It has been a whopper of a first six months. The level 2 exam was a monster, as it should be! Hopefully the results will be good for all! The gang certainly put in the hours of study required so we shall see!

Practical sessions are about to begin at the lodges, with a few of the gang in the Sabi Sands at Nyati and Lion Sands. Others have found themselves at the Thorny bush with Jackalberry lodge. All these Kruger Park placements have been made possible by our good reputation, outstanding students and excellent relationships with these lodges. It is a shame they are so far away from the school though as we wont get to see the guys as much as those who are with us at Entabeni. I wish them all the best of luck with their practical placements. The students saw some excellent game on their brief trip to the Kruger for interview, including lions, leopards, rhino, buffalo and elephants.

We have kept a good few of our students for ourselves though, placing them in our lodges here at the reserve, and will have lots more time with them in the field. It is always great to take some of our outstanding pupils and nurture them further into the world of guiding here at our own lodges, an option which many of the team prefer as Entabeni is a great learning ground for aspirant field guides.

Jack has joined us in the capacity of Tracking Instructor, and since he is a qualified Trails Guide too he will be able to share some of his expertise, accrued in more than a decade of tracking, on foot with our students. He is a great all rounder, good with people and full of information! We wish him all the best.

Our white lion cubs are getting big now, and the next enclosure that they move into is a bit bigger. They are developing into pretty big animals already, and it wont be too long before the consider breeding! The cheetahs are thriving in the reserve, with the big male hunting quite a few wildebeest calves. The sable herd is now about 40 strong, and so relaxed that it is ridiculous, they stand a couple of metres from the car without any fear of us! Jan, from game management has told us that our black Rhino’s should be with us soon, maybe during this winter, and that we are getting another load of crocodiles to join those already on the reserve. Our game viewing will only get better it seems.

Lee managed to get himself bitten by a cheetah while on a guided walk in the Kruger Park region. Two males attacked the walking group in which Lee was walking one from the front and one from the back! This is incredibly unusual behaviour for cheetah, and it turns out that the cheetah were originally hand raised and then released into the wild. It is a great learning curve, and reminds one that the calmest of animals can sometimes show aggressive behaviour.

Survival this time was done with Rob McQueen, and experienced field guide and bush craft instructor. A lot was learned by all, including the instruction team. Rob is based here with us on the reserve full time and we will definitely be using his expertise in the future courses.

Tobie van Deventer, our local fire chief undertook the fire fighting instruction with the gang, another informative day all round. A few of the guys asked to be hosed down by Tobie with the fire fighting equipment from the big Unimog fire engine which he brought with him. This was quite a chuckle, and the chaps enjoyed their cool off!

Ian has now written Paleo-anthropology, and the result will be available soon! Good luck to Ian! The assessments on the students guided walks into dangerous game have gone well, with a fresh batch of Trails Guides moving into the industry. Basically we have put some very qualified people out there, with certificates in FGASA level 1 and THETA NQF3, full Trails Guide qualifications, ARH, VPDA, Survival certificates, certificates from short courses on Scorpions and Snake handling, FGASA level 2 theory (certificate pending results and practical’s), SASSETA 10750 use of a rifle, SASSETA knowledge of the law, Cyber tracker track and sign and trailing, FGASA track and sign and trailing, Cyber tracker full tracker certificates as well as the equivalent FGASA certificate, first aid, fire fighting and our in-house epaulettes program! How about that, and once they have completed their six month practical they will also hold our 1 year diploma. No wonder the guy’s are in demand!

Lee and Ian did a sleep out on the mountain with the one month students, and had a great sunrise. We had a lekker braai and a fantastic time was had by all.

Pretty good game viewing has been had, with a lion kill (Wildebeest) right at the school. Banie also had a walk with the guys on assessment where they found and elephant fast asleep on its side on the ground. The guys also saw a broad daylight warthog kill which, was done by the lionesses and stolen by the male!

Another highlight was the fact that our biggest male lion was mating in front of room 9, and charged at Diederik when he walked out of his room yesterday morning. I don’t know what it is with room 9 but the lions also killed and ate a wildebeest under it last week!

There was also some good viewing with an aardvark in the car park two nights ago, and Tally got some great pictures of it. It shuffled around and then disappeared into a hole which it dug right before the amazed students.

Lee spent a couple of days with Jens and a National Geographic film crew. They were filming Gaboon adders (they don’t occur here naturally though) and Boomslang. This is all part of a TV series called the deadly dozen. It was amazing to see the guys at work, and Tim and Lee’s son Kellen will be featuring in the program when it comes out next year. Tim is involved in a simulated boomslang bite scene while trying to retrieve Kellen’s kite from a thorn tree!

Sadly Deirdre has decided to leave us after 3 and a half years, and will be joining the team at Singita Lebombo. She will join them as a guide as she feels the need to keep her finger on the pulse of guiding and guests again. We wish her all the best in her new endeavour and will miss her skills on our team.

It has been a fantastic theory component, and I wish all of the guys well for their practicals!