This is it, that final hurdle I’ve been working towards my whole career… a two-night backpack trail! It doesn’t sound like much, but let me put it in to perspective!
At the start of any Field Guide’s career, your wants and desires are very different! I have been there and now can testify all the way from the other side. Over the years the guiding industry has changed a lot, but our main focus, is experience experience experience. I’ll try my best to break it down simple.
The first requirement… 60 days of actively guiding! That means by either taking guests out in a vehicle or walking trails, resulting in qualifying for an Apprentice Field Guide Theory Exam (old Level 1, which is what I still call it), followed by a Practical Assessment, either on vehicle or by walking. All generally with guests. Once you’ve reached 256 days of actively guiding you then qualify as Field Guide (old Level 2), both again with a theoretical exam and a practical assessment. Once that is completed at 525 days of actively guiding you can then attempt Professional Field Guide and like the previous two, this will be completed with a theoretical exam and practical assessment. I take it you’re catching my drift with how these qualifications work…
For me… I would be assessed for SKS DG, also known as Special Knowledge and Skills Dangerous Game. And this to me, is the finale. The one I’ve been working towards, my whole career. I will be conducting a two-night backpack trail on Thornybush Game Reserve, with a fellow participant, assessed by two individuals I will often refer to as the Dalai Lama’s of the industry. They have basically designed this assessment and have tweaked and mastered the craft of dangerous encounters on foot over the last two to three decades. So yes, I am stressing my tits off.
To break down SKS DG for you, it requires 1200+ hours on foot, in a Big Five area, along with 600 encounters. An encounter would be a buffalo bull, or a leopard or a breeding herd of elephants. Simple, yet very time consuming if your whole career has been more vehicle based. Between finding the love of my life, getting married and having two beautiful girls, i finally got the chance to be assessed.
Now, down to the assessment…
With temperatures, on average, over the three-day period reaching 39’C, water points and finding shade was of the utmost importance. When to walk and when to rest. For both days we decided to start as early as we could, preferably after breaking down camp and heading out on a trail before we hunkered down in the shade of a big Weeping Boer-bean or a Jackalberry tree and laid sprawled out like a pride of lions. Once it cooled down we either did some bushcraft, which entails digging for water or did a leisurely afternoon stroll (without backpacks focusing on the smaller things). Of course nerves got the better of us in the beginning but slowly, we found our confidence again.
And so, for the next three days, we shared and gained vital information from our two assessors. We shared our knowledge with the guests and apprentice ranger and tracker that joined the trail, encountered several different herds of elephants, trailed buffalo over two days, and sat around a fire at night listening to two men’s life stories of how they came to love the bush. That’s when you feel small, a mere spec in an industry that is forever a pit of knowledge and when you think you know it all, Mother Nature herself, sends you back into that pit digging for more.
The last 200m walk to the office, both Leighton and I just glanced at each other and you could feel the nerves beating between us as our heart rates spiked. This was it. Did we do enough, did we really give it our all? A nervous laugh escaped and we realised there is absolutely nothing more we can do and high-fived each other right there. Whatever the outcome, mannnnnnnnnn, did we have fun!
So on a 40’C day, we got our asses into the air-conditioned office, were forced to have a cup of coffee rather than the coke we so desperately wanted and went through a tradition that I was sworn to not share. And after what felt like an eternity, I got to shake hands with two men I have looked up to my whole career, and shared a smile as they congratulated us both on completing this achievement. For me, it felt like the weight of the world melted off my shoulders and at the same time I was suddenly deadly tired and just wanted to get home to my family. I did not want to see a soul, until I could fall into my husband’s arms and share, what he was so supporting of, about this wonderful achievement…
I did get home. Eventually.
I did get the chance to fall into his arms and just let it all sink in, whilst holding both my girls.
And I did have a good old fashioned shower, with a glass of red wine next to me!!!
xxx Nicola