South Africa Expedition

After an over-night stay in Ezulwini Lodge the group moved to Makhasa game reserve and the trip started poperly. Makhasa is a small community-owned reserve and is primarily and educational facility, both for overseas groups and also South African ranger trainees. We spent three days there in a wide variety of activities, including; game drives, animal tracking, canoeing, orienteering and bush craft. In addition, everyone got a chance to track a rhino on foot and some groups managed to get really close to the game. There was also some good fun to be around the fire in the boma in the evenings.

The second part of the trip was spent in Mkuze game reserve. Wellington College students helped work on an atlasing project, which aims to catalogue the biodiversity in the reserve in an attempt to provide evidence for a bid to recognise the reserve as a world heritage site. Our contribution to the project was to dig a series of pit-fall traps, which can be used to study small mammals, arachnids and reptiles in the area. Wellington students lived up to their reputations, breaking the record for most fit-fall traps dug in a day! There were also opportunities to see some of the nocturnal animal life (including scorpions and bats), so we were rewarded for our hard work!

The last week of the trip was spent in the diving lodge in Sodwana Bay and was  proabaly the most relaxing part of the trip. Everyone got a chance to dive on the reef system (either through completion of the PADI Open Water diver course or, for experienced divers, as part of a reef Ecology course). Everyone got a chance to see first hand the huge diversity of aquatic life on the reef systems, whether diving or snorkelling. Most students saw green turtles and some people got a chance to swim with dolphins - a really amazing experience. Afternoons and evenings were spent relaxing by the pool, listening to ecology lectures, or playing poker.