The Selati Experience

Hey Spot-Froggers :P

Long time, no blog.

Last I wrote, I was about to embark on an excursion to Selati Game Reserve for a 28-day EcoTraining course, where I was to meet great people, experience some awesome encounters, have a great time and complete my FGASA Level 1. Here's how it happened:

As a class, the nine First Year Game Ranging students of Damelin, Mowbray left college at 9.30am on the morning of the 16th of August in a Quantam. The boys promptly cracked open the first beers of the day and settled in. We made our way to Beaufort West along the N1, stopping in Matjiesfontein for a drink, living off One Stop food and Steers, and stopping approximately every 40min or so for a toilet break. We reached the Karoo National Park late afternoon, and set up camp. Unfortunately, only one clever person had brought a sleeping mat, so the rest of us slept on the bare tent floors (under which was hard ground and acacia thorns).

We scouted the Park out for a bit, then returned to start the braai. Only once we'd started the fire and were ready to braai did we notice that no one had brought tongs, so Iain and I made the 20min walk to the Park's shop in the hope that it was still open. It was open, and the braai was saved. We ate wellfor a bunch of college kids, and made our way to our somewhat uncomfortable beds. Confortable in Ross's case..

After waking up at 5am, we had piled in the bus and were off by 6am. Destination: Sondela Game Reserve (near Bela-Bela) via Kimberley. Once again, there were open beers by 10am, and the subsequent frequential toilet breaks. We reached Kimberley 'round midday, had twenty minutes to check out the Big Hole, squabbled a little about travel arrangements, then climbed back into the bus and continued on our way. We reached Sondela at about 10pm, set up camp in the dark, cooked in the dark, saw a couple of spring hares, almost walked into a couple of horses (to one of which Johnny, almost unknowingly, fed his beer), made use of the awesome bathrrom facilities that we had to ourselves and went to bed after midnight (a little more comfortable due to the underlying grass, as well as piled up towels, clothes and anything else of a soft and mattress-y nature).

Rising at 7am on the 18th of August, we woke up to the sight of hornbills feasting on our leftovers on the braai. There was also a bit of a bird party going on next to a tree a few metres away, which led to our first sightings of the fork tail drongo, the greater blue-eared starling and the magpie shrike. We then took a trip down to the stables and paddocks to look at the horses (sighting J-Bone's friend, the Friesian and almost missing a lone kudu cow amongst the horses). We also came across a rather large, rather friendly family of banded mongoose foraging for insects on the grass.

We were then treated to an hour's game drive, upon which we saw plenty of kudu, impala, blesbok, warthog, a lone blue wildebeest and a snake. After the drive, we left on the last leg of this part of the journey - the trip to Selati. On the way, we drove through the spectacular montane forests of Magoebaskloof and southern Limpopo, ending up on the R71 throught to Tzaneen and reaching Selati's gates at 3pm - an hour late, Cape Town style.

We were fetched by Werner, there to volunteer and re-do his practical assessment. We piled our many bags into the trailer attached to the Land Rover, covered it with tarp, and set off on the final few kilometers to the camp. Upon arrival, we were met by Dale, the course instructor, who showed us to our tents. Amy and I snatched tent number four, which later turned out to be in a rather excitimng place to be. We then went to the lapa (which was to be our dining room, classroom, and general meeting place), signed a few forms and met Matthew (assisstant instructor) and the rest of our course-mates - Moz, Geoff, Skye, Roxy, Kert, Conor, Dylan and Koen.

We had the rest of the day to relax, get to know each other and eat :) We were explained the daily schedule, which went as follows:
5.30am - Wake up and tea/coffee/cereals
6.30am-9.30am - Activity - one group on a drive, the other on a walk
10.30am - Breakfast
11.30am - Lecture
12.30pm-2.30pm - Free time to study/sleep/play volleyball/etc.
2.30pm - Lunch
3.30pm-6.30pm - Activity - one group on walk, the other on a drive (i.e. opposite to the morning's activity)
7pm - Supper

So, with that hectic schedule in mind, we spent the rest of the day chilling, playing volleyball and chatting.

[It would take too long to explain each day of the course, so I'll paraphrase the next 27 days for your consideration :) ]

The next four weeks were pure awesome. We went on drives and walks, learned some valuable information about guiding, the natural environment, the animals and plants that make up the area and general skills regarding tracking, guiding and people. We were able to take turns in driving the Landie (my first time driving involved being mock-charged by a bull elephant named George) and practise guiding, and spent our walks tracking elephant and finding the lions with the telemetry. The 5.30am wake up proved relatively easy, especially because we were usually in bed by 9pm :P We spent our free time either catching up on lectures, studying, sleeping or blowing off some steam with volleyball or touch rugby down in the dry river bed.

Our fourteenth day was our off-day. We all piled into cars and took a trip to Hoedspruit for the day. A group of us breakfasted at Sleeper's Restaurant (Craig starting his day off with a Castle) before hitting the shops with bellies full of yummy pizza ^_^ We gathered some much-needed supplies before returning to meet the others at Sleeper's for lunch, and drinks, of course. At about 4pm, well-fed and - ahem - slightly innebriated, our group left for camp.

The next day was GREAT for those with hangovers, starting off with an early morning rifle handling session in the sun :P The shooting involved a somewehat loud .308 rifle, and an even louder .375 :P Nevertheless, it was enjoyed by all. We returned to camp for breakfast before packing for a sleep-out. It didn't help that the temperature was in the mid-thirties, but we made our way to the site in the afternoon. We set up a make-shift shelter using mopane branches, tarp and some innovation (i.e. people on shoulders). Before supper, a group of us scaled the koppie on the western side of our temporary camp and got an awesome view of the sunset. After supper, we were divided into pairs and given a one hour slot to do patrols. Waking up at 2am was a struggle, but, hey, it had to be done.

The tests and exams caused quite a bit of stress among us, especially because only a couple of people passed the first one :P In total, we wrote three EcoTraining theory tests, two field observation tests, one FGASA theory exam and then were assessed practically. This involved taking a three hour game drive, a post-drive interview and an astronomy prac. Only those who passed the FGASA Theory Test were able to do the FGASA Practical Assessment, the pass mark being 75% for each and every test. Thankfully, I passed the theory. The twelve of us doing the prac drew our places out of a hat, as there were to be three pracs a day. I was either fortunate or unfortunate enough to draw the number twelve, and so had randomly selcted myself to go last.

Between the first prac and my own, I went on a few others as a "guest", and in doing so was able to pick out some useful tips and ideas. I was navigator for one drive and driver for another, and so plotted out a sufficient route. It was interesting to see how others guided and what kinds of things they noticed, which was cool, but also gave me a lot to live up to. When it finally came to my drive, I supposed that I was as ready as I'd ever be, and dived in head first. At breakfast, I had to give a pre-trip briefing, and from then on I had to act like a guide. I had to give another briefing before we left, as procedure went, and then we were off. I was incredibly lucky in that it was a great day for birds, and barely 500m into my drive, I stopped at the biggest bird party I had ever come across. Fortunately, I was able to identify a total of 27 different species on my drive, tying with Dylan - the Bird Man - as highest. We didn't see many of the larger mammals, with the exception of giraffe, impala and waterbuck but that was to be expected (Selati used to be separate cattle farms, and so is overrun in bush encroaching vegetation and pioneer species, so it is difficult to see animals in the dense vegetation. There is also all-year hunting taking place as an extra source of revenue - which is understandable as there are many private lodges - which makes the animals skittish.).

The astronomy prac went well, as did the interview, and I am proud to say that I passed with 88% for the prac, and obtained my FGASA Level 1 with a grand total of 95% :) So it was all worth the effort in the end.

Throughout the four weeks, we were rarely alone at night - with or without our knowledge. We woke up some mornings with leopard, elephant, lion and rhino tracks on the paths in camp, and often woke up during the night to the sawing sound of leopard or the crack of an elephant pushing over a tree. Anthea and I were blocked from our tents one night by an elephant in the bushes and ended up spending three hours by the fire with the drinking boys, waiting for the elephants to pass. Skye, Wern (also known as Sous due to his love of tomato sauce) and Kert (a.k.a. Vetkoek) were once stuck in the girls' bathroom trying to scare away a leopard lurking near the entrance.

Our second-last night was an amazing experience though. We went to bed with the knowledge that the elephants were across the river. I woke up at about 12.30am to the sound of crunching tree trunks unnervingly close to the tent. I figured that the herd had moved to our side of the river and that there was an elephant across the pathway from the tent. Luckily, Amy and I had rolled up the flaps of our tent a few nights before because we had missed the pride of lions that walked passed our tent, and I was able to see outside. Sure enough, there in the moonlight was the enormous silhouette of a feeding elephant. I woke Amy and for four hours we watched the surprisingly quiet animal push trees and saplings over in front of our tent. Amy fell asleep a few times and once I had to wake her because the elephant heard her snoring, stopped, walked 'round the tent and peered in the side window, tusks and trunk showing up clearly in the weak light of the moon. At 5.30am, Dale and a couple of people had to chase them away, because we needed to get up. In any case, that morning was an awesome way to say goodbye to the place and creatures we'd grown to love.

Our last full day was another off-day, upon which we received our results, drank a lot, played 30-Seconds, dug a large hole in the river bed, drank some more, played volleyball, attempted to jump over the hole that we had dug, ate, drank a bit more and then passed out (not me personally, but quite a few others).

At last, too soon, the morning of the 14th of September dawned. Our final day was one of sad goodbyes and hugs and thank-you's and photos and packing. We were at the gates by 9am and then it was to the bus for the Damelin students. As hard as it was to leave, the prospect of going home was exciting. Our first day of the journey home took us through Mpumalanga, to Pretoria to drop Amy off and buy supplies, and make our way to Bloemfontein, where we camped for the night. Eager to set off early, we left Bloem at 4am, stopped for coffee, stopped for a sit-down breakfast at Wimpy, stopped for toilet breaks, lunch - the usual. We reached Oudtshoorn in the afternoon, got some more supplies and settled down for camp at Kleinplaas. We were fed, showered and in bed by 7.30pm (??) and woken up at 3.30am by Ross's somewhat loud voice, half an hour ahead of schedule (it turned out that Ross had actually been woken up by Iain's snoring, so we blamed the early wake up on him). We were in the bus and on our way by 4.15am.

We reached college unhindered and slightly tired at about 11am, where we were met by friends and family, ready to take us home..

All in all, the trip was insightful, fun and all together amazing :) We returned more knowledgeable, more fit and more tanned, and a few of us newly qualified Level One Nature Guides, which is, ideally, what we went there for :P We made tons of new friends, forged relationships that are sure to last and brought the soul of Selati home with us. We will forever be a part of the experience :)

Selati, we love you.

Cheers,
Andrea

P.S. Check the pics out on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=253171&id=759850849
http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=267603&id=759850849