This month was a cracker! The gang started it off with a sequence of exams. First their FGASA trails guide theory exam, which is difficult at the best of times! Days of dry work with the weapons to familiarise them with the parts and functions of our rifles kicked off the process. Advanced lessons on ballistics and dangerous game behaviour and statistics followed, all culminating in a stressful theoretical evaluation. We wish everyone luck!

Francesco and Chantelle on the range with Lee.

We then began all of our preparation for the SASSETA qualifications on the range. It was a fun time with a little bit of exposure to how rifles operate. The main focus is of course safety when using these tools of the trade of guiding, but I think all of the students had great fun as well as an interesting learning experience. The exams were completed successfully by all, which is a great achievement, with special thanks to Sarah for helping the guys along the way. The practical riflery day was conducted safely in Vaalwater with Riaan van Zyl, at Waterberg Ammunisie. All of our students were awarded certificates on knowledge of the law, as well as on the use of a bolt action rifle. Well done to all, including Ed!

Ross and Jan Dirk on the range.

Surette showing the boys how it is done…

Paul shooting a dart, and the actual dart in the bum of a Sable.

Lee holding one of the young Sable cows.

Carrying the Sables to the vehicles for transportation to their new homes.

More carrying, game capture seems to involve a lot of this…

Swimming in the rivers, guided walks, lectures, game capture, great game veiwing and more besides.

Edward on drive with the gang.

Jonathan Leeming, the Scorpion expert also popped in to visit for a couple of days, and we managed to photograph some interesting creatures such as this spotted bush snake.

We did a massive walk into the mountains with a guest instructor from the Okavango. Anthony Bennett is an instructor with the Wilderness group in Botswana and he thoroughly enjoyed a day of mountaineering as Botswana is very flat for the most part. The gang got into the water falls and saw some old pottery, as well as magnificent views.

This is a group hug, all the students giving the mountain a little bit of love…

Getting up there is not all easy work, and it was pretty wet under the waterfall, due to heavy rain the day before. It even rained while we walked!

When at the pottery cave, which is actually more of an overhang we saw an old pot, probably hundreds of years old and also found a northern pygmy toad along the way.

There were also a few cool plants out there too, like these collared earth stars and this Solanum plant.

We also managed to get stuck, horribly in the mud on Tads Grave road. The rain was amazing and I think that we had more rain this year than for the last two combined. It appears to have been so across the country.

The road was of a similar texture to a bowl of porridge!

Any way, we soon got out and were on the way. The road was soon closed to traffic until things dry up a little bit!

Another great thing is that the two new cheetah males are released and free on the reserve. This is awesome, with a chance now to see this coalition of two mature males. They took their first steps to freedom on the 3rd, and have done really well so far, targeting the young wildebeest most of the time. Well done to Jan, Natasha and Leonard as well as the rest of the game management team who have managed to make this into a success!

One of the new boys slinking out of the boma to freedom, tail between the legs!

One last thing before I close, is this picture of a Bushveld Bolete mushroom. It was about 30 centimetres across in size!

It has been yet another fantastic month for the students and staff at Entabeni Nature Guide Training, and hopefully you enjoy this news. Remember that there are now free down loads for all interested people of wild life from the reserve, for you to use as a screen saver or whatever you wish!

Until next time
Lee and the ENGTS team