Safari Guide of the Year 2022 has come and gone. I am confident that the team behind the event will take a short break before starting to work on the 2023 event.
However, 2022 will be a hard act to follow, but I believe all involved this year will be ready and working towards raising the bar next year!
This event has been a highlight for me for the past 3 years. Unlike a birthday, that I wait for an entire year for and it is gone in a day, this lasts for a week. And I was able to enjoy each and every day in the company of giants in the guiding industry.
Guiding is an analogy for life, well for me anyway, hence me starting off the Travel & Things coverage of the event with my highlights of the week.
I will be covering all the events, but there were certain activities that were unexpected and added depth to all that the week produced.
So indulge this ‘wanna be’ field guide to take a moment to share some of my out-of-the-box experiences.
Steve, from Wild Earth, was the host of the event. I would like to believe that he was getting up to speed with his script for the week, but I suspect that he was reading a novel.
His ‘highlight’ of Safari Guide of the Week 2022 was hosting the awards dinner and prize-giving that was broadcast live at the end of the week.
Battered and beaten? But still useful…until all the finalists received boots from Sapmok, a returning sponsor and I would bet that this pair went home in a suitcase.
Boots and shoes are often an indication of a guide’s commitment to their chosen industry. One of the judges, who has been in the industry for almost 30 years polishes his boots every day. I wonder how many others are that conscientious?
We did not even have to leave camp to find this Western Yellow-bellied Sand snake sunning itself near our accommodation.
It is always exciting to have an unexpected sighting such as this and so close to ‘home’.
The snake did not seem to be fazed by all the attention and stayed for a while before slithering off into a nearby rock pile.
Did your know?
The Western Yellow-bellied Sand snake feeds on lizards, frogs, rodents, small birds and other snakes.
The venom of this snake is very mild and has no real effect on humans.
It is also one of South Africa’s fastest snakes, and although its actual speed has not been recorded, the maximum that any snake is capable of is 13 km/h for any snake. And that is over territory that is littered with branches, grasses etc. Certainly not a clear straight track to follow.
By comparison, Usain Bolt, on a flat track and over a distance of 100m, reached a maximum speed of 44.72km/h. Put in similar circumstances, I am certain that he would be caught and passed by almost everything that lives in the wild. Except perhaps a tortoise or a chameleon.
Safari Guide of the Year activities starts at sunrise with either a game drive or a guided walk.
The sunrises in the Lowveld are spectacular and deserve to be acknowledged and celebrated.
Early on in the competition, when the finalists were jumping for joy…
They are, from L to R: Solomon, Liam, Cameron, Nico and Ruvan.
My apologies to Liam and Ruvan for getting their names wrong at the beginning of the completion, which then became an in-joke for both them, certain Bushwise staff and myself.
You can see all the category winners as well as the overall winner by using this link: https://travelandthings.co.za/2022/07/safari-guide-of-the-year-2022-all-the-winners/
I will be covering the major activities that the finalists were judged on in upcoming Blog posts, but for those who do not know what they are. they include Track and Sign, where finalists were tasked with identifying 30 tracks and signs.
Guided walks in dangerous game territory. What was extraordinary for me about my walk with Solomon is that he turned what could have been a bland walk into a cultural experience.
I came away knowing a lot more about trees and how to catch mice than I did before the walk began.
Yes, we did see elephants which is always exciting, but I was also enthralled by the stories of his childhood and the part that his culture has played in his life so far.
Advanced rifle handling, where they were tasked with a series of exercises to determine their accuracy and competence with that large calibre weapon.
The minimum calibre is a .375 or a .458. Two of the judges had brought .505 Gibbs to show what a large calibre weapon is like to shoot with.
For the first time since I did National Service back in 1971, I got to step up and fire a shot. In the defence force, I used either a .9mm or a 7.62, much smaller weapons.
Different to what I was expecting, but exciting nevertheless.
For those who have been on a safari, they will know that game drives form an important part of the daily routine at a lodge.
And it was the same at Safari Guide of the year with each finalist having to conduct a drive with some of the judging panel on board.
No pressure at all. If sightings were not forthcoming, they were judged on how entertaining the drive was given the lack of wildlife.
Photography plays a large part in the safari experience and being on a vehicle with Canon equipment that costs more than a large car leads to all sorts of envy.
On my return, I did approach my bank manager for a loan, and to the best of my knowledge, he is still laughing, several days later.
Seeing that actual photographs are subjective, the Canon teams came up with other scoring methods by which they could mark the finalists.
But for me, this year there were three unexpected highlights and all for different reasons.
The first was a visit to the K9 unit situated on the same property as the Southern Africa Wildlife College where Safai Guide of the Year took place.
Getting up close and personal with Belgian Malinois was an experience as my previous interactions with this breed have been at entrance gates to a variety of reserves where guests are asked NOT to interact with the dogs.
This particular female wandered between us and allowed us to pet her, under the strict supervision of her handler.
This is NOT the type of canine that you want coming at you in attack mode.
These particular puppies have just started their training and were keen to lick and nibble any hand that was thrust at them in the kennel area.
Let slip the dogs of war?
In this exercise, two staff members, pretending to be poachers, set off to lay a trail for the dogs to follow.
The guys walked about 1.3km which took them 15-20 minutes and then scaled a tree and awaited the arrival of the dog pack.
It took the dogs all of 1 minute 45 seconds to not only cover the same distance but to find the ‘poachers’ and keep them in the tree until the handlers arrived.
The dogs can be tracked via radio collars and a phone app, meaning that the handlers don’t have to have a visual of the pack in action. Although the raucous barking did help find the pack at the completion of the exercise.
The guys in the tree are not poachers but are staff members who are involved with the training of the various packs of dogs utilized by this K9 unit.
Too tired to even stand and drink? But a reward for a job well done.
It has to be said that these dogs did seem to enjoy their outing and that they were almost ready to set off again at short notice.
The second highlight was this controlled burn that produced some interesting bird interactions.
I was on a photographic drive when we came across the burn and it produced some wonderful images.
Fire is like the bushveld TV. It is a living and breathing entity that if controlled can bring renewed growth to areas that need the cleansing impact of a controlled burn.
Out of control; fires, like those in Australia and parts of the USA can devastate large tracts of land and destroy homes and cause death.
The plains game did not hang about as they are aware of what damage fire can cause.
The herds of wildebeest and impala that we passed were all heading away from the blaze, keeping a safe distance between themselves and the flames.
But for the many bird species in the area, it was like a food delivery service had arrived.
They were perched on every surface, branch and twig. Seemingly unaffected by the smoke and heat they dived repeatedly into the fleeing hordes of insects.
The Lilac-breasted Rollers took the high ground, watching from an elevation and not really getting their feathers dirty so to speak.
On the other hand, the Fork-tailed Drongos were all over the place.
High, low, in the grass, on the road as well as perching on the surrounding rocky outcrops,
I saw several literally fly into the leading edge of the flames in order to pick off insects that were fleeing for their lives.
A behaviour that I had not seen before, and we, as a group on the vehicle, sat for the longest time trying to get ‘that shot’ to would epitomize the event.
Sunset with the new moon just showing. Another day of the competition is over or is it? There is still storytelling and dinner to look forward to.
I almost forgot the evening storytelling around the fire after dinner. This was the order in which the finalists would tell their stories.
Would it be better to be first? Nico would be the one to find out. All their stories educated, entertained and informed not only the guests and the judges but the other finalists as well.
And last but not least. A very personal highlight.
When I interviewed the finalists before Safari Guide of the Year 2022, one of the questions I put to them was a simple”Pineapple on a pizza, Yes or No”? Only Nico said no.
A new sponsor from the USA had been following my Safari Guide of the Year 2022 Zoom interviews and presented me with this notebook before she left. Spot on Ashley, many thanks.
To watch the interviews, use this link: https://travelandthings.co.za/2022/06/interviews-with-the-sgoty-finalists-is-pineapple-on-a-pizza-a-thing/
With thanks to all the sponsors, without who this event would not have been the success that it was.
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