25 day programme

This was an interesting programme with an all international student group. A special welcome back to Eric from Spain, who was with our May 2008 course too. This group is from Europe with German, Belgian, Spanish, Dutch and English students, and no South Africans! In spite of this international aspect all of the students gave it their very best, with some great results in track and sign as well as their FGASA level 1 examinations.

Lee, Trix, Aukje, Markus, Erik and Rob out on a guided walk in the mountains.

 
Carsten, from Germany, arrived a day or so after the others, but had some great sightings none the less.

When up in the mountains we discussed the geology of the region and found some interesting new and interesting aspects to discuss.

 
One such aspect was the approximate age of the conglomerated pieces of quartzite trapped in the sand stone. It is probably from the ancient Transvaal Supergroup, and therefore around 2600 000 000 years old, about half the approximate age of the world as we know it geologically! Absolutely amazing! Also, these fossilized mud flats, which clearly show the cracks which may have formed during a periodic drying out of the river or dam bottom.

   
Walking through the vlei and grass is hard work, Trix busy giving us a bit of a lecture and one of the bystanders (a klipspringer antelope).

Jens came out to give lectures about reptiles and their venom to the students on both the six and one month programmes, and was caught here photographing a rather cool lizard.

Also found on the reptile walk was a baby red lipped herald snake which insisted on throwing itself at us, making a very interesting photographic subject!

 
We also found both plain colour morph (left) and striped colour morph of the Cape skink.

 
Track and sign held its usual attraction for the gang with a lot of competition within the group. Rob and Trix can be seen here in various states of relaxation.

Some definite highlights included the beautiful serval male we found one night on a drive as well as the awesome views from the hills and mountains on the upper reaches of the reserve, what a beautiful place we live in.

Lee and the ENGTS team