Monday we had conservation all day, a lecture in the morning on conservation and reserve management, and then a DVD in the afternoon on the history of conservation in South Africa-it is very interesting, but I am not sure that I would want to take on the responsibility.
Tuesday we had our last lecture of the course, History and Culture. To make it more interesting (learning about the stone age and iron age just doesnt grab me the same way as mammals, or reptiles etc do) we had a waterbuck sprint straight past the lecture room. We thought it was a bit strange, but didnt think anymore about it, until 2 cheetah followed the waterbuck stopping just outside the classroom-that really did distract us from the lecture. As good prospective guides, we all headed outside to have a look at the cheetah which had decided that they were tired and wanted a lie down under the trees. We got a fantastic sighting of them, managing to get about 10m away. The rest of the lecture was a little more difficult to concentrate in after that, and not quite so interesting.
We then headed out on our sleepout for the semester in the afternoon. We went to a new spot, a small drainage line. It was a pleasent time, and then at 2am the people on watch found a lion with the spotlight only about 4 meters from where we were sleeping-that certainly got us up, we had to wake the rest of the group up and get into the cars where we would be safe until the lions moved off. Needless to say after 2 very cold hours in the vehicles, we headed back to bed at about 4am, but as I was on watch at 5, there was no sleep that night-it was all worth it though.
Wednesday afternoon we had our last rifle dry runs before we got to shoot our first rounds on the Thursday, just to check we were capable to do our AHR (Advanced Rifle Handling) next week.
Thursday we had a game drive in the morning, where although we didnt see much was good, and managed to find a few new road, and learn some more about the trees and animals. The afternoon was rifles which I found quite fun, never thought I would say that about guns. I managed to do quite well, didnt really feel the kickback from the rifle but clearly dont have enough muscles to hold the rifle up for long, I started out quite well and then my shots all started to go low-my best effort was getting two bullets through the same hole, so I thought I had missed with the second on!
Friday was another long day of study, ready for our test on Saturday.
On Saturday a couple of us headed into town where we had organised to do some rifle practice, to see if we improve our aim. Afterwards it was back to camp for our test and then a lazy afternoon in my room watching movies.
Vulture
Cheetah near lecture room
Sleepout
1 comment:
Hi Rhiannon! In Namibia we never camped in a river bed after reading Heno Martins excellent book! He hid himself and a friend in the Namib desert so that they would not be interned. It thundert in the mountains,all the frogs left the river bed and then the river came down! They rescued what they could and that was it! It never happened to them again! I have known the Zambesi to rise 2m and we lost 2 canoes because the were not tied up! Geoff!
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