Whorton and Whorton Safaris is doing well :)

The drive yesterday with the film students was a roaring (literally!) success.  There were 4 of them (2 local South Africans, 1 Aussie, 1 Yank).  All had been to the bush many times before so they were going to be a hard crowd to please, but I think we did well ;)

The 2 major sightings for them were 3 rhinos, and the whole pride of lions (6 adults  and the cub).

The rhinos were nice as we spotted them in the distance and got about 50 metres away.  I know these rhinos (the sub-adults) are curious so i turned off the engine and they kind beasts did as i expected and walked over to us.  They literally came right up to the cruiser, so the guys had a beautiful sighting.  After the rhinos realised we weren't a threat (or food) they duely bumbled off.

The guys then asked if i knew where the lions were - i didn't know exactly but i did know where they had been earlier in the day so i pootled off in that direction.  It took about 40 mins to drive there so Rach and i impressed with our knnowledge of fauna and flaura along the way.  By the time we got to the last known sighting 2 other vehicles were also in the area looking for them.  This made life easy and we foound them after a short search - they were sitting, spread over about a 100 metre area, in a huge field.

The female with the cub was closest to where we entered the field so i went to them first, and as expected the cub looked cute for photos.  20 mins later i moved the cruiser to where the 3 other females were sitting.  They looked quite restless and i thought they might be about to go on the move so i placed the cruiser where i thought they would be walking.  Sure enough, 10 mins later the big girls got up one by one and went on the prowl, walking to within a few metres of the cruiser.  Then males being males, the 2 males lions also stired and walked after the females, again walking right past the cruiser.  The guys were amazed that the lions came so close to us - but at all times my engine was off and it was the lions that chose the  path to walk, so very ethical too :)   

We then tracked the lions for a bit on the road, but as we were right at the back all we really saw was that back end of the male, as the females had moved off ahead by 100 metres or more.  I told teh guys my plan was to come off the road, drive around one of the plains for about a mile, then re-join the road.  I was hoping the lions would stick to the road (as they often do) then we would be in the road and they would pass us but facing us.  Seemed like a plan and they all agreed.

Once back on theroad I called through to one of the other vehicles and sure enough the lions were still coming our way.  5 minutes wait saw the female walking towards us with little cub in tow.  Followed by the other 3 females about 20 metres back, then the young male and laastly the big male about 50 metres or so off the pace.

As the female (very grumpy one, famous for charging at cars!) hgot level with us a work vehicle from one of the lodges pulled up behind me and went to overtake me.  This freaked the cub out and he/she panicked and gave a yelp.  The driver of the car then reversed back and parked behind me but kept his engine running (a sign of agression to animals, engine noise). 

I knew what was coming next so I just said to the guys in the cruiser to stay quiet and don't move, whatever may happen.  And, sure enough the female turned to us and gave us a big warning growl.  Don't forget, we have no doors, roof or windows to our cruisers and we was only 2 yards from her, so this is a heart stopping noise.  Luckily everyone froze.  She stared at us for a bit, grumbled some more then moved off behind us.

The problem was, the cub would still not pass us and i had this bad feeling the female would come back and have another go at us.  Fortunately one of the other females came up to the cub, nuzzled it, then led it past us.  Then the 2 big males came through, and they looked huge :)

After all this excitement i thought it best to take the guys back to camp for supper.  And were they scared - abso-blinking-lutely.  they said they had never experienced anything like it before and it was so primeval to have such a dangerous animal so close and warning them.  It was certainly not my intention to get a growl from the big girl but at least no one freaked and we all stayed safe/.

They were also very impressed how Rach and i stated calm and in control and wasn't scared (like they were).  Not bllody likely, i sh!t myself every time these lions growl at us or charge us, but we have learnt to control this fear (through practice) in the knowledge that they are not real threats, just 'friendly' warnings!

And did they like our safari? Yes, one guy even said we should reconsider going back to London and take up the work offer, we were so professional (he'd been on other safaris in the past but loved ours).  Top praise but we are sticking to our plans :) Oh, and we take them out again tomorrow - hippos and hopefully elephants tomorrow!

 

Press up king! (or man's man level 10)

You know how young men, after a few beers in the bar, have the bravado kick in, well this happened in camp recently.  The young studs, showing off in front of the girls, were arguiing who was stronger blah blah blah who could do the most press-ups etc and generally letting the testerone talk.  These are all mostly kids half my age so I think they were a little surprised when i said they should have a little challenge - get down on you face and see how many press-ups they could do in one go.

The fat Spaniard managed 1.  Skinny Yank about 15. A Brit 20.  The muscular Afrikaans rugby player 43.  Little old man me.....56, with some spare left in the tank :)  Little did they know that I crank out 100 - 150 press-ups most days to try and stay in shape.  At my age trying to look after yourself gets hard so every little helps.  Anyway, i think they were suitably surprised, and Rach was very proud of her old man.

I'd already got the knick-name off the group as 'man's man' as i always wear t-shirts in the cold even when the rest wear fleeces and long tops ( i just don't feel the cold), but now this has progressed to 'man's man level 10'.  This is a bit of a running joke now in camp, and as someone does something suitably brave/strong/manly/or stupid we up their man's man level.  Thankfuly no one has reached level 10 yet apart from the old geezer. 

Whorton and Whorton Safaris Limited

As we are not doing all the walks (because we opted out of the trails guide practicals and ARH) we can be a lot more flexible with our day and volunteer for extra curricular activities (no smuttiness please!).  Camp is bus at the moment, what with us 6 monthers, 17 students from the US and now a new group of film students.  So busy in fact that Rach and I are now the new guides for the film students.  How cool is that!

Today (22nd May) is our first drive with them.  We need to find out what they are inspired by, and what they are hoping to film, and then find it for them.  The students will be here for the next 5 weeks and in this time they gave to do all the scrip writing, filming and editing to produce a 5 minute film that gets presented to Nat Geographic.

This is a great privilage for us to guide these students and we are going to enjoy every minute of it.  It's also very satisfying to know that the school trusts us with their paying guests and think us good enough to be their guides. We hope we do them proud :)

Students turn teachers

Now we are qualified the doors have opened for us now here.  As already noted we are now allowed to drive ourselves around the reserve and guide for ourselves.  As it happens, we can also use skills we brought with us from London too.

One of our fellow students, a young 18 year old chap, failed his first practical assessment.  He had most of the knowledge needed but his presentation skills and style were (to put it mildly) somewhat lacking.  As Rach and I are very good at presenting (it is part of our real jobs in the City) the guy who runs the school asked us to take the other student out on drives and teach him how to present.

Given how shy this chap is, and how he struggles to present, I think there was a general expectation that we couldn't do it....but boy were they so wrong.  We just gave him some hints and tips, set him homework (really, we did!), took him on a few practice drives, and a few weeks later he was ready for his second assessed drive.

This time he nailed it.  Lee (the assesor) was very impressed....and Rach and I felt like proud parents - well the guy is young enough to be our son to be fair :)  He worked so hard and put into practice the skills we gave him and we are so pleased for him.

What next for the students turn teachers?!?

Ultimate self drive safari

Now we are qualified we are allowed to take vehicles out on game drives by ourselves, which is a bit wacky.  Often there are quite a few students on the vehicle but we have also had drives where it is just Rach and myself.  So picture this, I'm driving through a dangerous game area in an open topped and sided game vehicle with Rach on tracker (bait) seat looking for lions!!!!  So surea.

But this is why we did the course so this is the ultimate for us :)

Future safari holidays will never be the same again with other people driving and guiding for us ;)