Tracking and the first holiday!

Now sitting in Windhoek Airport (Namibia) at the end of my 6 days leave which has been fantastic and a much needed break from the bush and the intense learning environment!

The last few weeks at Karongwe were great, the camp was really beautiful and the wildlife was fantastic. We completed a week long track and sign course which involves learning the tracks of pretty much everything that moves in the bush, including the grass! After 4 days intense training from 2 of the top trackers in the country we under took a 2 day test to determine what level track and sign we had all reached. This involved the instructor circling a track on the ground and each of us individually identifying it. We were tested on everything from hippo, lion, leopard, frogs, civets, genets, human footprints, beetles, tortoises etc etc! Even the mark that the grass leaves behind when it blows in the wind! Not only what animal it was but what foot it was and what direction the animal was travelling! So it was a challenging couple of days especially in the 40 degree heat!

I came out with a level 2 track and sign qualification which is recognised all over South Africa, i was really pleased as thought i would only get level 1. six people out of the 16 of us reached level 2 and the rest level 1.

After finishing the course we all went on our 6 days leave and managed to spread ourselves far and wide across southern africa, with some people heading to capetown, durban, botswana, kruger, joburg and me all the way to Namibia which is actually closer than london to birmingham in terms of travel time! I spent the 6 days with Pattrick and we headed up to the erongo mountains for a couple of days which was really beautiful, climbed the obligatory mountain for a sundowner and chilled by the pool. Then headed out to the farm near swakop where he is based and spent a couple of days playing with the 3 month old black lab stoffel who is just the cutest/naughtest puppy ever, and finished the time off with a day in swakopmund dipping toes in the ocean whilst looking at the dunes followed by a lovely fishy lunch at the end of the pier!

Now heading back to Selati camp feeling refreshed and ready for some more facts, figures and bush knowledge to be drummed into my head before we take our exam and practical assessment in the first week of december.

thats all for now!

Hope all is well with you all wherever you are all in the world now! 

xx