Nature Camp!

Having passed their first year of studies, the time has arrived for Centurion Academy’s (Bellville branch) second year Diploma in Nature Management students to get engaged with more advanced practical and theoretical work. As such they arrived at Gondwana Game Reserve on 11 March 2013 for their first week-long practical excursion for 2013. They could not possibly have hoped to find a better outdoor classroom than GondwanaGame Reserve just outside Mosselbay.

Upon their arrival on Monday 11 March 2013 it was already clear that this would be a practical excursion with a difference. The students were welcomed and were treated to a first-hand experience of life as a student in their practical year as Tayla Hawkins, the third year student doing her practical year at Gondwana, took them to meet John Vogel, wildlife manager at Gondwana, where he and a number of German post graduate students were tending to the needs of Thandora, a 29 year old female elephant recently translocated to the reserve from the Bloemfontein zoo.

It was however not all work and as part of the syllabus for the FGASA level 1 practical assessment students were introduced to the Game drive experience by Ranger Mike Fabricius, a field guide at Gondwana. Between excursions with Mike and morning work with Tayla the Centurion Academy, Bellville branch students had the opportunity to look for, track and often find some of the most charismatic animals on the continent. They also monitored Rhino movements by using telemetry and tracking skills. Unfortunately the game of hide and seek ended with a win for the Rhino as they struggled to get a good view of the animal in the southern valley thicket of Gondwana’s Nouga valley.

By the time they left Gondwana on Thursday 14 March 2013 the students felt like part of the Gondwana family and it was with a heavy heart that they packed up for our return to Cape Town.