Some photo's in Guiding

This was on our "virtual" gamedrive

this is our lecturer and fake animals

our infamous site guid group



me



SITE GUIDING week 3

The weekend past Sondela hosted a mountainbike race and over 300 people took part of it. we asisted in the cutting of the trail and fixing it up, only briefly. When we decided to go back to the farmyard (because we were in the bush) we had absolutely no idea where we were so trying to explain to someone to fetch us was a test in itself.

Soo a plan was hatched to drop us of in diffrent parts of the bush and giving us tools to find our way back to sivilisation. this will happen today! hold thumbs!

this week will be all about geography for us!

My first walking trail

We had our First walking trail with geusts yesterday! at first i had no idea what to say or where to start. it was extremely frightning having this geusts stare at us and wait for something intresting to say to them...

so to kill time i took them to a hide first (and because murphy hates me) there was nothing to see....

SO we followed the marked RED trail and still got lost (but didnt tell the geusts) and started looking for landmarks like crazy!

eventually we all eased up and we started talking about the intresting bird species (since im now clued up) and then realized that my geusts lives on a game reserve!!!

whe had such a relaxed time that we found our way back and in time aswell. Atleast we saw Nyala's on our LOST trail and alot of Kudu's so everyone was happy.

Bird species

We were given a task to research 15 diffrent bird species but two of each.... needless to say i was up all night looking for intresting birds.

Here are some really cute or intresting birds to look at......

Forked tailed drongo

Black cuckooshrike

african golden oriole

Karoo Thrush

Cape rock jumper

                              

Cape Sugerbird

 

Scarlet- Chrested Sunbird

  

 

Red-collared windowbird

Purple Indigobird

Cape white eye

 jameson's fire finch

All the males are extremely colourfull and beautifull to look at, as the females usually look dull. so unfair but thats a birds life :)

SITE GUIDING NOTES

MAMMALS and BIRDS

Mammals are divided into "the order" of animals and then devided into families as well. Animals play an extreemly important roll in the ecological system as they spread seeds, create natural compost and keep the natural order of the piramid.
Grass/leafs/trees---
insects/birds/small rodents---
servals/buffelo/antelope/snakes---
lions/ Raptures/ cheetahs/humans.

SITE GUIDING NOTES

TREES AND GRASS

• There is 9700 species of grass in the world
• There is 976 species in South Africa alone.
• If certain types of grass is not grazed or cut it wil stop growing, like Buffelo grass
• If certain grasses are over grazed or cut too regularly it wil stop growing, like Love grass.
• grass plays an enourmous roll in veld management as it plays a vital roll in Gizelle's and antelope's diet and is in turn a vital roll in predatore's diet.
• Grass/ veld management wil determine if a game farm wil survive or not.

SITE GUIDING

Im in my second week of guiding and its awsome!

so far i have learned about mammals and birds, trees and grass and all the millions of scientific names!
its alot of information at once and you have to keep up. the theory is extreemly difficult to link with the practical as nothing is what it seems and animals continuosly suprise you.

we try to go into the bush al least once a day and experience the diffrent species and families of everything we have learned.

From Food and Beverage to conservation

I have finished the last week in food and Beverage and it was hectic! On 12th of July a conference arrived of 86 people! we had to set up a dinner, karaoke, breakfast and business conference for them. With such limited time and space to set up, it was an extreme challenge! But it is done now and on the 13th I moved to conservation!

we started of by getting to know each other and how the course works. After a brief ice-breaking session we moved our chairs into the sun and our Lecturer started explaining the complex families which animals are divided into. for example a porcupine (soooo cute) is in deed a rodent! i was crushed.

We discussed genetic mutilation (a liger) and captive care, people's perception of animal and how thankful we can be that dinosaurs died!

After lunch our lecturer decided to test our skills by introducing us to a virtual game drive. we pretend we are on a game drive and actually practise communication skills. Was weird though. i noticed that it is easier to talk to people now that I'm am done with hospitality. i have confidence now and I'm relaxed when speaking in front of people.

will post pictures soon! :)