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From: Honey badger (Original Message) Sent: 11/9/2002 2:47 AM
Nitro asked me to tell you about the Game ranger course I attended, so here it is:

At the start of January I had a month's leave to take, following seven months in Northern Ireland. While in Belfast I'd seen a TV programme called Safari School which followed a group of students on this course, which is run by a firm called Ecotraining. I remember saying something like "I would love to do something like that" to which my number two replied "I bet you don't". Red rag to bull! I looked up the Ecotraining website and made a few enquiries and found that the course was remarkably affordable (to £ or $ spenders - maybe less so for ZAR earners). A few weeks later I was stepping off the plane at Hoedspruit.

The course was 4 weeks long, all spent in a tented camp in the Sabi Sands reserve, part of the greater Kruger biosphere. It is intended for people who want to start a career as field guides and is accredited by the Field Guides Association of Southern Africa (FGASA). Although you don't walk away with a FGASA qualification, you do cover the syllabus for FGASA Level 1 and most of Level II as well. I won't bore you with all the details of the syllabus but if you're interested you can find it at www.ecotraining.co.za

The students on the course were a mix of South Africans serious about a new career and a bunch of foreigners like me who were doing it more out of interest than anything else. During the first week we did two game walks a day, just after dawn and just before dusk, with a theory lesson and a private study/siesta period in the middle. From the second week we moved onto one game walk and one or two drives a day. A great deal of attention was paid to the smaller things - plants, insects, birds etc - as this is considered to be a guide's bread and butter, plus the big five aren't always obliging eneough to put in an appearance every time you leave camp. From the second week students begin to lead the walks and drives and in the final week are expected to plan and conduct a complete game drive, informing and educating guests (played by the instructors) and answering their questions.

As for the actual game viewed - amazing! We were very lucky. We came across elephant no less than 18 seperate times, lion 7 or 8 times, leapord , white rhino 4 or 5 times each and my group saw buffalo only once, although the other group saw a complete herd pass through. We also saw several of the following: cheetah (one on a kill), spotted hyeana, waterbuck, nyala, brindled wildebeeste, zebra, warthog, giraffe, grey duiker and more impala than you could shake a big stick at.

The two incidents that stick in my mind the most are being followed by an angry elephant in musth and having a leopard brush against the leg of the guy in the tracker seat on the bonnet. His name was Marcel, from Holland, and earlier the same day stuffed me into a big spiky thornbush tree when I was in the tracker seat. It wasn't his fault - he just wasn't used to the old series III land rover having the same turning circle as the QE 2.

All in all, an excellent introduction to the African bush and one that I would recommend to anyone.

HB

PS Hope I haven't gone on too long.

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From: Nitro Sent: 11/9/2002 11:50 PM
HB

That sounds like a great experience you had. You comment intrigued me. Looking at a couple of "Man Magnum" magazines from South Africa a few months ago I noticed advertsiements for PH Schools, where you get training etc for PH skills. I thought such a course would be fun to do one day, just for interest. And you comment reminded me of these. Your course was for the Tourist Guide personnel and probably covers a lot of the same stuff too. It amazes me how these guys know what species a tree is, other things about them. What that butterfly is, or that bird. A lot of knowledge that has nothing to do with hunting as well but certainly part of the "job". Makes for a much more enjoyable safari.

Thanks for the account of your course and is definitely wasn't too long. Very informative.

Nitro

PS Sounds like a great break after your tour in Northern Ireland too. Hope it is a much better environment there now than in the past.

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From: Honey badger Sent: 11/14/2002 6:25 AM
I've also seen those courses and have been tempted, but I think it would be a bit cheeky, on my part, having never actually hunted anything in Africa before. The courses are about 12 days long I think. Perhaps the best person to give an opinion on them would be Bigfive.

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From: Safari-Hunt Sent: 11/14/2002 8:23 PM
Badger,

You don't need to have any expereince to do the PH course. You may not pass the practical exams but you sure won't have problem passing the theory if you study. There was an old guy with us that did the whole course and left on the day we wrote exams he just did it for the expereince.

The courses are 10- 14 days depending on where you go and with the current state our rand is in it would be a good deal all inclusive except for alcohol. You will learn a lot and it is a nice expereince you will meet future ph's and local hunters of RSA so it's great to meet people.

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From: Honey badger Sent: 11/15/2002 8:05 AM
S-H,

Thanks for the encouragement. I think, if only for my own satisfaction, that I would like to be able to say that I have hunted and killed at least one beast (be it anything from a duiker to an eland) before I put myself on a PH course. I don't think I would ever seriously consider being a PH (too much like hard work, with people like me!) but I would certainly want to learn as much as I could and a course like that might be just the ticket. We'll see.

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