Bushbaby-News

Bushbaby News!!! :)

Dear all,

time flies, we all know that, especially around christmas.

I can´t believe that I´m already in Germany and again 6 weeks went past, in which I experienced & learned a lot. I think it´s really time to keep you up to date.

I finished my last Blog just before our important FGASA (Field Guide Association of Southern Africa) test and our driving assessment to achieve the Level I Field Guide. This is definitively the most important test you have to do before getting a guide. And I tell you - I learned sooooo much! Every free minute, in the morning, during the day and even after it got dark in the night to achieve this aim. I need to thank especially my student colleague Kay - she asked me hundreds of questions and it has helped obviously a lot too take the learning process so serious then I got the second best mark of us all and I achieved incredible 93,5 %!!! I couldn´t and still can´t really believe it! I was soooo happy, so relieved that I passed it with such a high mark.


Common flat lizard




Three days later I had my 3 hour assessment drive- the last "To Do" before we would have our week off. The drive went very well and I enjoyed it a lot to drive around my 9 guests and guide them into the African bush. Immediately after the drive I got a positive feedback of our assessor Mark Gunn and after that he shouted out loudly: "We have a new Field Guide in camp!", everybody clapped his hands. I was so proud that I made it and I´m now holding the official title "Professional Field Guide Level 1"!

 

The coffee & biscuit break on my 3 hours FGASA assessment drive
in Karongwe next to Sunday´s Rock



Spotted Bushsnake (harmless) climbing in a tree next to our tent in Karongwe



Olivebrown Housesnake (harmless), found by the Karongwe staff in our tent.
After the release the snake encountered a moth - no death recorded ;)

Encounter with a cheetah during an early morning drive

It was not really surprising that we all got waisted on our last day in Karongwe. :) It started already in the afternoon, when we decided to drop off part of our luggage in Selati, the camp we would be after our week off. For that reason I drove with Nico, Murray, Kimberly and Kay the 80 k´s fully loaded and with loud music to the Selati Game Reserve, where we arrived at the same time as the manager of this reserve. On the back of his pick-up he had a 4 meter long (dead) Rock Python. This thing was really huuuge & impressive and it was a pity that they found it dead - strangled to death from a chicken fence.
After we dropped off our luggage with our instructor Ralph we drove to Gravelotte, the next small village, where we bought some Gin & Tonic and we just sat on a bench, enjoyed the booz while listening to really odd stories of us all. Damn, we laughed a lot! :D Then we drove back to Karongwe and the evening was one big party. 9 of us 10 finally made it to achieve the Level 1 Guide and we all were so proud that the most important step in our guiding career was successully done.

My home in Africa - Timbavati Safari Lodge

Then the week off was finally there and my friends Oli (from Germany) & Mark (from the Timbavati Safari Lodge) picked Olga and me up at the gate and we drove to Hoedspruit, where we dropped Olga off at African Dream Horse Safaris. The 3 of us drove to my home in South Africa, to the beautiful Timbavati Safari Lodge, where my good, old, unique and crazy friend Anke from Dubai waited already to get hugged. We had a relaxing afternoon at the lodge, the weather was not that good - it drizzled a bit - but it was perfect weather to plan the next days. Mark organized our stay in one of the Ranger Huts in the Kruger National Park right next to a dam. It was fantastic there. There was no access for tourists and so we had a quite big area alone for us four. The hut itself was simple, had flowing water but no electricity. There was a little kitchen and an external Braai facility and two sleeping rooms. We heard the hippos in front of us, the Lion roared pretty closed while we prepared a lekker dinner. We spent two nights there and we had three exciting days in Kruger National Park and we saw a lot of animals, beside the Big 5.

The Ranger Hut in the Kruger National Park

 

The view on the Piet Grobbler Dam from the Ranger Hut - a bird paradise and home of Crocs & Hippos



Anke & myself enjoying the life of a Ranger :)




What a tiny elephant calf!!



For me the most beautiful animal in Africa - the majestic Leopard.

Then we drove back to the lodge and the next day Anke already left us as she needed unfortunately to head back to Dubai to work... :(  Oli, Mark and I spent another 4 days together and we went horseriding, hiked the 10 km Bushpig Trail, went on top of the Mariepskop with a fantastic view over the Lowveld and the Blyde River Canyon and we had another 2 day excursion where we drove along the Scenic Route and visited the Blyde River Canyon, the Bourkes Luck Potholes & the Berlin Falls. We enjoyed an awesome evening & night in Hazyview with our friend Bernhard which invited us into his beautiful Nandina Guest House and we experienced what South African hospitality means.

After an amazing hike through rainforest

Bourkes Luck Potholes

In front of the three Rondavels & the Blyde River Canyon

Magnificient landscape on top of the Mariepskop

Berlin Falls

View from Mariepskop (1.932 m) to the 3 Rondavels & Blyde River Canyon

The first week in Selati we were busy to learn, hear, distinguish as much birds as we could. Basic Birding was the topic and we had a good time with our instructors Dale & Albie. We went out for walks & drives and I learned - beside a lot about birds- how to flick stones and that is really a lot of fun! We spent almost every break to compete, who is able to flick the stone the farest. But it was not only fun: to learn 100 different bird calls and also to recognize the birds by pictures is hard work! Believe me: After a while all birds sound the same, but luckily we could practice with the programm "Robert Bird Calls" (including 500!!! birdcalls) on our laptops. At the end of the week we had our "Basic Birding Test" and I made it! :)

Cape Glossy Starling

Springtime in Selati



Baby Impalas

Our volleyball court in the Selati riverbed

And the "Murray-made" pool if we need a refreshing bath...

Weatherwise it rained more often and especially in the following week, when we had our Navigation & Orientation Course we had a lot of rain. That was of course the reason that one day the Selati River filled up with water so fast, that we hardly had time enough to undo the Vollyeball net. But it was really a lot of fun to float away with the water but the current got so strong that we were not able to swim against it after a while. The remarkable power of nature...
Unfortunately the flowing river didn´t allow us to practice our shooting skills, which we were supposed to do in the dry riverbed. So we concentrated completely on our Navigation & Orientation Module with the awesome instructor Mark Gunn. We learned how to navigate by the means of compass, by the use of star constellations & the sun and by natural indicators like moss, termite mounds and the growth pattern of trees.

View from the "La belle France" terrace over the 33.000 ha big Selati Game Reserve

We learned how to read a map (Scale, orientation of maps, coordinates, contour interpretation) and how to find our position on a map with back bearings / triangulation, if you are lost in the bush. After 6 days, a written test and practical assessment one more step in my career as a Professional Field Guide was done.

Dry practicing with the rifle in Selati

Then it was already time to say Good Bye again to our beloved Selati Camp and we were driven to Karongwe again, to spend our last two weeks there for the Tracking & First Aid Course.

Scorpion glowing in UV-light

 

Eastern Olive Toad

Our instructor Adriaan Louw is definitely one of the most successful, well known & experienced tracker in this country and it was a honour to learn from him and listen to his unique stories he experienced so far. This course was definitely the one I was more than keen to experience and learn & to do well as I love it so much to sit on the tracker seat in front of the landrover and to spot animals & their tracks.

Happy on the tracker seat

Adrian showed us how to make a fire with a fire drill - it worked!!!!

But unfortunately I had a really hard time, as the day of my brother´s dead came closer. I could not really concentrate on the tracks. The only thing I could think of was my brother and that I would have loved to show him what I have learned so far. And on the other hand one big reason that I was able to afford that course, was the "present" of my brother and I was so thankful that he gave me the opportunity to do so... but can you be thankful about that? I felt somehow lost and I had three terrible days. On this stage it is definitively time to thank my friends in this course. They were all there, they felt sympathy with me, they hugged me & they made me feel, that it is not a big deal to have a shit time, as they all stood behind me to give me strength, love, understanding, ease of mind I didn´t had in these days. Thank you Kay, Olga, Creo, Murray, Kimberly, Nico and Michelle!!! I feel very pleased to be with you all in that course.

Friends!!!

Below the line I told our instructor Adriaan that I´m not able to do the assessment due to private issues. I was just not at all able to function, to recognize the tracks I usually can. It was very sad & even more frustrating as I was so passionate about Tracks & Tracking...
Adriaan reaction was very calm & he said that he has realized my sadness already two days ago and he was very sympathetic. He suggested that he will talk to the Ecotraining Office so I can re-do my assessment as soon as possible. I´m very thankful for this opportunity.

Lion Track

 

Animal Art - coiled millipedes

Baboon Spider

Shooting with the 0.458 calibre with the Karongwe head instructor Rob.

My tentmate Olga & I protecting our ears from the Bang-Bang... ;)

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