This has been a really hectic six weeks, with a huge amount of work covered. The gang have all done their trails theory exams, with the lowest mark being 85%, which is a fantastic achievement by the whole group. Rickus did the best in the group with a 98% score!!

They also wrote the SASSETA exams as well as the law theory exam for weapon handling and possession in South Africa at MASADA, followed by their practical shoot at the Naboomspruit range which went well.

There were several highlights, including an arachnid course with Jonathan Leeming, www.scorpions.co.za, who took us all out into the field for a weekend of scorpion and spider collecting. He also compiled work books for the students to round off their arachnid knowledge a little bit, with a very successful hunt taking place, including the collecting of an adult female the largest scorpion species in the world, the Hadogenes troglodytes.

We also had a great weekend of reptile handling and searching through the rocky outcrops. Jens Reissig, the chairman of the East Rand Herpetological society led us on this exiting weekend, and gave several lectures. We found about ten species of snake and lizard. We also did a short handling program covering, practical handling of snouted cobras, spitting cobras, puff adder, boomslang and the innocuous twig snake. We did some great photography too, photographing the Waterberg flat and girdled lizards, as well as the Sundevall’s writhing skink. We did some interesting and informative class room time too, with a very in depth lecture on the handling of snake bite.

The ARH has gone very well with nine of our students through on the highest standard. The shooting has gone really well and all the hours of dry work with Deirdre, Banie and Ian have really paid off. They are shooting fast and straight, and I think the boys have enjoyed this aspect hugely.

We also did a trip to the Makapansgat caves and historical site with Lyle. It was fantastic, with forays into the historical, limeworks, hyaena, peppercorn and fig tree caves, as well as a look at the cave of hearths. This is one of the best known fossil sites in South Africa, and it was simply incredible to look at bones in the walls from millions of years ago. The guys enjoyed a swim in the underground lake at fig tree cave, swimming with their miner’s hard hats and torches, a funny sight indeed. Tim. Diederik and Rickus also abseiled into a sink hole. Great fun until they realised they would have to climb out. Diederik took a small fall, and was tied to Tim, and it was very funny to see Diederik dangling for a rope with Tim holding on for dear life! Fortunately there were other ropes so they wouldn’t have fallen far! Bats were everywhere in fig tree cave which was good, as peppercorns cave was full of water and we couldn’t get to the back to see the bats! The old mine works at the limeworks cave still has the train track and coco pans, and it is really interesting to see the old diggings and supports. Historical cave always has a strange feel about it, especially if one knows the history of the thousands of lives which were lost there during the siege of 1854.

The guys are busy with their level 2 theory program at present and will be done soon with all their exams for the preparation course, and are also busy with walk after walk into the lions, hippos, buffalo, rhino and elephants to try and build up their walks for their trails assessments. They are also busy preparing for trailing with Adriaan Louw, which will take place some time in May.

The game has been great, with the two new cheetahs being seen regularly, and even occasionally on kills! The male is very relaxed with the vehicles, but the female is very skittish. (The students were there for the cheetahs release too, a great thing to see animals released into the wild). Arrie has now gotten his white lions at the breeding centre, and tells me that his sable herd is now over forty animals strong. The buffalo herd are also doing very well with loads of new calves. The lions have been hunting around camp a lot, with five kills in one night in front of camp, including two blesbok and three wildebeest. We have now called the plains Bamba Plains (or kill plains).

Track and sign went well, with a minimum of level 2 achieved by everyone. Talley, and Nico achieved level three, with Jack achieving an incredible 100% score. This is the first time a student has hit a 100 % score. Very well done to Jack!

The students did an around the clock with the lions, and saw an attempted hunt on an aardvark, as well as an attempt on a wildebeest. Then, soon after they actually caught a blesbok, right in front of the students! A leopard was also seen by one of the two groups of students, although it was very brief! This is the second sighting that the guys have had in two weeks! Another fantastic sighting was of a pair of jackals approaching and stalking a spotted eagle owl, but the owl threatened them and they backed off! An amazing thing to see! A few of the lads also did a night drive and saw a python eating an impala. Our biggest lioness also has had a few cubs, so we are looking forward to seeing them in the future.

Well, yet another action packed semester, and another week to go before the guys go on leave, so we’ll see what happens!!