Yesterday was the start of the Dragoman overland trip from Cape Town to Gondar in Ethiopia. There's 22 passengers and 3 crew on the first leg of the trip up to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. It's a mixed group with the UK, US, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, Holland, Germany, Argentina, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Belize represented with ages ranging from 24 to 73. We headed out of Cape Town in our temporary truck - the Dragoman trucks are UK registered and in order t...

Arrived safely back in Cape Town on the Premier Class sleeper train. The train itself was really good - fabulous buffet lunch in a dedicated passenger lounge in Johannesburg station, followed by a champagne reception on board the train. Dinner was fairly simple but was still 5 courses served in a formal dining car. The next day, following breakfast and lunch the train arrived into Johannesburg about 40 minutes late - not bad for a 26 hour journey! The plan for...

During the month long course I saw the following: Felidae: Lion, Leopard, Cheetah, African Wild Cat Canidae: Black Backed Jackal, Side Striped Jackal Hyaenidae: Spotted Hyena Herpestidae: Mongoose, Dwarf Mongoose Viverridae: Civit, Genet Mustelidae: Honey Badger Proboscidae: Elephant Perissodactyla Ungulates: White Rhino, Zebra Artiodactyla Ungulates: Warthog, Bushpig, Hippo, Giraffe, Duiker, Impala, Bushbuck, Waterbuck, Nyala, Kudu, Eland, T...

You can learn about tracking animals - finding their spoor (footmarks), looking for signs of fresh dung, listening to alarm calls of other animals - but sometimes all you need is luck… For the last couple of weeks our group has been split into two halves - those doing the FGASA qualification, and those, like me, who are completing the course but not completing the exams or practical assessments. This afternoon the FGASA group are starting their practical ass...

I suppose it was only a matter of time… without electricity, internet, TV, or radio, other forms of entertainment were required. Around camp there are a number of Tamboti trees (Spirostachys Africana) - a medium sized deciduous tree. In terms of uses, then its wood is prized for furniture making, but other than that it has few uses. The leaves contain a poisonous latex, its smoke is poisonous when burnt, even if you avoid the smoke if you've used the wood when ...