With
the smell of Zululand smoke still fresh on backpacks, we make the rifles safe
and put the boots down after the last trails course for 2013. It’s difficult to
believe it’s this time of the year already but what a journey it has been!
One
of the most exciting aspects of walking trails is waking up every morning not
knowing what today has in store for you. Then you start unfolding and reading
the ‘newspaper’ of the environment around you and no matter what your level of
guiding and knowledge, you always return with new lessons learnt! Seeing is believing
and in the case of trails; seeing, hearing, smelling and feeling is believing
and there’s no better way of learning! 
We
walk 4 different Game Reserves in KwaZulu Natal. All are Big 5 properties and
most of them have healthy populations of Black Rhino, which always adds another
dimension to being out in the bush. This year also proved to be the year of the
Lions for the trails students. Every year we leave slightly short on cat
encounters but in 2013 this all changed. Students commented that Zululand Rhino
Reserve is better described as Zululand ‘Lion’ Reserve as we had daily, quality
Lion encounters.
The Impi group was our last trails group for the year. They
all qualified as Back- up Trails guides in 2012 and this year we started
working towards their Full trails qualifications. We were extremely fortunate
to have Collin Patrick join us for a tracking course and assessments. This
opened a whole other world for most of the participants and we were truly
blessed to learn a great deal from Collin. As the world is today, we are
constantly being bombarded with information. Billboards, radio and TV throw
things into our senses without us even noticing it. Being out in the wild you
need to teach yourself again to actually pay attention to your surroundings and
physically search for some clues or signs to complete the picture in your mind
of the environment around you. Some people find it very difficult to be quite
and always need to be kept entertained through conversation or music for
example. An exercise we did with Collin one afternoon was a perfect
demonstration of this. The noisy shoes and sock protectors came off and we
walked through the bush in a silence that overwhelmed your sense of hearing. So
much so that we nearly stepped on a Red Duiker feeding right ahead of us that
had no idea of our approaching group. When you are listening to somebody or
something, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the
words or the sound, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the
whole of it, not just part of it.
Two
incidents took place where groups confronted poachers that we found while on
trail. With the increasing amount of poaching taking place in surrounding
reserves I knew it would only be a matter of time until confrontation is made.
You walk in areas where game drive vehicles cant access and other than the
reserve APU patrols not much people ever cross through. The first night in camp, Dylan Panos briefed everyone on procedures to follow in the case
of encountering a potential poacher. Little did the group know that the very
next morning we would find ourselves bumping into a strange character. He was
submissive from the beginning and showed no real signs of threat but there was
definitely a sense of nervousness in the air, from both sides. Not knowing whom
else could be hiding in the dense riverine or whether they are armed or not
sent the senses into over drive. The APU was contacted and a few minutes later
they arrived on the scene and we set off looking for dangerous game that
hopefully would not include humans again.
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As
the hot, dry and humid winds swept over Zululand the fires broke out and we
soon found ourselves putting the rifles down and piking up Quarries. Fighting
fires was a great experience for the Impi’s, although a few people returned
back to camp with less hair than they left with. After a hot day of fire
fighting nothing was more welcoming than lying in the rapids of the Mkuze River
with the cold water massaging the sore muscles while viewing the aerobatic
hawking of the swallows above us.
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| Rob, Helene, Axel and Gerry keeping that fire from jumping! |
 | |
| Coenraad Having to move his tent in a hurry as the fire approaches camp |
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| BarOne: For a 25 hour day! |
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| Bath and Back Massage |
Student: Jean Michau
|
Total hours on trail: 9
|
 Great morning walk. Heard baboon’s alarm calling and decided to go investigate. As we got closer we found fresh lioness tracks heading in the direction of the baboons along the Msunduzi river. We got to the river after a very slow walk while scanning the area. We saw the baboons on the opposite bank and could hear the sounds of either mating lions or lions feeding. Yesterday we found them mating about 4km from this same area and we knew it could very possibly be them, still at it. We decided to sit  down there for awhile and listen to
try place what we are hearing and where it is coming from. After a few
minutes of sitting down and listening one guy from the group went back the
way we came from to go and relieve himself. Next minute he comes running back
to the group, white in the face. His words don’t make sense for a few seconds
and then eventually he gets the words out, “Lioness….is….. Right there!” We
looked up and about 20m above us on the bank, the lioness is looking at us.
We just stood dead still and watched her. She showed no signs of aggression
or agitation. She curiously watched us and slowly proceeded to our left. She
stopped again at one point looking very intently at the opposite bank and emitted
a soft contact call in that direction. She turned and looked at us again for
a few seconds and then crossed the dry riverbed in front of us. Great
sighting! Walking further down river we found the tracks of where the male
and other female had crossed but because of the danger factor of lions mating
in rather dense vegetation we did not follow up any further. |
|
Student: Quinton Paul Josop
|
Total hours on trail: 6
|
The
morning was really quite with not much activity along the Mkuze river except
for
 |
|
Student: Helene Mertens
|
Total hours on trail: 7
|
  As
we approached the Nandi dam area (from the North), we saw a lioness who, quickly moved off out of view. We looped around and found a great position
with height advantage on the eastern side of the dam with a great view of the
male and another lioness, both lying down. The one lioness saw us and
observed calmly for a while, then gets up and walks towards the male where
she shows her readiness to be mounted. After a short mating session the male
the male dismounts and lies back down. Then the other female approaches and
presents her readiness to the male, which then mounts her and after a short
mating session both lie down as the other female observes. The male looked
quite tired at this stage! One female looks up at us at this point and gives
us an intense stare for 5 minutes before all three lions take a short snooze.
The one lioness gets up and suddenly approaches the male again wanting him to
mount but the male retaliates and aggressively chases her off and then lies
down next to the other female. The male and lioness then mated twice more as
the rejected female looks on in envy. She tries once or twice more but is
chased away every time. After some time of viewing we decided to extract and
leave the lions to carry on with their business. Great sighting! |
|
Student: Greg Heasman
|
Total hours on trail: 9
|
We
were about to fall asleep on our sleep out when we heard braking branches. We
waited the sounds in for a while and soon a bull elephant came down to the
water to drink. We just lay there under the stars and watched him mess around
in the water. It was amazing to just be watching him like this but he soon
got curious to our presence and came to investigate. He came in for a closer
look but then decided to rather leave and he moved off and made his way back
into the dark bush to continue feeding!
|
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Student: Helene Mertens
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Total hours on trail: 6
|
After
the sighting of the male lion at 12:30, we went to meet another trails group.
I joined that group to go back to the male which we left sleeping close to
Nandi Dam. We walked a wide loop around to the dam and found the male had
changed his position from where we left him last, sleeping above an erosion
donga that ran around him. We approached to about 25m from him, the donga
serving as the perfect
barrier between us and the lion. The lion had an easy
escape route and for him to get any closer to us would mean crossing the very steep
donga first. He kept on sleeping in the afternoon sun but after about 10
minutes he woke up, sat up and started looking around. He scanned his area
around him and then suddenly his eyes met ours! Wind was in our favor and his
face gave a real look of amusement when he saw us, which was quite comical.
He remained very relaxed and didn’t seem to mind our presence too much. We
viewed him for another 10 minutes when the wind suddenly turned and blew our
scent right to him. He turned once again to look at us. This time, however,
it was a bit more intently. At this point we decided to extract as soon as he
relaxed and took his eyes off us so to not over stay our welcome in the
sighting.
Animals
have a 6th sense when it comes to being watched and last thing we
wanted to do was to disrupt the beautiful lion from his afternoon rest. I lead
the group out of the sighting the way we walked in as the lead guide stayed
behind to keep an eye on the lion as we moved out.
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Not
one encounter will ever be the same as a previous one and there is always something
to learn from every situation. We would like to thank every Bhejane student who
was part of the trails journey in 2013 and we look forward to keeping up with
your careers and know that the foundation has been laid for a successful and
fruitful future.
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