| 28 day FGASA accredited Field Guide/Ranger Course in South Africa € 2415 |
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This is our well-known comprehensive Field Guide training aimed at those wishing to follow a career in ecotourism as a field guide or for those people passionate about nature who would like a more in-depth experience and understanding of it. Developed in 1993 and the first of its kind in the safari industry, it is recognised by leading safari game lodges and is endorsed by FGASA (Field Guide Association of Southern Africa). If you are not aiming for a career as a Field Guide, but would like to learn about it for your own personal growth, the knowledge you gain will stimulate your safari and bush holidays and give them a whole new meaning for you. 28 days of living and learning in nature at our wilderness camps provides you with the practical and theoretical knowledge of the natural environment. Upon completion of the course, you will be capable of conducting game drives and interpreting the natural environment around you. Our Field Guide course consists of walks; one or two-daily lectures in our bush classrooms; game drives, as well as sleep-outs in the bush. Every minute of the day and night on this course is a learning experience, being constantly exposed to the bush. Our highly experienced instructors provide unique access to their vast knowledge and insight, making every lecture an inspiring experience.
Subjects covered in this course include
The course is endorsed by FGASA who have THETA accreditation. FGASA is the Field Guides Association of Southern Africa and THETA is the Tourism and Hospitality and Sport Education Training Authority of the South African government. These are the two bodies responsible for regulating standards within the guide training industry in southern Africa. The courses are designed by experienced professional guides to provide participants with an exciting never-to-be-forgotten learning adventure. The instructors have years of experience guiding tourists around Africa, and now they are giving something back to the wilderness that they love by sharing their knowledge, experience and wisdom with students who attend our courses. Students who have attended these courses have returned to the “real world” with a different outlook on life. Some have taken this new outlook into their day-to-day lives and others, inspired by their time in the bush, have completely changed their lives and careers. The company: The company is owned by two highly-experienced guides with a passion for wilderness who are responsible for the design of the course programmes. One being one of southern Africa's top professional nature guides and also a successful wildlife photographer and author with five books and numerous other publications to his credit. The other has worked as a guide in some of southern Africa's top game lodges and travelled widely throughout southern Africa, visiting most of the remote wilderness areas in the region. The company is dedicated to training and stays focused on making sure that the training programmes are of the highest standards. The courses: The students spend their entire course living in the middle of the African wilderness, with wild animals potentially right outside their tents. They do not conduct courses in air-conditioned lecture rooms in urban areas and then take you on “field trips”. The entire course is a “field trip”. The camps are unfenced and mostly canvas, so you are in touch with the wilderness all the time. Every training course is a learning adventure carried out in exciting wilderness areas with an emphasis on daily contact with the natural environment and its wildlife. Approximately 60% of the activities are conducted on foot, allowing you to get the adrenalin rush of approaching big game animals on foot as well as to study and observe the smaller components of the ecosystem. The remaining time is spent in open game-drive vehicles. Other activities include shooting, sleep-outs in the bush and night drives. The camps: Students are accommodated in comfortable, thatched, tented rooms placed on wooden decks in the shade of large nyala trees. Each room has an en-suite bathroom consisting of a shower, wash basin and flush toilet and also has a verandah overlooking the surrounding bush. Selati Camp: Selati Camp is a simple camp situated on the bank of the Selati River in the 33 000 ha privately-owned Selati Game Reserve to the west of Phalaborwa in Limpopo Province. The reserve has a variety of habitats including thornveld, open plains, riverine woodland and magnificent granite hills. A wide range of animals lives here, including lions, elephants, rhinoceros and leopard as well as plains game such as eland, sable antelope, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, waterbuck, kudu, impala and baboons and monkeys. The camp consists of simple dome tents, shared bathroom facilities and a communal area overlooking the Selati River. Students bring their own bedding and sleep on mattresses on the floor of the tents. Karongwe Camp: Karongwe Camp is situated on the bank of the Karongwe River in the 9000 ha Edeni Game Reserve, south-west of Phalaborwa in Limpopo Province. The reserve has beautiful riverine systems, rocky outcrops and savannah bushveld habitats and is home to a variety of game including lion, leopard, white rhinoceros, cheetah, elephant and plains game typical of African wildlife habitats. Students are accommodated in walk-in Meru tents with shared bathroom facilities. Students sleep on beds and bedding is supplied. A feature of the camp is the thatched sleep-out deck. A typical day: The outing could be a game drive following up on the roar of a lion heard during the night or a walk learning about the plant species occurring in the area. It could be a walk following fresh elephant tracks, learning how to track the animal and finding it or it could be a game drive to a waterhole where animals come to drink. Students return to camp in the late morning for a hearty brunch which is followed by a lecture on the subject of the day. Study and rest time is then followed by afternoon tea and another outing into the wilderness until sunset, if walking, or until well after dark if doing a game drive. Afternoon outings could include night drives looking for nocturnal animals such as owls, bushbabies and leopards or it could be a walk looking for and learning how to identify interesting birds. It could be time spent studying the night skies or it could be a time for students to test their 4×4 driving skills. It is then back to camp for dinner, stories around the campfire and then bed. The emphasis is on practical day-to-day experiences in the bush. The daily outings are flexible and may focus on specific subjects such as animal tracks and tracking, birds, plant identification or animal behaviour, or may involve game viewing and learning about the ecosystem in general.The advantage of the courses is that they are conducted in the middle of magnificent wilderness areas where students are given the opportunity to find out what it is really like to live in the African wilderness in the midst of wild animals and far-removed from the trappings of modern society. The instructors: Group Size: Course Facts Course Dates 2011 SELATI CAMP 2011 KARONGWE CAMP 2011 Bush Bus Rates:
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