Life on the Course
The course is a 60-day experience taking place in eastern South Africa, in the Greater Kruger Area and surrounding game park regions. At the end of this course the successful student will be a qualified Apprentice Field Guide (formerly Level I) through the Field Guides Association of Southern Africa and (as long as you have registered with CATHSSETA) hold a National Qualification Framework (NQF) level 2 certification. During these 60 days there will be in-depth training to prepare the student for a Track and Sign and a Trailing assessment following the CyberTracker standards of evaluation.
In short, the student is given the opportunity to achieve the following certificates:
- Nature Guide Training Field Guide certificate
- FGASA Apprentice Field Guide (formerly level 1) certificate
- NQF Level 2
- Track and Sign (CyberTracker) certificate (the level is score dependent)
- Trailing Level 1 (CyberTracker) certificate (we offer up to level 1 only on this course)
- Full Tracker certificate (CyberTracker)
- FGASA Tracker certificate (Students request this themselves from FGASA after the course if they have achieved the standard)
But please note, you must earn these certificates, just attending the course is no guarantee of passing, and you will need to work hard!
A day in the life…
A typical day during the (Summer months) course is as follows:
- 05:30 coffee, tea, toast, cereal and biscuits
- 05:45 duty students will check our vehicles before we head out
- 06:00 – Game Drive / Walk / lecture or lesson
- 10:30 – Brunch
- 12:30 – any of (but not limited to) the following
- Exams
- Self-study
- Workbook time
- Track and sign preparation
- Midday waterhole visits
- Rest period
- Discussions on FGASA modules
- Bird or frog call practice
- 15:30 – Game Drive / Walk
- 18:30 – Dinner
- 19:30 – Typically the evenings are your own but sometimes we will be doing a movie, an astronomy discussion, a PowerPoint presentation, or have a guest speaker, or do a quiz or discussion or simply rest time.
However, every day is different and is adjusted to what is needed and what is happening in the reserve. This will include strange things such as waking up in the middle of the night and going out to locate the lions or leopards that are calling close to camp or driving off mid activity to join a pangolin sighting.
A Game Drive might start as a drive, but if there are fresh tracks of elephants it could change into an on-foot experience in order to trail and find the elephants. Sometimes our trainers find a huge variety of tracks and decide to spend the next few hours discussing the different tracks.
Please note – We are not modular. Our courses will flow according to what we see or find on any given day, and we weave tracking into all that we do!
Walking will be focused on the smaller aspects of the environment. This will vary from tracks and signs to arthropods to botany to geology and much more.
Please note: This course is not a photographic safari, where our focus is finding big game to photograph, although this may often happen without us trying! We will not be making the finding of the big 5 a major part of our course, although all of these big, iconic creatures are around us, and even common in some instances and seasons.
The various camps we use are typically located amongst thousands of hectares of bush-country, and have uncountable learning opportunities. Our students usually sleep in either our bow, or our Meru Style tents on a sharing basis, or in some camps you may be in a brick-and-mortar room. You will be asked to bring your sleeping bags (or blankets and duvets) and pillows.
Meals
Brunch and dinner are prepared by our team and consists of hearty meals, such as pasta, stew, braais (also known as a barbeque), burgers, hot dogs, salads and vegetarian meals etc. Regularly during the week there will be a braai where the students will be asked to assist with braai-ing the meat. This will be on a rotational system where the trainers will also gladly (and enthusiastically) participate.
During the day between set meals the students will be able to snack on cookies, bread with peanut butter and jam, fresh fruit or cereals. Coffee, tea and squash-type juice will be provided too and also available all day as an in-between meals snack. Drinking water is provided.
During the course there will be a roster for students and trainers to keep the camp tidy and the animal, bird and tree lists up to date. This will include daily checks of the game viewer and regular cleaning of the equipment YOU will be using. This is done to get the students in the frame of mind of taking care of their equipment when they are working at a lodge. Replacing equipment or repairing a vehicle can sometimes be a logistical nightmare, depending what the item is.
The students will be ‘hosting’ Nature Industry People in camp on regular basis (with Covid we have reduced this somewhat, and are very careful about visitors entering our camps). It is very important for the students to be able to start a conversation and keep a lively discussion going.
There is sometimes cell phone reception in our camps, typically enough to call home and utilise WhatsApp when needed, or even update Facebook or receive an email. However, both the Vodacom and MTN signal are not too strong in the bush. We ask everyone to keep phones on silent in the camp, and to be as unobtrusive as possible. In some of our camps there is no mains supply electricity and thus it is recommended to bring power banks and/or solar power banks. If we are in a camp without mains electricity, we have a portable solar charging system, which is able to charge small electronics (camera batteries, flashlights, power banks and headlamp for example) for a couple of hours during sunny days. We recommend bringing a spare battery or two for your camera etc.
During the course adult (over 18) students are allowed, of course, to enjoy a cold drink in the evening, however we prefer that you consume no hard liquor in our camp. The trainers will trust that the students know what they can handle. There will be no drinking of alcohol or even alcohol-free beers during the students work day.
Illegal or recreational drugs of ANY kind are not tolerated at all. You will be removed from our camp if you are found with these items in your possession as per the FGASA policy.
Laundry
We have buckets for this and we will provide washing lines and soap powder. In some of our locations a laundry service may be provided, and if this is not available, there is also the possibility of a laundromat service in the nearby town (at your own cost).
The course
The main focus of this course is for aspirant guides to achieve the FGASA Apprentice Field Guide (formerly level I) certificate and be deemed competent to begin their guiding career. Therefore, all modules of the FGASA manual will be discussed both in theory, and also demonstrated practically. However, the following subjects are discussed in depth:
- Guiding in the natural environment
- Weather and Climate
- Biomes of Southern Africa
- Taxonomy
- Plants and Grasses
- Ecology
- Birds
- Arthropods
- Amphibians
- Reptiles
- Fish
- Geology
- Astronomy
- Mammals
- Animal behaviour
- Conservation Management
- Historical Human Habitation
There will be periodic exams set by the instructors, focused on Birds, Bird calls, Tracking, General plant identification, Frog calls and Mammals (as well as other subjects). These exams will be combined with presenting information on different topics to the rest of the group. The students will also have warm up exams on the FGASA level I modules to prepare them for their main exam.
Another part of the course will be set aside for Track and Sign and Trailing practice. The students will (ultimately) be assessed as per the CyberTracker system. It is difficult to estimate how much time will be spent, but at the very minimum it will be around about a full week or more, spread out over the 60 days. Even though it is a FGASA Apprentice Nature Guide (formerly level I course), walking will be an important component. On foot the students will be able to focus on the smaller aspects of the environment and not just the big animals. There will occasionally be day long walks; sometimes ending in a sleep out under the stars. Some survival techniques and primitive skills will be part of this experience. Game drives will take place at regular times, but also occasionally in the evening after dinner, late at night and before sunrise. This in order to give the students the possibility of encountering the different nocturnal animals. On some days we might not go on game drive, but focus on lessons, study sessions or other camp-based activities.
Free time
Because the course is only 60 days there is not a lot of space for free time. However, we will go to a local town occasionally for an afternoon. On other times, as designated, the students will have a sleep-in morning (usually a cause for celebration). There are not really many days completely free, although before the FGASA Apprentice Guide Exam (and some of the others) you will have a few full days dedicated only to study, with optional activities on these days.