Bush News

Welcome to South Africa!!

Campfire in Selat

Young Nyala in Selati

Shaka and Selati - two of the lions in Selati

Campfire at our Sleepout in Selati

Ready for take off for a nice splish-splash mud bath

Crocodile Dani in action!

Mudbathing - hell lot of fun

Hello everybody!!
Finally I´m back to civilisation and I´m able to start my blog to let you participate the African adventure.
First of all: it is awesome!
My adventure started perfect when my friends drop me at the Cologne train station. It was at the same time so good to have all my friends around but it was also very sad, to say Good Bye to them for a long time. The first tears appeared while hugging them and then saw them waving. I´m so proud and thankful to have such wonderful friends!!!!!
Luckily my friend Annette came with me to the airport in Frankfurt, because she left 15 minutes later to her trip to Nepal & Tibet. So we had a really good time before we also had to say Good Bye. Than it was already quite late and I arrived only 15 min before boarding at the gate, where I met Steve, my friend from the US. We have met the first time in Capetown in 2003 and we stayed in contact over 7 years and he had this great idea to accompany me from Germany to South Africa. He really spoiled me and bought me a business class ticket to Johannesburg. Again one of these amazing things… . So we had a wonderful overnight flight and we got picked up from our friends Leon & Violetta at the airport in Jo´burg and then we headed to Timbavati Safari Lodge near the Kruger´s Orpen Gate, where we met our friend Rob, the manager of the lodge and my friend Anke. With her I came the first time to South Africa, and we both met Steve & Leon there.
And to make it perfect my friends Elli & Brian joined us for a fantastic dinner. After this Anke and Mark, the son of one of the owners, took me to join a Sangoma ceremony in a small village just on the other side of the road. That was an amazing experience! We even played the drums and I couldn´t believe that I was finally in Africa, sitting in the dust, hearing the Sangoma´s hoarse voice and having this breath taking nightsky above me.
During our stay at Timbavati Safari Lodge we had really good time together. We did a tour with Elli to Kruger Park, where we saw beside Elephants, Impalas, Kudus, Waterbucks a lioness which recently had killed a wildabeest, 8 other lions, we saw 7 Rhinos, 2 Hyenas, a Tawny Eagle, a Secretary Bird and a lot of other beautiful animals. On another day we had a short hike at the Blyde River Dam and later we went for a exhausting hike up to a waterfall. One day we just chilled out, on the following day we went to the Mariepskop, a mountain nearly 2.000 m high with a fantastic sight over the lowveld and to the Three Rondavels in the Blyde River Canyon. And we also visited the Moholoho Rehabilitation Center, which takes care of wounded wild animals.
On Friday Anke, Steve, Leon & Violetta left to Jo´burg and I had two more days, which I spent with Mark and Elli. Elli took me to the Spring Festival in Haenertsburg and on Monday morning it was time to say Good Bye to Rob, Kylie,& Mark. Elli drove me to Nelspruit where I met the other students for the one year course: Olga, Nico & Hilko from the Netherlands, Kimberley from Sweden, Murray & Kay from Kenia, John from the UK, Christophe from Mauritius and Melissa from USA. It was exciting to see them all and the guys from Ecotraining welcomed us all and then we received our learning books and we were asked to do our first test and the paper work for the Weapon Handling & Shooting, what we needed to do on the following day.
So the next day we spent at a Shooting Ranch and for the most of us it was thrilling to shoot the first time in our lives. It was a lot of fun and our instructor Peter did a great job and we all did well and nobody failed. After that we went to an outdoor shop where we had the fittings for our Ecotraining uniforms. For dinner Lex and Anton, the founders of Ecotraining, joined us and they held a speech, which was really inspiring. The next morning we left finally to get to Selati Game Reserve, which was a three hours drive. When we arrived another group of Ecotraining students helped us to onload our luggage and we met everybody of the Selati Team, our instructors Dale and Ralph, and his wife Marie Jo. We went to our Dome tents and Olga and me got the „Board Tent" just above a dried riverbed, with a lovely rock in front and definetly with the best view overlooking the Selati River. The tents are simple but big enough for the two of us and our luggage.
The next 2 weeks we were all sooo busy to get all the new information about our environment into our heads. Sometimes I felt my head is going to explode with all those new facts and everything in English. At one stage I really struggeled. That was just before our first Ecotraining test including Chapters „Ecosystem", „Nature Guiding", Trees (we had to learn 30 trees, the name, the medicinal uses, the traditional believes and other uses), Animal Behaviour, Grasses (Ecological Status, Succession Stage) & Biomes of South Africa (where are they, which are the flagship species, how´s the weather in each biome). I had 56 marks out of 75 . The next day we had to prepare a presentation about any subject regarding South African wildlife. I chose „Vultures & their important role in the Ecosystem" as the guys at Moholoholo Rehab Center the week before held an inspiring speech about this issue. We had to held this presentation infront of our group and our instructors and it was kind of exciting to held my first presentation in English. But I felt quite comfortable and I prepared my self well and showed pictures from each species and passed feathers of the vultures around. I was really surprised, when we received our marks for the presentation: I had 79 % and this was the top note of us all! That gave me really a bit more confidence and I was really happy!!
Our normal day looks usually like this:
Wake up by duty team at 5.00 h
Coffea, Tea, Cereals or Cookies
leaving on 6.00 h either for a 3,5 hours walk or drive
Returning about 9.30 h
Awesome breakfast around 10.15 h
Lecture starting around 11.30 h for 1 to 1,5 hours
Studying / free time until 14.30 h
Lunch
15.30 h leaving for either a walk or drive
returning to camp between 18.30 and 19.30
Dinner around 20.00 / 20.30
The other group which stayed with us at Selati until today were such a nice bunch of people and we enjoyed it a lot to spent our free time with them, either for playing volleyball in the riverbed or Boule, or just hanging around the campfire and chat or playing guitar and singing. We even created a song about our Selati. It is awesome and we are singing this song almost every day. Sometimes my tent-mate Olga has to pinch me, because there are certains moments I´m so overwhelmed with my new life, that I can hardly believe that it is real. It is impressive, not only the wildlife, the animals, the way of living out in the bush, but also the people you meet.
We had a lovely sleep-out for three days and we learned how to set up a proper camp site. That was an awesome experience! We cooked 5 star meals on the campfire, we went out for drives and walks, we slept under the nightsky and every hour two of us were on duty to check if some wild animals are around. We also had a field observation test: 75 question while walking around and we have to recognize several bird calls, what kind of animal left this certain dropping on the ground, which tree is that, which grass is that, which track is that and so on.
While our walks we played some funny games: like spitting Kudu dung!!! :D or we are eating Wild raisins from a tree and the cocoons from the scale insects. It is so cool and although we have a tight schedule we still have fun.
One morning we had elephants right in our camp!Olga and I were on duty and we heard them pushing trees over right next to us. It was still dark and we needed to wake up everybody and we bumped almost into those elephants. They were only 10 meters away!
And often we hear the Leopard roaring around the camp. Often very close and if you´re sitting at the campfire and you need to go to your tent through your tent alone in the dark it´s sometimes really exciting, believe me!
Another day we almost bumped into a herd of elephants. I was driving and it was almost dark and so we realized pretty late, that on the right side of the road there were a breeding herd of ellies - the matriarch cow came really close, maybe 4 meters away from our car- and we wanted to drive away, but then she decided that we are not dangerous at all and carried on with her dust bathing. That was an amazing moment!
We saw the lion pride mating and 10 days later we were able to see them with a kill - an impala got eaten by them and we were close to them - they were lying in the grass maybe 5m away from our landrover.
One week ago we swopped our camps and we are now in Karongwe - and we are studying hard because we have our FGASA Level 1 test in one week and then our assessment drive. If we manage to succeed it with a minimum of 75 % then this is the start of our guiding career as this is the essential requirement we need. Keep your fingers crossed on the 9th of November for me!!!
Karongwe is a lovely place and we have Hyenas in the camp almost every night and they come really close - often they are only 2m away and they are huuuge! :) But cute. The first day we arrived we joined a one-month group and had another sleepout in the riverbed. It was nice!
That´s pretty much all for now. I´m so sorry that I can´t be up to date. We don´t have internet at the camps and even cell phone reception is down to almost zero. I´m so sorry about that - please don´t think that I don´t think about you, friends. I have all the nice presents & keepsakes from you next to my bed and I´m thinking of you all a lot and I miss u!!!
In two weeks we have a whole week off and my friend Oli from Germany and Anke from Dubai will visit me. I really look forward to see them and to be out of the learning pressure!! Time for party!!! :)

Take good care, friends and talk to you soon.

Yours
Crocodile Dani