Updates and info from on the ground during our 11 week and 5 week Experiences in South Africa
My humblest and most sincere apologies about the long long delay since my last post!
The Game Reserve section of our trip has now been and gone and it has been the most incredible 2 weeks! We spent our first week at Loskop Game Reserve, an incredibly beautiful area based around the stunning Loskop dam. The bush camp at Loskop was amazing, with generator power at night and a fully stocked bar, which was a great bonus. We spent half the week learning about tracking and the other half on a photography course. In between all this there were frequent boat and game drives where we saw everything from zebra to hippo and loads of bird life as well as all the amazing bugs and insects that live in the park. The sunsets over the lake were absolutely incredible and the stars at night were as bright as anywhere I’ve ever been.
The tracking module involved us going out as a group each day and examining the various tracks and spoor in the bush. We spent 5 hours one day tracking rhino on foot through the reserve. It was an incredible experience walking through the bush with a guide following fresh rhino tracks and trying to locate them. The photography module was just as interesting and everyone learned a huge amount with a bit of theory and a lot of practical outings into the bush and on the dam. The scenery and animals made the perfect setting for some great photography from everyone. The camp was incredibly comfortable and we ate like kings with a big bonfire every night accompanied by a few cold beers and George on the guitar.
The following Friday we moved to our second reserve where we stayed in a bushcamp out in the open. There was no electricity there which made it absolutely amazing at night around the fire under a beautiful sky! The showerwater was heated by a fire and the shower itself opens up onto the most beautiful view of the bush. It was truly out in the middle of nowhere with elephants occasionally coming through the camp at night. We started off with a survival module, where everyone learned the basics of staying alive in a survival situation, where “dieing is not an option” and it ended with half a day of building our own shelters in the bush. We then moved onto a dangerous animals module involving tracking some of the potentially dangerous animals in the reserve. It started with the group helping the rangers in the reserve delivering food to the local elephant herd. An incredible experience that involved them being surrounded by the elephants. An experience way better than skydiving according to George. See the pictures that I will upload in the next few days! Along with the elephants we also got up close to a rhino and its little calf as well as seriously close to a pride of lions. The last 2 days were spent on rifle handling with a lot of safety and some target practice in which the girls completely showed up the boys with their sniper skills. Annie came out on top by a long way with some scarily accurate shooting! As I mentioned, an incredible 2 weeks! Today was the last day of the trip with a great weekend in Joburg behind us. More about that in my next post in the next fews days..right now I’m off to bed to begin recovering from a crazy 3 months…
Vince
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