Tracking

So the last week was all about tracks, how to identify them, learning about poo-who would have thought it could be so interesting and tell you so much!!! It has been a very long week, leaving at 6 every morning, and getting back at 11, to head out again at 2 and back again about 6.30, with a lot of it out in the heat and sun, but it has been very well worth it.

We started off with just the basics on how to look at tracks, what to look for to identify them, not to look at just one track etc. and then spent each day out looking at tracks and getting some experience on how they look different to each other, how to judge the animals size by their walk.

Wednesday night we then headed out on another sleep out, where my roomie and I got the first watch this time. While it was good as it meant we could then go to sleep and not have to get up in the middle of the night, it did mean we ended up doing a 3 hour watch instead of a one hour watch as everyone headed to bed early.

The positive of this was that when a hyena crossed the riverbed 50 meters from where we were sleeping, we were the only ones who got to see it, despite our calls almost no-one woke up! After that it was easy to stay oup for the rest of our shift, as we were excited from our viewing!

Friday we started our assessment for our track and sign certificates-we had to identify 51 tracks and signs (poo and tree rubbings etc) over Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. While I felt I was doing well (we went through the tracks afterwards so we all knew what they were and if we didnt get them go through the caracteristics that identify them) I was surprised when we got our results back and I got 93% (I got 57 out of 51 right), the second highest out of the group, beaten only by one trainer and one of the guys who both got 94%.

Hyena

Porcupine

Our trainer-always prepared :D

Trying to make fire-we got smoke but no flames

Learning tracks