THE JOURNEY IS CONTINUING: UPDATE FROM SEGERA (WITH NEW PICTURES!)

The story continues in another part of Kenya...

Vulturine Guineafowl

It was in 1993 when EcoTraining took the first steps on the mission to up the standards of guiding throughout Africa, when the first courses were held in the Sabi Sands Reserve. And nearly 20 years later, the company has stayed on the dedicated path with scores of prospective field guides and nature lovers unearthing vast amounts of interesting facts about all things wild and wonderful.

From Mpumalanga training grounds have since been established throughout the rest of South Africa (Selati, Karongwe, Makuleke, Pongola), Botswana (Mashatu) and Kenya (Lewa Wildlife Conservancy).

And now EcoTraining has joined the Wilderness Collection (Wilderness Safaris) to give guests at Segera in Laikipia, Kenya the best possible guided experience.

Since September, six local guides have been undergoing training in all aspects of field guiding under the tutelage of EcoTraining’s highly experienced instructors. This process is on-going with the various instructors rotating.

In recent weeks, instructor Mark Gunn found some time in between the theoretical lectures and practical exercises and used the bush telegraph to send through a couple of updates. Something like:

“The training will continue despite the rain and the wind.  The climate is doing its best to make life miserable but the EcoTraining crew bites the bullet and carries on. We had a drive to the south and the amount of animals we saw was fantastic! Lelwel hartebeest was one of the highlights. Also saw lots of zebra and a nice herd of elephants.”

And of course, having tea with the camels was a definite highlight, as Mark described.

“The whole scene of having tea with the camels was absolutely fantastic. It had a certain peace and tranquility about it. Having tea surrounded by strange animals all peacefully grazing and browsing was just something else. The male even blew out his bag from his mouth (called a dulla) to show dominance toward another camel. It is a very strange sound and action (camels groan, moan and nuzz) if you have not seen it before."

(Thank you Mark for the updates and the photos!)