Friday we had a Graduation party for the July 2007 students who have just come to the end of their placements. Candice and the guys did an amazing job getting Ulovane looking like a Shebeen! It was a brilliant idea and amazingly executed. Mel and I went down to Kenton on Sea for the day, and she had her hair done and a whole raft of treatments. I had a back and shoulder massage and took a long walk along the beach. It was good to have some thinking time, and to get a fix of seafood. The Queen prawns were yummy!

Back to the graduation……It looks like Jonty and Sandra will be staying on. Robyn will be heading back to Melbourne and Andrew is off up North. It was interesting to meet Andrew Morgan’s father, I had no idea he was Welsh! The Jan 2008 one year students sat their FGASA Level 2 theory exam on Friday morning, so were really in the mood for a party, and it sure was a good one! I didn’t emerge from my tent until noon!

Unfortunately my group still has 4 exams to go! Actually 5 if you count our practical assessments. I have to confess to being in quite a party, “End of term” mood, but really need to knuckle down and study! But after that Helen and I are off to Botswana and Vic Falls. I have decided to come back a week early with her, if I can change my flight…I’m missing my family and mates!

Since my last update, we have been on a field trip to The Hogsbackmountains, I have been to Cape Town for a lovely weekend withPaul, and then Paul flew back to Port Elizabeth and spent a week here on Amakhala. I have also completed my First Aid course, which was much more fun and highly entertaining!

The field trip to The Hogsbackended up being more of a holiday than I first expected! As we were down to study trees and shrubs and amphibians that week, I was expecting it to be quite a lot more hard work educationally! Having said that it was knackering, having spent the last month or so studying in camp, or going out on drive, I found myself even dreadfully unfit. We spent the days, walking in the Hogsback mountains, visiting various waterfalls, enjoying stunning views and studying the trees in the Forest Biome, which is very different from the Thicket biome where Amakhala is located. A biome is basically a group of ecosystems, in South Africa these are primarily defined by the dominant vegetation that grows there and the climate.

The Hogsback is about 100 miles North East of us, and is renowned as the place that JRR Tolkeincame up with the idea for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. It even has it’s own Hobbiton! We stayed at an exatraordinary backpackers, aptly named “Away with the Fairies”. The walls of the communal areas were festooned with trippy pictures of goblins, pixies and fairies, all indulging in some kind of smoking, drinking or tripping! What we were later to realise was that our bar was alosone of the liveliest spots in town. A huge night with far to much alcohol, made the following day’s walking even harder!

One night back at Ulovane, and just enough time to unpack one lot of bags, and re-pack another, and I was off to Cape Town to meet Paul. It was 16th May, our 5thwedding anniversary! I was relieved to get on my plane from Port Elizabethand get to Cape Town without incident! I flew with 1tme a lcalbudget airline that was surprisingly good, after the original airline that I had booked with (Nationwide) went bust! Boy was it good to be back in a city! Yaseen from Discovery Toursmet me and it was great to catch up and chat to a fellow guide about how my course was going. After checking back in to a beautiful room at An African Villa I headed into town for a hair cut and manicure! So nice to be pampered! A quick shower and change and it was off to the airport to see Paul! I was soooexcited, it was wonderful to see him again! We had a quiet night in with a bottle of champagne courtesy of Louis and Jimmy!

On Saturday we headed to KirstenboschBotanical Gardens which are located in the foothills of Table Mountain. They are really beautiful and I was able to dazzle Paul with my knowledge of Trees and flowers! I think he was kind of taken aback! Check out this beutiful protea! The birdlifewas amazing too, and I wish I had taken my Bird book with me!

In the afternoon we visited Gourmet SA a food and wine show in Cape Town and watched a demonstaration by Cyrus Todiwala from Cafe Spice Namaste in London. We also saw this great banner which Chris Bromham my mate should really have embalzoned on a T-shirt , it read “My only regret in life is that I did not drink more champagne….”, Chris down to a tee!

Paul and I headed back up to Ulovane on Sunday, only to discover that everyone had been out all day at a Kudu Poitje (pronounced Poike) at Schalk’s house. We were very disappointed to miss it, as it is an amazing South African Dish made in a small metal pot over the camp fire. Having never tasted Kudu, it would have been great to try it.

Paul stayed at Reed Valley Inn while he was here, and I have to say not only did Rod and Tracy who own the place give us a fantastic rate, they were so welcoming that it really felt like home. With all the personality clashes going on back at camp, it was quite tempting to check in for the rest of the course!

We had our First Aid Course for the first 3 days of Paul’s stay, so Paul went out on Game drives at Reed Valley and had a wonderful time. I was able to spend a bit more time with him in the evenings and toward the end of the week, and at the weeken. It was lovely to see him, but the week went so quickly I can’t believe that he’s been and gone already!

This week has been studying hard and we prepared for the AGM dinner which we hosted. It was a nice evening and Ulovane looked wonderful. All the students managed to stay sober and the evening was judged to be a great success! For a change it was one of the Ulovane staff instead of a student that got trashed, and Candice had a ball of a time licking all the blokes eyeballs! Yuk! Luckily it was after all the directors and landowners had left the party!

The next month or so is going to be hard work preparing for exams and assessment drives. We have asked Schalk for the Landrover for the weekend so that we can practice! It is time to have a serious think about the future, will I return to Ulovane to do Level 2, go elsewhere to do the same, or get some practical experience? Life is emotionally and mentally very draining at the moment, and what seems as clear as mud one moment, is not at all clear the next.

After weeks of suffering with Asthma, the cats have been removed, which means that Mel and I can use the communal areas again, which is nice. I felt pretty guilty as some of the blokes had got quite attached to Garfield and JJ, but it is nice to be able to breathe again.

We had tracker duties at the weekend, and I ended up going to Reed Valley Inn and doing two drives with Jenn, who was brilliant! We had an fantastic sighting of the Lion pride, and got some great photos of the cubs fighting and climbing trees! Don’t believe it when people say that lions’ can’t climb trees! They sure can! It’s getting out of them they have trouble with. We also had a great sighting of a Serval which is very rare, and lots of the other guys were very jealous! Schalk decided to lend us his Buckie (utility vehicle) so that we could get outselves to tracker duties and back, which was great, although it meant that it took me ages to drop everyone off and pick them up again, I enjoyed it because I got to see every lodge on the reserve. I need to start building up some realtionships for when my business gets going!

We also had some great elephant sightings of both the breeding herd (twice on Friday night) and the two dominant males Norman and Maculey on Saturday, while I was doing the pick ups/drop offs! Norman was on the side of the road between the gate an Ulovane, and passed within feet of us! I wouldn’t have liked to have been Keith and Mike in the back! Yow it was close! getting that close, you really appreciate how huge the big bull elephant’s are when they are almost breathing down your neck!

We’ve been out with Schalk this week studying grasses, and the man is a fabulous teacher! I never thought that I could possibly find grasses intersting, but when you realise what an important role they play in ecology and our development, it really is food for thought. did you know that 30% of the earth’s land mass is covered in grass, and that it is also makes up 4 of the world’s 5 staple foods (Rice, Maize, Sorghum and Wheat). It is quite something to realise that grasses are the bottom of almost every food chain!

We had a night out in Grahamstown on Saturday night, which was fun, but those boys certainly don’t know how to drink socially! At least 3 of them were completeley paralytic on the way home. We went to the “Rat & Parrot” first which was full of students from Rhodes university. It seems like half of Vaughn’s high school were there! Later we headed off to Friar Tuck’s for a dance, but I really missed Paul and someone to Ceroc with!

This week is going to one of hard work and study. We have an exam on Mammals and Animal Behaviour on Monday which is huge, so no partying this week! But before that we have a game count tomorrow, with quite a lot of the rangers and the conservation centre on the reserve involved. We do about a days conservation work every week or so which can be fun. We spent last Wednesday packing stones around electricity pylons, to stop the elephant’s rubbing themselves against them. A while before I came here, oneof the big bulls was electrocuted and killed, so it’s all in a good cause!

I must get back to the books now! It’s only about 10 days until Paul’s visit and I am really excited and looking forward to seeing him again. It will be nice to have a weekend in Cape Town too! A few of my photos made it into the Ulovane April Newsletter, (all except the last 2), so why not check them out by followng the link on the right!

The Purpose of the trip was to learn tracking skills and interpretive skills. What a great three days we had ! We stared out from Ulovane Camp at 7am, and headed out across Impala Flats towards the river. We spent a lot of time, looking at and learning the difference between different animal spoor (tracks) and dung along the way. By the time we got to the bird hide for lunch, I was knackered, as I have to work extra hard with my little legs to keep up with the long legged guys! Only Keith is under 6ft. After an hour or so rest and yet more Tuna sandwiches, I had recovered sufficiently for me to enjoy the afternoon. We climbed up a cliff side over Ndlovu (elephant) road, in the hope that we would get a good sighting of the elephants. It just goes to show, how intelligent they are, and how good a sense of smell they have, because when they caught wind of us, they initially turned back. When they decided to come down to the road again, the males walked down the dirt track and the females and calves walked down the river bed, further away from us and out of sight. One of the bulls took a good look at us, as if to say “what day a think I don’t know you’re there?”, before moving off. It was exciting and amazing.

We got back to camp in time to prepare for our interpretative exercises that evening and to help unload the landy when Chris arrived. Erica had outdone herself this time, supplying us with cubed beef and chicken so that we could have a Potkje (African Stew made in a big metal pot) one night and a braii the second night. We even had paraffin lamps, plates, cutlery and cups as well as tea, coffee and gallons of water! Bliss!

Day two, we were supposed to head up to Lang kloof and have lunch in Bushpig valley, where yet more exercises were planned. We set off at 7am, with a swagger in our steps, only to run into the entire herd of elephants motoring down the track towards us! Yikes! They seemed to get wind of us and headed off to the right. We moved back out of there way back to near the bird hide, and made a second plan to explore a valley to the left (East), that had never been explored before. We crossed the river, and as we scrambled up the first hill, only to come face to face with the Matriarch of the Herd, who was no more than 50 meters ahead of us. Schalk told us that we needed to get out of their quick, and started heading back. Before I could even turn around, Iguanadon (our nick name for Don coz he’s a bit of a dinosaur ), went sprinting past, as fast as he could go. I turned tail, and headed off as quickly as possible, while reminding myself “walk , don’t run”. The one thing you are not supposed to do in any animal encounter is run! Those ele’s did an amazing job of tricking us into thinking, they had gone one one way, and then turned around and gone in the opposite direction. You wouldn’t think you could loose a herd of elephants, but it jus goes to show how dense the thickets are here!

We stayed out of their way, while the herd passed, and then resumed our climb up the valley. The thicket was very dense, and we had to do a lot of scrabbling while fighting your way through the bush, which is not fun because almost every plant here is thorny or spiky in some shape or form. I ended up with quite a few scratches and even a couple of thorns…at that stage I didn’t know that worse was to come! When we got to the top of the ridge there was a lovely overhang with great views over the reserve, where we stopped for a break. I was pretty chuffed at making it through. We found some Dassies and their midden too.

We walked along the ridge and noted the lack of wildlife. This is primarily because a lot of blue bush has taken over, and it ruins the soil, so very little else can grow, and there are no grassed for the animals to graze on, which is a huge shame. In the bush we carried out another interpretive exercise, with blindfolds again. It was after this that Schalk pointed out all the Pepper Ticks on his trousers, and I realised that mine were also covered all over in them! I spent a huge amount of time trying to get rid of them, despite the boys saying not to worry, it’s the ones that have climbed up your trousers you need to worry about. Apparently they like finding your warm damp places, like behind your knee, and in your armpits and crotch! Yuk! I was pleased to get to bird hide and have a quick wash and tick inspection, and change into my clean uniform. I got away with only two of the buggers in my leg, and learnt from Ben, an old hand and leve 3 Guide, that the best way to get rid of them is to smother them with cream or Vaseline. They can’t breathe after 15 mins, and just crawl out! What a relief that was! Schalk didn’t help matters when he told me that apparently Pubic Lice are also endemic to this region. Apparently you don’t have to sleep with someone to catch them, you can just pick them up in the bush! When we were disbelieving, he just told us to look them up in our insect books!

Day three we managed to avoid the elephants and did an interesting walk along the Bushman’s River which runs through the reserve. We saw some amazing plant species, and Schalk tested us on our knowledge of tracks. It was great to get back to camp, and clean up and do another tick inspection,a nd sorting out some camp maintenance.

Most of yesterday was spent organsing Paul’s trip out here. I am going to fly down to Cape Town to meet him and get a little fix of civilisation. Pervin and Cyrus Todiwala  from Café Spice Namaste are also going to be out here at the Gourmet SA show, so I have dropped Pervin a quick email re; catching up, if their schedule allows. We headed up to Mike and Andrew Moran’s Barn at Wodbury House and had a few drinks and played blackjack and Poker with a few people there, but today I should be studying for tomorrow’s test, but somehow can’t seem to get around to it. Mel who shares my tent was up studding at 5:30 this morning, which is bloody early on a Sunday of you ask me!

I thought  would spend my weekends exploring SA, but most of them seem to be taken up with studying for the exams every Monday! I’m thinking of organising a long term car hire, so I can get out and about a bit more!

The 17th was my birthday, and we spent all day out doing a woody plant survey. The day started off with a herd of 14 buffalo strolling through the area so we had to jump aboard the landy and get out of the way while they passed. Trees and bushes are not one of the things I am most interested in, by the end of the day I was bored to death, and frustrated by the general lack of team work exhibited by our team. The other group finished way ahead of us, and then came to show us how it’s done! We were rewarded by beautiful views, once we got to the end though.

Back to camp for a braii and a bit of a party. I managed to get some Ostrich kebabs and cake in Grahamstown, so we had some very nice food. We even had a few visitors, Natalie and Razz from the Amakhala conservation centre and Sarah and Andrew Morgan from Woodbury lodge. It was a pretty good night.

Friday morning brought a drive out to Bushman’s Grave, a stone age site on Amakhala and a boring lecture on The History of Human Habitation. That was followed by the exciting news that 50 Blessbok were about to be released in the Northern Territory, which is the area of the reserve where the lions are found. They had pretty much eaten eveything else up there, so that was excellent news, and everyone was hoping for a kill. We went out with the level 2 students to see if we could get a look, but never made it to the NT! I got back from the drive to find that I had to leave for tracker duty at Safari Lodge in less than an hour! Dashing to grab a shower and clean uniform, Mel came banging on the door, to announce a change of plan. We were now leaving in 20 mins! Yikes! Sometimes this place is so disorganised, I just want to scream! Mike threw together a few sandwiches which we scoffed in the landrover on the way to our respective lodges.

So what did I learn on my first tracker duty? Well how not to be a guide was one. The guy I went out with was a Big 5 chaser, and not the best advertisment for ethical guiding! We had a nice bunch of Brits and an american as guests, and we got some good conversation going. It was bitterly cold, though as a cold front was approaching.

Mike went out with Jen an ex Ulovane student, at Reed Valley Lodge, who by all accounts is an excellent guide. He also got to have a few beers with Rod and Tracey Weeks and Uncle Bill Fowlds who are the local land owners. I have to confess to being quite jealous!

By the time I got back to camp and had some dinner, I was completely fed up with game drives! I was overwhelemed to find flowers from Paul! Crazy man, sending flowers to the bush, where hot water and a bed are a luxury! I was quite touched. I fell into bed knackered, only to have to drag my backside out again at 430 am to get to my lodge for 6am! Not only was it freezing, it was chucking it down all weekend! Despite quite a few hints at Safari Lodge, no breakfast was forthcoming! Lucky I had picked up some bacon in town, so I had a very lovely fry up once I managed to get back to camp!

The weekend was miserable, wet and cold. The only good thing was that it made studying much easier as there was bugger all else to do. The only downside was that I used up all of my MTN data bundle, and now have to use my UK sim for internet access! That means no pics until I can get cheap internet again! The weekend also brought the news that we would be on camp out again Wed – Fri. This time we are definitley walking as the rifle has been fixed!

Monday at 630 am brought the first of our weekly exams, which I aced with 90% yet I’m still pissed because I threw away 5% by not reading the questions properly! I’m ever the impatient one! Monday’s schedule was to include a game drive and Taxonomy, instead we were told we woukd be pulling Blue Bush as the rains had loosened the soil! I have to say, it was bloody hard work! I hate to think how bad that would have been if it hadn’t rained. We cleared a massive area in two hours, and were mighty pleased to get back for lunch and a shower!

Today we were due to study Biomes, but ended up going out on a 5 hour walk instead, with Chris and Remi (the rifle) instead! My initial frustration at yet another change of schedule, was replaced by wonder!It was truly awesome, and the best way to enjoy the reserve. We saw Zebra, Eland, warthogs, Rhino, a whole herd of elephants, and even cheetah on foot! The elephants got a bit close, and we had to make our way quickly to higher ground. Our route back was via Mount Everest which is the highest (let’s face it,a hill) on the reserve. I was dreading it, but managed to make it up with only a couple of rest stops! The top brought beautiful views towards shamwari and an Addo Dung Beetle which is endemic to this area, but also endangered.

I was pretty pleased overall, but sods law says that I would get back to find I was making lunch today! Fish fingers and chips with green salad! The only problem was there was no greens in sight! I have to say that orginisation is not one of Erica’s strong points. Apart from always putting people on the roster for cooking when they are out on an assesment, she also puts food on the menu that we just don’t have any stock of! It’s very frudtrating and a lot of improvisation is required!

Tomorrow we head out for a 3 day/ 2 night walk/ camp out with Schalk! After today, I am really looking forward to it!

The last few days have been a mixture of hard work and great game drives. Monday was in the timetable as Climatology all day. Now I don’t mind getting up at 5:30 am for a game drive starting at 6:30pm, but getting up to spend all day learning Climatology is no fun at all! To make matters worse the 1 year students were going out on a game drive. By some kind o minor miracle we managed to finish two days worth of work and our homework my midday. I guess the stockbrokers and project managers are a bit smatter than the average trainee they get through here!

It was beginning to look like a boring day when the 1 year students returned to say they had seen a Cheetah, Damarra and her cubs at a kill. We were pretty jealous and frustrated I have to tell you. We jotted down the grid reference in the hope that we might see her the next day, but were mighty pleased when Erica out facilitator decided that we could go out for a drive and see her. It was unbelievable as all three cheetah and the Kudu kill were only about 10 meters off the road. They really are gorgeous! That made our day.

Tuesday morning was the first of our game drives lead by the three month students, and Keith our Canadian from Kenya started with the first drive! It was good to have him start, as he currently works at Cottars 1920 in Kenya, so he has quite a lot of experience guiding already. At the moment his camp is closed because of the political situation out there, so he’s using this time to get himself some formal qualifications. We went out to catch up with Dammara and the cubs again. They had finished off most of the kudu but I got some great photos.

As our facilitator had done a wonderful job of scheduling me to do both the morning game drive and cook Curry for lunch on Wednesday, I used Tuesday night to cook up lunch and prepare the “hotbox” (Teas Coffees, biscuits etc.) for the following days game drive. It’s not often that you’re cooking when a Black Rhino just wanders into camp and starts browsing about meters away from both the outside deck and kitchen. Such a shame that our tents were too far away to warrant running back for a camera!

On Wednesday my game drive went well, and we stopped for our refreshment break at The Bird Hide. We also played with a Cape Green Snake which is non venomous,a nd looked at some tracks down by the river. The only feedback I really got was about not hearing the guys at the back of the vehicle; I am really pleased at how well it went. It is really hard trying to concentrate on the road, spot game and chat to your “guests” at the same time, and I admire the existing guides for how well they do this.

I will try and upload a couple of pictures later, I need to get a move on for our 6:30am start!

Last Sunday, we had a meeting with Chris and Erica, two of the “facilitators” at Ulovane. We were given a brief into to the course, our schedule for the next 11 weeks and some housekeeping stuff. I was a little taken aback to find that we have to cook our own meals, and clean our own tents. That was certainly not in the brochure! Talking to my fellow students, it seems that cooking and housekeeping is often a feature of the courses here, as you often have to cook or help with house keeping in the lodges, and it is preparation for a future job. To be honest, it’s not a drama as I love to cook, and it’s an opportunity to put something a bit more interesting on the menu.

We were also informed that we would be leaving at 7am the following morning on a 4 day walk, as I may have mentioned last week we had to carry all our own food an drink, on getting up Monday and splitting the meagre rations ,supplemented by leftover food (my idea) amongst our rucksacks, we prepared head off. I left the camera behind in lieu of carrying 3 litres of water, a decision I was to later regret. After setting off on our walk towards the conservation centre, we found the Land Rover parked outside. Chris informed us to jump in! As the rifle was broken, we would not be able to walk in the reserve so were going by Landy instead!

Day one was  fantastic day, consisting of one long game drive, where we got to know the lay out of the reserve and each took a turn driving. We also played some team building games, the kind of which you blindfold a partner and lead them around without talking, only this was with a huge difference, we actually ended up leading the other guys over a stream on a steep hillside which was pretty scary! Health and safety just wouldn’t allow it back home! We also managed to fit in a canoe trip on the Bushman’s River, which runs through the reserve, it was magical, and the day ended on a high note viewing a Cheetah, Lightfoot,  with a kill. My first dangerous animal approach as driver. Damn! I wish I had that camera! We spent the night at Bush Braii, the only downer was the cold and the lack of food. The night ended with a night drive, stumbling over loads if elephants in the dark, and a bit of Astronomy, then back to Bush Braii for bed. It was freezing! Being inexperienced campers we all huddled up in a very sociable line to keep warm, without realising that every time someone moved we would wake up. I struggled to get to sleep, only to be kicked in the face by Mike just as I was dropping off, but got my revernge by snoring all night and keeping him up! Ha!

The following day was much warmer, and we spent the day at Amakhala conservation centre learning about the reserve and the work they do with local communities. They have a project to get all the locals and lodges recycling, which I think is fantastic. They also monitor all the high profile species in the reserve, do mini game counts and keep an eye on the cheetahs. In the afternoon we had a game drive with Natalie and did a mini game count and learnt how to use the telemetry system to track the cheetah’s and other animals which are fitted with radio transmitters. Despite trying quite hard to get some extra food, the guys at the conservation centre had been briefed not to let us have any extra food. What we did manage to score was some plastic cups, which meant that we could at least drink the coffee we’d brough with us, even if it did taste of Tuna, because we had insufficient water to clean the pots out properly! The evening took us back to Bush Braii, for a pretty decent dinner, I never knew that butternut squash could taste sooo good! Yum!  This time we spread out a bit with A few of us moving out from the shelter to sleep by the camp fire under the stars.

Wednesday we woke up, covered in dew. I’m grateful for my waterproof sleeping bag (thanks Helen)! The day brought more game drives, learning about the reserve and the layout and more games in the middle of the night. This time we were dropped off in the Game reserve and had to stalk the landy. First one back to the vehicle without getting caught on the spotlight wins! Needless to say, none of us made it, although some of the guys picked up quite a few ticks rolling around in the bush, trying too hard! The idea was to discover what it takes to stalk like a leopard. A valuable experience!

Wednesday night I slept like a baby, once again around the camp fire. The prospect of a good hot shower the following day, and a good meal were like gold dust on the horizon! After a brief game drive on Thursday morning, we returned to Ulovane for hot showers and clean uniforms, bliss! An early lunch followed by a rangers meeting at 1pm, which was a real eye opener! Most importantly Etienne, one of the guys who looks after the volunteers on the reserve was having his leaving drinks on Friday. The afternoon was filled by Vehicle Maintenance lectures, and practical work.

Friday brought Keith’s 20^th birthday. A morning game drive, ably lead by Chris one of the level 2 students, who showed us how it should be done, we also practised changing the tyres on a Land Rover. The afternoon brought Astronomy lectures, vehicle and camp maintenance and chopping wood! The mission for the day was to ensure that we got lifts to the pub in Paterson for Etienne’s drinks, which Sylvio and Harley managed to organise between them. Keith and I headed down to Paterson our nearest town, about 20 mins drive away, with Don and Leoni and their 3 year old, Oliver. What followed was a night of drunken debauchery, with shots being necked left right and centre! Having bought drinks for half the pub, I was amazed to have only spent £20 at the end of the night.

We headed back to camp at 2:30am, with two extra passengers, Mike & Silvio in the boot, and a few beers to drink on the way. On arrival, we discovered that the Gate was locked ( an anti-poaching measure). As no one had told us what to do on the circumstances, we proceeded to one of the other reserve gates and persuaded the gaurds to let us in. We then attempted to drive on the dirt tracks with 7 people aboard an Astra, including 3 year old Oliver! About 50 yards in, we discovered that we couldn’t get uo the first hill,  and then proceeded to ground the vehicle! It was then it dawned on us that no way were we likely to make it across the reserve in a 2 wheel drive! After much changing of drivers, unloading passengers and finally pushing the car out, we managed to make it back to where we started. The security guards being no help at all, we then headed back to the first gate to try again. All  I can say is, that it’s a good thing that guides can’t drink on duty, because what ensued just goes to show how alcohol impairs your judgement!

After somehow scaling the electric gate and fence, we then proceeded to walk 30 mins through a reserve filled with Black Rhino, Cheetah and elephants in the pitch dark, too scared to turn on our torches, in case we got shot by an anti poaching patrol! Nuts! We crawled into bed at 5am!

Saturday brought a day tip into Grahamstown for lunch and shopping, and an early night, today Sunday was mainly taken up with study and a Braai (BBQ) around the camp fire.

After one week we have learnt a huge amount, are coming to terms with the wild and are a pretty well bonded, tight knit crew! Most of all we have learnt how little it can take to survive, and appreciate things like hot water, plates, knives and forks, because we managed without them for 4 days, overall it’s been great! J

Its day two at Amakhala, the place of many Aloes, except there aren’t many because the Elephants have eaten the tops off most of them! We, the new three month intake were given a warm and very hearty welcome by Candice, Schalk, Chris and Erica.  My fellow course mates are in no particular order Mike and Keith the North American’s, Don, Vaugh and Stu the South African’s. There are also four others on the one year course, Harley (An Aussie), Silvio, Chris and Mealnie. Melanie is my room mate, but is currently in the UK on vacation, and we are yet to meet.

After being shown our very comfortable tents and alfresco bathrooms, we were treated to a slap up meal. We were also issued our uniforms and books. Unsurprisingly, as often happens where the Thomas’ go, it then decided to chuck it down all night, which meant getting to the loo, which is about 25 yards away, at 1:30 in the morning a very damp experience. My discomfort was only added to on discovering a very large, hairy forest spider in the loo. We had been warned about these, but I was still taken back by the size of it which was about the size of my palm. This morning I had a second one join me in the shower, landing on the shampoo, which meant no hair wash today!

This was not good news, as at this morning’s meeting we were informed that we were due to head out to the bush at 7am tomorrow, for a four day sleep out on foot. It is unlikely we will be able to wash during the next four days (yuk!). We will be covering about 10 km a day, and have to carry all our camping gear, food and water with us. This caused me a great deal of consternation, as no way am I ready for that yet!

After being allocated our provisions for today and the next four days, all the tutor’s headed off for their day off. Harley and Silvio the 1 year guides, offered to take us out on a Game Drive, so after packing some sandwiches for lunch we headed off ! We had an excellent drive, and are learning so much already. We saw White Rhino, Cape Buffalo and Leopard Tortoise amongst the usual Zebra, Red Hartebeaset and various other antelope.

On our return, a huge dust storm had kicked up, and on my return to the tent, I found that half my belongings had been blown across the tent. After battening down the flaps and zipping up everything, I had quite a lot of tidying up to do. Evern the lamps had blown of the bedsteads. Not only that most of the coir carpet had bubbled up all over the place, which make me think that if it wasn’t for the beds and heavy cupboards the whole lot would have taken off!

The rest of the evening was taken up by dinner, which the boys knocked up on the braii, and getting ourselves organised for the next 4 days. We are a bit worried the tutors are going to think us a bit posh, as we have already pre-prepared some of the food we were allocated, as well as adding a few left overs from lunch and some herbs and spices. J According to Harley (such a cool name) and Silvio they nearly starved last time, and had to get a food/water drop, so hopefully we are going to do better than that.

Well it’s long passed time I was in bed as I have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow to be ready for a 7am start. If I make it through the next four days, then I think I should be able to do anything!  I have decided to leave the camera behind, in order to travel as light as possible.

Yesterday was fantastic! I started off with a mission to buy a local MTN sim as this seems to be the cheapest to call UK mobiles. The lady the MTN shop was very good at explaining how I needed to buy talktime and could convert some of that to data, only to go on and tell me she way out of stock of Pay as You Go Sims! instead she pointed me in the direction of Pick and Pay, the local Supermaket! Lesson no 1 in how SA is different from the UK! You can buy a sim and airtime from the supermarket….I still haven’t managed to get the data part working though

A wander Round the Victoria & Alfred shopping mall, left me reeling at the high prices, so I had a wander around the Red and Blue shed craft markets instead! Any urge to shop was curbed by the knowledge that all three of my bags are already chocka!

I had a stroll along the waterfront and ended up jumping on a catamaran cruise around the bay! This turned out to be the highlight of the day as we came across many dolphin and even to the disbelief of our skipper, two whales that appeared to be mating. While it was great to see them from a personal perspective, this is not whale season.

After the amazing boat trip I headed out to Camps Bay High School which is located in the most beautiful setting between The Twelve Apostles and Camps Bay. The Taste of Cape Town was being hosted here, and I couldn’t get over how civilized it all was compared to Taste of London. I had the most amazing Crayfish Koksisters at the Le Quartier Francais stand, the dish was accompanied by tomatoe jam and were just perfect little taste explosions that meletd in the mouth!

I headed back to the hotel, and ended up heading out to dinner with Lorraine who is a collegue of Paul’s and has been seconded out here. We went to Mama Africa, which specialises in game, but was rammed full of large tour groups and very drunk youngsters!

I will try and get some whale pics up after I get to Amakhala!

I have spent most of the last week saying good bye to people I both know and love. It’s been a roller coaster ride of highs and lows, getting stressed over packing, excitement at finally leaving for Africa, and sadness at saying goodbye to family and friends, and of course my gorgeous husband.

Friday was my last day at work, and my leaving drinks for my work colleagues, and less than a week later, I’m sitting by the pool in Cape Town chilling out with a bottle of Pinotage that cost less than 4 quid a bottle!

Saturday was great with nearly 40 people turning out for the Southbank bar crawl, and my oldest and dearest friends for Sunday lunch at the Gun. A perfect weekend finished off nicely with a couple of decent bottles of Rioja courtesy of Andy and Es, who make a really handsome couple.

I got to Cape Town today on Emirates via Dubai. Apart from being harassed by fascist customs officials every step of the way, Emirates were a dream in Economy class, and overall the flights had excellent service, food and drink (Wolf Blass….yum). The ICE entertainment is great and although it will never live up to business class, Emirates definitely have one of the best Economy classes I have ever travelled in.

One slight  hitch with SA immigration, which means Ionly have a 3 month visa, but as I   plan to visit Zambia and Botswana after my  course that shouldn’t be a problem, but I  investigate the definition of Border Hopping and possibly make a visit to the department of Home Affairs to  extend my visa

I was welcomed to African Villa and freshening up, I have spent a lovely evening chatting and drinking wine with Hank & Phillisia from Texas and Kate from Seattle amongst other guests. I am really impressed with this cool stylish boutique hotel, where the owners appear to have anticipated my every need!

I hope to catch with Lorraine for dinner tomorrow alongside seeing a bit of Cape Town. It’s been a lovely 27 degrees celcius today! Nice!