tom booked theirs for the coming Friday, and mine was booked for Saturday morning. We organised some hire cars from Avis and headed back to camp. We arrived back in camp to discover that Lucy had come back, which we were all really pleased about.

Wednesday - we had a lecture on Astronomy in the morning. Mark picked us all up in the afternoon and took us to his place to watch a National Geographic programme he had recorded on Astronomy. We also watched a programme about Africa’s most deadly snakes, and one on Elephant vasectomies in Makalali, which had all us men crossing our legs as we watched it. The programme tackled (‘no pun intended’) the growing debate over the best methods of controlling Elephant populations in South Africa, and even had a cameo appearance from Mr Montgomery.

Thursday - we had a lecture on Weather & Climate before brunch. Today was Wisdom’s (Rosemary’s son’s) 8th birthday. Rosemary made him a special cake. He seemed very pleased & overwhelmed with all his presents, especially with his plastic cricket set. He spent most of the day playing cricket with me, Caspar, Richard & Tom.

Friday – I took the opportunity to use this day as a study day, choosing not to go on the morning game drive. Today was a big day for Jenny, Vickie, Jo & Tom, as they all went to Tzaneen to re-take their driving tests. Tom passed his, after apparently almost pulling out in front of an oncoming car! Sadly, Jenny, Vickie & Jo weren’t so lucky. :o(

Saturday - I think that it’s safe to say that today was a pretty awesome day for everyone. Tom accompanied me to Tzaneen, as today was a big day for me. My third attempt at my driving test & I just hoped to make it out of the yard this time. Things were going well until my three point turn. Before moving off to attempt the manoeuvre, due to a rush of nerves & adrenaline, I accidentally slipped it into reverse, jerking backwards. Luckily for me, the gods were on my side, the examiner (tho’ not impressed) let me complete it & (much to my amazement) got in the car afterwards. I dug deep for the road test, decided not to make any jibber-jabber about the weather or the price of petrol, & concentrated on making the ride as smooth for her as possible. It seemed that my efforts didn’t go in vain. I passed (albeit through the skin of my teeth)!!

Whilst I was doing all this, people back at the ranch had gone on a Game Drive to Makalali, taking Rosemary & Wisdom with them. They had an amazing morning with some fantastic sightings of; Lion, Leopard, Cheetah & Hyaena!! Wisdom seemed amazed by it all (as it was his first ever game drive), & I gather that he was quick at pointing out animals on the drive. Who knows, we might have a tracker in our midst.

Today was Rosemary’s birthday. Vickie organised an evening quiz, which was a good laugh, and we presented Rosemary with her cake n’ presents. Muchos merriment ensued for the rest of the night, with music, dancing, singing, & some impressive Pilates performed by Vickie, Jo, Karen, Claire, Wisdom, & Robin.

Sunday - was spent re-couping, relaxing and cramming from the next day’s exam on Fish & Geology. Caspar & I went for a walk around the camp to find the “Brown Aardeyna”. No luck on that front, but we did see a big Spotted Eagle Owl, which was cool.

Simon

When the air around you changes and the mood is suddenly different your senses become alive to the feeling that something is about to happen. This is the same in the bush. Suddenly the birds fly out of the trees, the Impala scatter leaving behind only a cloud of dust, the bush falls silent apart from the bark of a Baboon close warning of a danger only he can see. We switch our engine off and just listen and wait. We wait. The Baboon barks frantically and we hear a rustle of bush, our heads whip round to the noise and out of the bush bowls two lions, a beautiful black mane male and the female he is pursuing. They dart past us grunting and snarling far more concerned with their sexual pursuit than a bunch of people with mouths open and cameras clicking.

We give chase for a while and watch the best performance of ‘Not today I’ve got a headache’ ever to be seen, teeth bearing, snarling, you name it. Then they slip off into the bush and we loose visual.

Still excited at the sight of Lions so active, (they sleep for 20 hrs of the day so to see any movement is a blessing!) we have headed off on the rest of our drive. We take a look around the dam to see if anything is having a sip or a dip when we arrive, nothing, but out of the corner of Simon’s eye he sees a face…Lion!

A female and her three cubs are on the move pretty quickly heading towards us, possibly spooked by Simba, the horny male doing the rounds. The cubs are getting big now but she is not taking any chances with an encounter so keeps them on the move. She is heading our way with the accompaniment of the ‘Grey go away bird’ (a hunters nightmare) doing his best to let every living thing know she is there, “Go awaaaaaayyy” he squawks sounding like a bothered granny.

On our right are these beautiful lions but on our left she has flushed something out of the bush…Leopard! John, a well spoken, well mannered, history teacher from England, points and shouts excitedly… “F*** me, Leopard!” We are spoiled at what to look at, a lion and her three cubs on the one hand but the Leopard, a rare sight in itself has two cubs with her. The Leopard knows all to well to keep out of the way of Lions so slinks off into the bush and one of her cubs runs for the river. Today she is lucky, the Lioness is far more concerned with the safety of her cubs than picking a fight with a leopard and she heads off deep into the bush.

When the scene has settled down and calmness returns to the bush we find the Leopard again and watch her as she calls for her other cub, he isn’t far and has probably just been a bit spooked by the whole thing so will come back when he hears her call. We are then treated to a lovely sight as the remaining cub and its mother bond and reassure each other that everything is ok as they nuzzle and rub against each other as only cats can.

Days like these make me realise how lucky I am that I’m here. Previous doubts about my choice of career fly out the window and I know I am where I am supposed to be. Not every day on game drive is so eventful in regards to the ‘Big 5’ but every day you don’t see Lion etc. the bush becomes alive with so many other things, the bugs, the birds, the smells, the flowers, the trees.

When you don’t find ‘Big 5’ for a while you are far from disappointed for it makes it that bit more magical when you do.

Vicky

Well to be honest there isn’t much to write about this week, it would seem I got the easy kind off week to write about. This week was the week of the big exam, yep on Friday 9th May we all sat the level 1, to see how much we had really learnt over the past 5 months. It would seem we all learnt a fair bit, as everyone passed, which was awesome. Due to level 1 most of the week has been spent in our rooms studying, although the 3 remaining people to pass their driving test, took the driving test again this week, and all passed, so this week has been a week full of good luck.

Although its been a week full of study and hard work, we did have a had some fun, yesterday we were taken to a nearby waterfall and mountains. Although some of us didn’t quite make it to the top of the mountain, as our trusty vehicle decided that it wasn’t very well and gave up on us while we were trying to drive to the top. We did however get to have a swim in the waterfall pools, and a few people decided to go for a bit of an explore and climb and find some higher up waterfalls and pools. Although some people didn’t quite have the agile rock climbing thing going for them, and couldn’t quite make it to the waterfalls instead they just had to make do with some wonderful views from the top of the climb. On the way back we stopped at a very quite but lovely bar for a few well deserved drinks and a bite to eat.

So although its been a week full of hard work and study, it was worth it as were all now closer to getting our qualifications, just the practical part to go now.

Claire

Can’t believe how quickly time has gone by. We are getting very close to the end of our time at Bushwise. It only seems like yesterday when we all rolled up together from the airport. Got back from our week off in Cape Town at the beginning of the week and heard the others that stayed behind, went on game drive and saw the very rare Pangolin! Assessment drives are complete and everyone has passed their FGASA level one exam. Most of this week has been spent sat in our rondevals studying for our trails guide exam. We’ve all thankfully finished now, after painstaking revision and numerous late nights with coffee after coffee. Our knowledge now of rifles, dangerous game and walking trails has now been put to the test and we’re all eagerly waiting for our results, fingers crossed!!! As a celebration for completing all our exams we all (namely the girls) got dressed up and departed the bush for a taste of civilisation in the form of a near by restaurant ‘Wildebeest Lapa’. Where we were generously treated to a tremendous all you can eat buffet, by our tutors at Bushwise. It was great to see the guys from the Wildlife College; this was unbelievably our first outing together. Needless to say, we compared notes about food, exams, accommodation and our imminent departure into the big wide world.

On the drive back to camp, even after hours of celebratory drinks we just managed to make out a HUGE white rhino on the fence line just outside the restaurant. After a brief stop, it was back on the road heading straight to our local pub/restaurant for yet more food and drink…Now we’re entering a new phase in our short time at Bushwise, instead of vigorous studying we are now looking to our futures and where we will be working for the next six months. It appears we will be all spread far and wide but we can safely say after six months of living in each others pockets that we will all stay in touch and friendships will definitely not be lost.

This isn’t quite as serious as it sounds, we still find time for drinks as we watch the sun go down and we have the pressing matter of the party of the century this Thursday evening in the theme of the ‘Big 5, Little 5 and Ugly 5!’ There has also been talk of the ‘Jackson 5’ too, especially from our resident moon walker, Robin (Our very serious and grounded tutor). Back to the bush I go, with heavy feelings of sadness to be leaving this place we now all firmly call home but with lots of happy memories of our time here.

Joanne

Hello!

So we are half way through the second semester here at the BUSHWISE camp. The 15 of us all seem relatively acclimatized and adjusted. There isn’t a day goes by without one of us uttering “wow! That’s amazing… I didn’t know that” We are all learning a lot.

Slowly but surely our ‘big 5’mindset has been infiltrated by an appreciation of the little things. We are not sure how that has happened, but it is suspected that subliminal messages are being pumped out at night while we sleep!

Every one at home would be so proud of us all; gibbering away in Latin, Shangaan and Afrikaans and discussing the ecological importance of grasses over dinner. However, this is only a percentage of our time; check out the pics because we’ve had some awesome sightings including Elephant, Hippo, and Hyena e.t.c

Mark has lost hair trying to track down the illusive big cats for us as a result of copious nagging. He is trying and there is still time.
  We have discovered Marula fruits and we are harvesting them at a rate to compete with the Elephants. They are very tasty and even better when made in to Marula beer .. yum!

The classroom is slowly filling with various objects of interest. Like domestic cats we keep collecting specimens of dead rodents/reptiles and laying them at Sean’s door – he seems pleased about this?

Rika, after pretending she was shy, has nursed us through various ‘ologies’ ( Ethology, Ecology e.t.c )  I think it is safe to say she has come out of her shell now!!!
Good events so far; the McNaught comet which was clear even from camp. We are all looking forward to the lunar eclipse on 3rd/4th March.

Anyhoo – have books to read and ‘ologies’ to revise for, so must dash.
If you are reading this, in two minds whether to sign up then my advice would be DO IT DO IT DO IT!!!

Can’t believe that’s 6 weeks already!

Tempus Fugit (Time flies)

Clare O xx 24/02/07