Daily Routine at Karongwe - by Ellen

Jaco drawing on the 'bush blackboard'

‘Duty days’ rotated by tent, and those on duty were up at 4.30 to put the kettles on, lay out tea, coffee and biscuits, and carry out the pre-drive checks on the Land Rover. At 5am they would wake the rest of the camp – some of them with interesting cover versions of “Morning Has Broken”. Thanks guys. By 5.30 we’d be ready for our first activity of the day; one group would walk and the other would drive. Even just a couple of hours after rising, the heat of the sun would be unbelievably strong, and our thoughts would often turn to a typical February morning at 6.30am as we’d have been walking to Brighton station in the cold and the dark and the rain.

We’d be back in camp by 9.30, ready to get the table set up for the enormous breakfast. 11am was lecture time, covering topics such as geology, climatology, habitat management, amphibians, astronomy, arachnids and mammals. There would then be a few hours that would be filled with studying, volleyball, table tennis or chilling before lunch at 3.30. By 4pm we’d be ready to head back out into the bush; the worst of heat was just about beginning to subside by the time. The group that had walked in the morning would drive in the afternoon, and vice versa. Walkers would head back to camp a little earlier than the drivers, so as to avoid being out on foot in the dark. The drivers would do the last half an hour or in the dark, sweeping the spot light from side to side to pick out any nocturnal creatures. Then it was time for yet another delicious meal (any fears of being hungry or losing weight in the bush were very quickly forgotten) and a couple of beers round the camp fire discussing the day’s sightings before bed.

Our syllabus was extensive, by the end of the course we needed to be able to identify 30 trees (as well as give their uses and any associated traditional beliefs), 15 grasses, all the animals we’d encountered in the reserve and the majority of the bird species – by sound and sight. On top of this we’d needed to be able to identify the rocks, explain how they were formed and how they determined landscape, soil, vegetation and animal population. We needed to understand lunar phases and eclipses, as well as learn the major star constellations in the Southern Hemisphere. We had to explain how to navigate using the Southern Cross which, incidentally sometimes doesn’t rise until 3am so be prepared for a long wait (and hope there aren’t too many hungry lions around) if you’re ever lost in the bush.

The learning curve was steep, and at times it seemed near impossible that we’ve ever get to grips with everything. Every week or so we’d have an exam, each one bigger and tougher than the last. We also had to give two presentations – on a topic of our choice - to the rest of the group. All this was for the ‘in house’ Eco Training course, it was only towards the end of the course that some of us would sit the official FGASA (Field Guides’ Association of Southern Africa) exam, those who passed this then had to do a 3-4 hour assessment drive in order to qualify – but more on that later.