Share this article:

lance’s cycle highlights: march

on Apr 08, 2014

Another cycle down and one-step closer to driving. The past month has been full of interesting and exciting moments in preparation to receiving my epaulets and becoming a Sabi Sabi ranger. The month started off with myself and the other trainees driving roads and finishing off our workbooks.

During this cycle I have spent a lot more time in the bush learning a lot and preparing myself for the dreaded roads test. I was lucky enough to be put onto a project where I had to measure every road in the reserve.....not an easy task, but a very helpful one in the end. During this time I had some great sightings, especially of elephants, along the way including two of my favorite images taken during my time here.

I also had the chance to scout out some interesting locations for future time lapse work and even left my camera on a rock for 16 hours unattended. It was good to see the other rangers still have good eyes as the radios seemed to be full of life trying to figure out who had lost a camera on top of a rock in the middle of nowhere. Once the measuring had finished it was onto shadowing the other rangers to see how they approach the game drive process. It was a fantastic way to learn new information and to see other approaches to it, as almost every guide has their own unique approach. During the first few drives we were lucky enough to see the Southern Pride cubs one last time.

There is a lot of staff here at Sabi Sabi and most of them are not in the safari department. It is always nice to be able to take them on staff drives and get them out in the bush every now and then. We had some awesome staff drives along the way and had some equally good opportunities to take some images with the other rangers here and swap information during sundowners.

In my last week I had my first drive with guests. It was an awesome experience and I will never forget the people that were on the vehicle with me. We had amazing sightings all three days including Maxabeni walking through the open for a good 45 minutes, as he was on his usual territorial walk.

The weather has been stunning recently with the nights being crisp and clear as we are making our slow approach to winter. Richard and I were lucky enough to have a night off where we could go and take some pictures on our own. Our plan was to get fireflies and stars and we were not disappointed. Sitting in complete darkness in the middle of the reserve listening to the calls of the wild and hearing reports of 8 female lionesses of the Southern Pride coming in our direction, it was a great feeling to be alive and surrounded by nature.

  • BY: LANCE VAN DE VYVER (BUSH LODGE RANGER)
Share this article: