I have been training for the last 9 weeks and I am almost there with only 3 weeks to go.

A lot has happened since my last blog and it has been a very festive time of the year. On Christmas Day the lodge ran as per usual but the night before all the rangers, staff and management had a Christmas celebration where we had a visit from Father Christmas aka Charles Ferrow (one of our fellow rangers), each year one of the rangers is nominated for this prestigious position. Father Christmas came bearing many gifts as all the staff had behaved themselves throughout the year. The handing out of the gifts was a good laugh I must say! All staff and management had a turn at sitting on Father Christmas’s knee and receiving a gift including the managing director Rodney Wyndham. To me this put emphasis the fact we truly are a family here at Sabi Sabi and not just a safari company.

Next came New Year’s Eve which was an extremely jovial affair. I would have thought new years in the bush would have been quiet but for 2014 this was not the case. The guests were in a party mood and celebrated into 2015!

This first week of 2015 has been a busy one! I have been kept busy driving back and forth from the airstrip sending guests on their way and bringing new guests in. I have to say I have quite enjoyed watching the planes touch down and take off on our airstrip, it never gets old. The one day when I arrived at the Sabi Sabi airstrip to do a strip clearance I noticed a herd of elephant in the bush just off the eastern side of the runway. After 15 minutes or so they decide to move onto the runway. I radioed the lodge to inform the pilot and then promptly chased the herd of elephant off runway which was quite a task I must say. As you can image having an elephant on the runway can cause a slight problem for the pilot! All ended up fine though as the herd moved off deeper into the bush and the flight touched down safe and on time.

It is always important to go the extra mile for your guests. The picture below illustrates such an example that a fellow ranger and I put together for his guests. This was a surprise champagne and orange juice stop in the dry riverbed to celebrate our guest’s anniversary while they were on their way back from safari. They had no idea and were absolutely chuffed when as they were escorted into the riverbed to find the white table cloth filled with that mornings’ treats.

I have learned a lot over the past 9 weeks training with Sabi Sabi and in the next 3 weeks I will be doing my assessments. I cannot wait to be out guiding safaris which should be soon if all goes well!