Duncan Haskells thoughts on the course so far…

Duncan and his girlfriend Helen who are doing the course together

With only a few hours until the plane leaves, Helen and I still haven’t managed to fit everything into our rucksacks. After the seventh attempt it is clear that something will have to go. Obviously I won’t be sacrificing my brand new sleeping bag, our water bottles or secret stash of favourite snacks so it’ll have to be clothes. “I’m off to Africa” I reason “it’ll be bloody hot” I persuade myself “I won’t be needing jumpers or jeans”, so that’s it out they go.

Fast forward 2 days and I’m lying in bed under a mountain of duvets and blankets with a hot water bottle under each arm and I’m still cold. Surely something is wrong, I’m an Englishman in Africa and I’m freezing…

It’s fair to say that our first few days were a bit of a culture shock, and not just because of the weather. Upon arrival Lee told us that the lions are frequent visitors in camp especially in “lion alley” which runs alongside rooms 9 and 10, he then continued to hand us our room key and low and behold a big number 9 was staring back at me. If lions can actually smell fear then prides as far away as the Masai Mara would have known of my whereabouts at that moment.

Thankfully the other students were on hand to give us useful tips on what to do if faced with an angry lion. This advice ranged from “make yourself big, remain still and shout loudly” to “lie down on the walkway until they have passed through” and finally “the best way to fend of a lion is to throw your own dung at it”. I decided to ignore the final piece of advice as I thought that my new neighbours might be slightly put out if I started stock piling my own dung. However, it did take a few days before I stopped hitting the deck every time anything from a tree squirrel to a francolin happened to catch me off guard. 

Slowly things started coming together, not just around camp but also on game drives. No longer was it just “look at that beautiful tree” but instead “here we have a Terminalia sericea with its alternate arrangement and leaves which can be chewed to cure sore throats”. The Afrikaans guys went out of their way to help us struggling foreigners and Jan-Martin, Rickus and the others were also kind enough to hide their laughter as we struggled to start, let alone drive, the Cruisers. We’ve all learnt so much in these first few weeks, and with only 3 practical game drive assessments to go things are looking good for the group!

Fortunately it hasn’t just been hard work and study. We’ve also been lucky enough to take part in some unbelievable events from helping to dart and care for a wounded elephant to assisting with re-locating some white lions (it’s amazing how brave we all became when they were anaesthetised and safely in their boxes).

I also doubt whether any of us will ever forget the sight of Kallie’s ankles and boots being the only visible sign of him as he went searching for pythons inside an aardvark burrow.

A personal highlight was the “extreme birding” challenge, and trust me when I say that nobody would refute the “extreme” tag had they been onboard the vehicles as we hurtled about the resort at ungodly speeds trying to identify every tiny speck on the horizon!

 As well as the wildlife we’ve had some fantastic experiences. Our bendability was tested with some extreme caving, and a few calf muscles amongst the group are still recovering from Lee’s gentle strolls up the mountain.

And so the first six weeks of our course are over, and I’m already looking forward to getting back to camp to see how our not-so-friendly neighbourhood lions are doing. In the meantime we’ll be heading to Cape Town to buy thermal underwear and plenty of jumpers, just in time for things to start heating up.