My name is Matthew Dyson and I arrived on 01 November 2014 to start at Sabi Sabi as a new ranger in the lowveld area outside the western side of the world renowned Greater Kruger National Park. I did not realise how much work and training the new trainee rangers go through before they start driving guests at Sabi Sabi.

I think there is a general perception that being a ranger is an easy occupation and this may be what it seems like through the guest’s eyes - sitting in front of a safari vehicle; driving around the bush; interpreting the bush for the guests; and then hanging out with them after the drive at the bar talking about the day’s festivities. It is true, but there is so much more behind the scenes while you are training in order to get to that point. It is worth mentioning that a Sabi Sabi trainee ranger becomes a ‘jack of all trades’ once the training is completed.

My first day I arrived at 12 pm sharp to meet the Safari General Manager, Andre Van Zyl, and after a warm welcome and lengthy orientation of the working environment I was handed an A4 lever arch file with all my training material that needed to be completed within the next 2-3 months. You may think that 2-3 months is more than enough time but it is needed as the file consists of roughly 350 pages to read along with an assignment on every second to third page read. I am currently about just under half way through the training material.

Now that is the academic side of the training which is completed while as a trainee you are expected to do 05h30 wake-up calls every morning and then host the morning coffees; set up and host afternoon high teas; welcome arriving guests after the evening game drives with refreshing lemon scented face towels and escort them to and from their suites; and then some nights you are to wait up for the guests until they all have been escorted to their suites. This requires a bit of juggling and stamina to do everything in one day for six weeks straight.

The above mentioned tasks are also combined in the first 2 weeks of training with daily stints in the different departments of the lodge which include workshop, maintenance, kitchen, housekeeping, laundry and habitat management. So as you can imagine, I have been working flat out! I am in the fourth week of my training now and the training has become more ranger related which I am thoroughly enjoying!

One of the more senior rangers, Steve, has been mentoring me over the last couple of weeks. He included me on one of his bush walks with his guests where I learnt an enormous amount. He has also been great in helping me get to know the roads of the reserve as well as the bird life as he is an avid birder.

Last week I performed the roll of a tracker with another senior ranger, Charles, completing all the tasks and duties that a tracker is required to do for his ranger. This included prepping the vehicle for game drive and making sure all refreshments and snacks are on-board and then of course tracking animal signs to try help find interesting animals for the guests.

Last night I went out on a training drive with the rangers where I was handed over command of the radio of a leopard sighting which was up a tree. I was nervous as it was my first time on the radio and having everyone listening to my radio terminology which I had just started learning. That was just after seeing wild dog on a hunt. What an incredible training drive it was!

There are still many more interesting training aspects to go through before becoming a Sabi Sabi ranger and receiving my epilates which I am looking forward too!

So next time you visit Sabi Sabi and meet your ranger, know that he or she has done a great deal to get there and we all wear the Sabi Sabi epilates with pride!