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Report: June 05 Course
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COURSE JUNE 2005 CONSERVATION COURSE REPORT
Esingeni Bush Camp, Eastern Cape, South Africa
By Travellers Volunteers, June 2005 |
| Time has unfortunately gone far too
quickly, but looking back through my diary we have done so much during our
short stay at Esingeni. At the beginning of June we stayed out and
did an overnight wilderness hike. Setting up the tarpaulin for us all to
sleep under and then making a fire in which to keep warm and to cook food
on was excellent fun, despite the cold, uncomfortable conditions.
We also had several trips into Grahamstown
where we topped up on provisions and went to the pictures and a really
nice weekend in Jeffrey’s Bay, including an afternoon at Sea View Park
where we saw the lions, tigers and giraffe, and even handled the
four-month lion cubs – awesome! We’ve been back to Sea View since then to
work for a day with the Travellers volunteers there and had a chance to
bottle-feed the month-old cubs and see the now much bigger cubs we played
with last time.
Amongst the most memorable experiences of
the past month have been doing game capture with Zak Pieterse and Gerry
MacDonald of East Cape Game Traders. With a helicopter and a funnel-shaped
boma and with a truck at the end waiting to hold the animals once they’ve
been rounded up, we managed to help them collect over 30 Impala, some
Eland and Red Hartebeest – it’s the closest most of us have got to these
animals and they’re far bigger up close than when you’re sitting in a
jeep! Just two days ago we had the opportunity to see the same team of
guys capturing two White Rhino with the vet which I am sure that most of
us will never have the chance to see again, being literally feet away from
these huge beasts is just breathtaking. Very cool.
We’ve also had a trip to a taxidermy
industry; honed our skills with a revolver; hunted, skinned, butchered and
barbequed a warthog and two of us were stupid enough to jump out of a
plane at 10,000ft!Recently the Wild Dog pack in Shamwari
Game Reserve gave birth to a litter of pups, six in total, and during our
last game drive on our last day of the course we got to see them – all out
in the open and playing around, their markings just starting to show
through the jet-black fur they are born with. About five of the adults
were with them too, just sunning themselves by the side of the den –
another highlight to add to the list.
We’ve all just about finished our FGASA
workbooks and they’re ready to be send off for marking. Here’s to hoping
we’ve all passed! Two months that feels like two weeks – I’m sure we all
wish it was more, much more! |
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