Six Month Students

 
Well off we went to the Lowveld. But before you get there you need to go over the Long tom pass, or at least we did.

 
We checked out the cannon, to make sure it would work too, and did the real tourist thing by posing for the picture!

 
The whole crowd were allowed one quick cold drink before getting into the Kruger park to set up camp. Our first stop was Pretoriuskop, in the South of the reserve. We set up our tents and went on drive, seeing loads of elephant and rhino.

 
All cooking and eating was done out of doors, in a very relaxed environment. We viewed game from sunrise to sunset each day. What a great experience. Lee and Ed almost forgot they were at work they had so much fun!

 
All cooking and eating was done out of doors, in a very relaxed environment. We viewed game from sunrise to sunset each day. What a great experience. Lee and Ed almost forgot they were at work they had so much fun!

This sign puzzled us though. No fires makes sense, as does no music, but no picking your nose is a peculiar instruction…..

 
We saw many large creatures as well as some small things such as this community web spider nest and the tracks of a ground hornbill next to the road.

 
We also saw some huge rhino middens and pretty, but dry stream beds.

 
We fed ourselves often and lots, but ignored this sign which seemed to say we should feed the animals….

  
Grant, Lex, Dustin and Lee preparing a brunch at Pretoriuskop.

We then went on to Bergendal camp, and walked the rhino trail around camp, looking for birds and plants of interest.

 
There are many interesting artefacts along the trail to look at.

 
Cooking three whole chickens for brunch and the bat boxes in the Bergendal camp.

 
We saw some really cool things along the way such as this female boomslang and a three winged samara of the variable bush willow (there should be four wings).

 
Birding fever definitely took hold of the guys, even Dustin decided to get a bird book! From allergic to birds to buying a book in less than one month is a definite record for the school. Well done Dustin!


We also went for lectures about reptiles at the Khamai Snake Park in the Hoedspruit area, where we met Chris, our guide.

 
He taught the students quite a lot of new things, to add to the course they had already done with Jens. It was a very interesting outing.

 
We saw plenty of beautiful reptiles, but probably the most interesting was the black mamba, which was fed as part of our visit.

 
The guys also got to know a few of the locals quite well!

 
Then finally we had a snake handling demo from Chris to round off the day.

Preparation for the white water rafting, see the 1^st newsletter for July and August for more details on this!

 
The guys even went to meet Jessica the famous hippo, at her home near Hoedspruit.

All in all it was an action packed part of the course, which will be continued into the next month. Please watch up and coming news letters for more information on the Lowveld trip as well as the helicopter darting, chemical immobilization and Game capture which are coming up soon!

The ENGTS team