The course ended with “fines” night

Monday 3rd February 2014 We all scored a sleep in with the rain coming down hard. This meant no activities until the afternoon and allowed me to start light “Back-up rifle” duties, the stripping down and cleaning of two rifles. I was very pleased with the job I did, that was until I was until I found a part of the second rifle on the table. This is ok when you’re building IKEA furniture but not…

Driving is like watching the moving, walking is like reading the book

Saturday 1st February 2014 Heavy rain from the middle of the night through to lunch meant that we were camp bound with no walks. This gave me the opportunity to talk to Dee about my placement. When everyone else leaves on Tuesday I’m going to stay on for the next three weeks before taking leave to meet Mum and Dad as well as my brother and sister in law in Cape Town.

It’s great knowing where I’m…

Bruce held no punches when giving me constructive feedback

Friday 31st January 2014 Very hard getting up this morning, everyone is dog tired. It’s a very demanding course, even more so if you throw yourself into it and add on the daily fitness sessions.

The morning walk was incredibly hot and I was feeling the effects of yesterday’s sun. After breakfast I had my assessment meeting with Bruce regarding yesterdays walks. I wasn’t sure which way it was…

Thursday 30th January 2014 Today was incredibly hot. This was good from a navigation point of view but it left me beat by the end of the day and I’m really suffering now. I left my hat in the Landy and didn’t want to use my spare in case a ‘guest needed it’.

I was lead and Ben was my ‘”Back up rifle” for the Trails Guide practical assessment. I took our group of four plus two heavily armed guests…

Walking with the rifle is becoming a lot more natural

Wednesday 29th January 2014 The morning was taken up by assessments, first up we had field observations – tracks, signs, birds, insects and plants (the latter included botanical names) etc. There were 75 questions in all and I felt pretty confident afterwards. Then we had a bird slide and sound test, the results were pretty much instantaneous and I was happy with my performance. Luckily we broke…

Today’s lecture was a sobering affair

Friday 24th January 2014 The heat and humidity made our five hour walk this morning gruelling. Not even half way through at 07.00 it must have been pushing 30 degrees. Once back at camp there was no time for rest as Ben and I were on duty and once breakfast was cleared we had lectures.

Today’s lecture was a sobering affair. First it concentrated on crime scene management – what do you do if you…

Thursday 23rd January 2014 After a day off yesterday it was tough to get up early and start walking. We managed it but the morning walk had little energy and we took it nice and easy under a baobab tree looking over the flood plain. In the afternoon I had…

Tuesday 21st January 2014 I led the morning walk with Cliff as my ‘Back up rifle’, our mission was to find either lion or elephant. We headed towards the springs and picked up some tracks for a large bull elephant. Tracking a seven ton elephant isn’t as…