SOMETHING SPECIAL JUST FOR YOU!

We’re a month away from our Tracking Course in the Kruger National Park - And we have an incredible offer for you - R6000 per person for a 6 night tracking course, normally priced at R10550. The perfect opportunity for field guides to up their game on their tracking skills.

The best part is... This course is held at our pristine Makuleke camp in the Pafuri region of the Kruger National Park from 19 – 25 April 2014. You couldn't get wilder than this!

What you will learn:
• Track and Sign Interpretation - trainers teach you how to analyse the tracks of insects, amphibians, birds, through to large animals.
• Following or Trailing - this deals with the ability to follow or ‘trail’ an animal’s track, until the tracker finds it. Other aspects related to trailing, like animal and bird alarm calls, animal behaviour and reading the ‘freshness’ of a track also form part of this component. This requires a good level of fitness as well as mental focus.

Evaluations: 3 to 4 day evaluations of both tracking components could result in you receiving a FGASA endorsed tracking certificate.

To book your place, email Angela on enquiries@ecotraining.co.za. You won't regret it!

CAMP REFLECTIONS: It is very clear – Gabriela Brunner

Despite her Swiss passport, Gabriela Brunner regularly ventures way down south to sunny Africa. For her, the call of the wild remains ever strong and for a good part the reason is participating in an EcoTraining course. (She’s done more than one…)

The latest tick on her must do-list was an Animal Tracks and Tracking course at EcoTraining’s wilderness camp in the Karongwe Game Reserve. Here, at the hand of an authentic Shangaan tracker instructor, she and her fellow participants got to understand the traditional art of tracking a little bit better.

Gabriela shares her story:

“On our very first game drive George Nkuna (the instructor) got out of the vehicle and showed us a track which we had to guess what it was. I had never seen something similar before or maybe just hadn’t paid enough attention…

It was neither cat- nor antelope-like, there was actually just nothing I could see or think of. A drag mark? Could it have been a leopard with his prey in the mouth? But once again, there were no catlike tracks!

Finally we discovered something like a paw print, huge! Oh, could that be a croc? Yes it was. And so we started to follow the croc tracks. Actually, George followed the tracks and we followed George… After a few minutes we ended at a dam and saw our crocodile. It was huge. And we were following it on foot! Oops! Very cool first encounter.

The two weeks of the course passed by far too quickly.

I will never forget George's “It’s very clear” for tracks where I could see just nothing. And his “Not” for every wrong answer we gave him. But as time passed we learned to read the 'bush book' and we finally were able to see the differences between an ipala and a bushbuck track, or a wildebeest and a waterbuck track.

We can now also tell the difference between hyena, leopard and lion and even say if it's a front or hind foot, left or right! I still struggle with the mongooses though, is it a white-tailed or slender mongoose? Or is it in the end a Jackal?  Ha ha!

We were laughing a lot when I thought it was a baboon when I saw Graham's footprint (assisting George), or when we realized that we didn't recognize for the 10th time the three very clear markings of the aardvark claws, or when the zebra transformed into a baby giraffe...

I passed the assessment and got my Level 1 Track & Sign certificate, which only made me hungry for attending more tracking courses. I can't wait for the next adventure.  Thank you very much George Nkuna and Graham Cooke!”

TRACKS AND TRACKING - A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS...

A picture is worth a thousand words, or so the saying goes… And in nature never a more true word has been spoken. 

You only need to look at an image of the natural world, to be touched to the core and wanting to go and explore. The same applies to moving images and the brand new EcoTraining tracking video. 

We guarantee that you will be enticed to come and learn first-hand the traditional  art of tracking from authentic Shangaan tracker instructors.

So sit back, enjoy and after less than three minutes you will go to www.ecotraining.co.za or send an email to enquiries@ecotraining.co.za and book your place!