Training January 2013!

On the 15^th of January 2013, I landed in South Africa about twelve years after I left it.  I am volunteering for a 6 months in the Garden Route National Park, and I will be based in Tsitsikamma National Park.

Ben, the GVI programme coordinator, picked me up at Joburg’s airport and off we were to the Kruger National Park for 10 days. After mumbling some approximate English to Ben (it has been 5 months since I left tropical England) I had to regroup the first night and accept the fact that it would part of the next to weeks to focus on getting my English back to a decent level!

Elephants in the Kruger National Park, South Africa

I was lucky enough to be Ben’s guinea pig for a new training plan that was designed around 10 days in Kruger and 4 days in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park. This design assured that I got the technical training in Kruger (and a lovely trip to the uniform depot where all your dreams of looking like a rangers go to the drain. You can only resemble one thing: a giant olive). The second part in the Golden Gate was a great opportunity to meet the current GVI volunteer, the lovely Romaine, and get a general overview of the work done by People and Conservation.

Enjoying the scenery at Golden Gate Highlands National Park

Our stay in Kruger was a great way to get a first feel of a South African national park. I got an idea of the type of atmosphere, met a staff member of People and Conservation as well as the Skukuza Hospitality Manager. We went on game drives, got stopped by an anti-poaching chopper (not that we were poaching…but luckily nobody checked our car…). Unfortunately, heavy rains disrupted our stay and we had to ‘make a plan’ and ended up spending 2 days in Karongwe Private Reserve, which is where GVI runs a ‘Wildlife Research’ programme. There, I attended an afternoon ‘initiation to reptiles’ at one of the nearby reptile farms (surprisingly, it was a very useful training); followed the next day by an Emergency First Response training and a 5 hours long game drive with the Wildlife Research volunteers. A lot of fun!

Lion from the Kruger National Park

After this nice break from travelling, Ben and I drove down to the Golden Gate where we met up with Kevin Moore – who represents SANParks’ side of the programme – his assistant Thybault, as well as the GVI volunteer Romaine. We all spent 3 days going on morning walks and of course covering training material (casual talks mostly). Kevin is such a character! He is very involved with the programme and establishes an easy, friendly and trustworthy relationship with the volunteers.

Overall those two weeks allowed me to get a good idea of what the People and Conservation staff is up to (the programmes it runs etc.), get an idea of the life style that awaits me down South, and very importantly, to meet the support team on both GVI’s and SanParks’ side.

Cathedral Cave Hike in Golden Gate Highlands

Things that I now know:

-      -  Know your Big 5! Or even better, your Big 7!

-       - An elephant trunk is not a giant snake eating a tree.

-       - Know your reptiles!

-    - Read carefully the wine list before ordering, or you’ll look like an alcoholic: 50R (+/- 5€) is worth a bottle and not a glass like it would in Europe.

-       - Afrikaans is surprisingly a fun language to learn!

And now off to Tsitsikamma! 

Sarah Hamidi

GVI Volunteer - Garden Route National Park

Training January 2013!