1Why become a Safari Field Guide?
Why become a Safari Guide?
Your office will be the African bushveld, your meetings will consist of encounters with animals. Your job description is an interesting one of many valuable roles! A guide, teacher, friend, game warden, doctor, storyteller and sometimes even a cook for your guests, each day is never quite the same! And each day in the bush is a surprise as the interactions between animals provide unique experiences that both you and your guests learn from.
Add to this, getting to know interesting people from all over the globe keeps you tuned into the world at large.
A Safari Guide walks and drives guests into the game reserves to interpret, in a hands-on inspirational manner, the large and small elements of the wildlife around them. In doing this, a deep appreciation of nature and conservation is instilled in your guests.
You would be responsible for managing those encounters that cause the adrenaline to pump through your veins, with Africa’s big five on foot or in the vehicle, ensuring your guests enjoy a thrilling closeness to the game yet with the necessary caution taken.
SKILLS you will learn for LIFE!
Safari Guiding as a career requires life skills, not just guiding skills. Development of oneself socially and emotionally occurs naturally from the training through to working as a Safari Guide.
Sitting around the warm flickering flames of a campfire each evening, savouring the smell of wood smoke, forming friendships with guests and guides alike. Your guests have great expectations of their brief interval in Africa’s wilderness. You hold in your hands the realisation of their dreams of Africa’s wild.
A field guiding career is about the genuine enjoyment of people and an appreciation of and dedication to, all the many faces nature has to offer us. It is indeed a privileged occupation!
Your office will be the African bushveld, your meetings will consist of encounters with animals. Your job description is an interesting one of many valuable roles! A guide, teacher, friend, game warden, doctor, storyteller and sometimes even a cook for your guests, each day is never quite the same! And each day in the bush is a surprise as the interactions between animals provide unique experiences that both you and your guests learn from.
Add to this, getting to know interesting people from all over the globe keeps you tuned into the world at large.
A Safari Guide walks and drives guests into the game reserves to interpret, in a hands-on inspirational manner, the large and small elements of the wildlife around them. In doing this, a deep appreciation of nature and conservation is instilled in your guests.
You would be responsible for managing those encounters that cause the adrenaline to pump through your veins, with Africa’s big five on foot or in the vehicle, ensuring your guests enjoy a thrilling closeness to the game yet with the necessary caution taken.
SKILLS you will learn for LIFE!
Safari Guiding as a career requires life skills, not just guiding skills. Development of oneself socially and emotionally occurs naturally from the training through to working as a Safari Guide.
- Sensitivity - always be sensitive to the animals, the environment and to your guests.
- Standards - continually strive to better oneself and your company. You are the best ambassador for the ecotourism industry. Don’t let a slip of standards spoil a guest’s experience.
- A subtle and diplomatic approach is required at all times. This approach allows you to deal with conflicts successfully and endears you to your guests.
- Be sincere in everything that you do. Be true to yourself and maintain an honest approach.
- Spirit - always be enthusiastic in everything you do. Try new things with your guests like sleep-outs in the bush or a late night safari. Always go the extra mile to make their experience more meaningful and fun.
- Selflessness – remember that your guests are paying for this experience so create the experience around the guest’s needs. Always be punctual.
- Silence – break your game drives regularly, particularly at night, to allow your guests to sit in silence and absorb the sounds of the bush. Sitting quietly in their own thoughts during the drive will revive them
Sitting around the warm flickering flames of a campfire each evening, savouring the smell of wood smoke, forming friendships with guests and guides alike. Your guests have great expectations of their brief interval in Africa’s wilderness. You hold in your hands the realisation of their dreams of Africa’s wild.
A field guiding career is about the genuine enjoyment of people and an appreciation of and dedication to, all the many faces nature has to offer us. It is indeed a privileged occupation!
2Why a gap year in the African wilderness?
Meaningful, educational, inspirational. Re-defining oneself! Make your gap year count and grow you as a person in so many ways. Make it a gap year you will remember for the rest of your life.
Gap years are about growing as a person and experiencing as much as possible in order to help you decide how you are going to spend the next few years of your young life. They are less about chilling out on beaches and enjoying a year-long party, and more about having a life-changing experience before you embark on your career studies.
A gap year offers an opportunity and alternative to ‘figure things out’ for school leavers not 100% convinced of their career or study plans or direction for their life ahead. With so many career choices available these days, it can indeed be a tough decision to choose one's career.
During a gap year, whatever they choose to do during this time, school leavers may come across a career opportunity they didn’t consider before and that opens up a whole new world. Or it can purely be seen as a time to take a year off, a breather of sorts, a time of personal growth and development that is valuable to any individual.
A unique gap year experience can be the one year Professional Field/Safari Guide course for people either serious about pursuing a career in field guiding or those looking for an educational and meaningful gap year. For one year you will be exposed to diverse ecological and geological terrains, landscapes, wildlife species and so much more at our wilderness camps in remote places such as the Kruger Park, Karongwe Reserve, Selati Reserve and Mashatu Game Reserve (Botswana).
Even better is that for this year of adventure, environmental education and conservation, you walk away with national accreditation by CATHSSETA, endorsement by the Field Guide Association of southern Africa, and 5 months of work experience at a safari lodge. You get an internship where you will meet international guests; fellow lodge and guide staff and gain a heap of essential life and work skills.
The second shorter option for a multi-destination gap year is to join a 55 day Field Guide Level 1 course which provides the fundamentals on safari guiding, conservation and adventure in nature. Certified and endorsed, it enables one to fully experience and learn what it takes to be a Safari Guide in about two months and offers stimulating variety to your gap year itinerary.
The unfenced bush camps provide a consistently stimulating environment in which to learn, supported by the highly qualified and experienced instructors, each with their own unique way of training and guiding that will enhance your overall training experience.
Our advice to a school leaver wanting to take a gap year?
Give yourself the chance to do something rewarding, try out new things and discover what this world has to offer. It will help you become more mature and confident in having to deal with the demands of the ‘adult’ world. If you apply yourself correctly, you can make a gap year experience work for you for a long time as it shows future employers that you are willing to open yourself up to new experiences.
What skills can you gain from taking a gap year?
Whatever one chooses to do during a gap year, the skills gained can be applied to everyday life. Volunteering, for example, gives you the opportunity to help people. The knowledge gained during this time can be used to make a difference in leading your day-to-day life, dealing with people, certain situations and handling yourself under pressure. Having a greater appreciation for life in general is definitely an advantage that will stand you in good stead.
Gap years are about growing as a person and experiencing as much as possible in order to help you decide how you are going to spend the next few years of your young life. They are less about chilling out on beaches and enjoying a year-long party, and more about having a life-changing experience before you embark on your career studies.
A gap year offers an opportunity and alternative to ‘figure things out’ for school leavers not 100% convinced of their career or study plans or direction for their life ahead. With so many career choices available these days, it can indeed be a tough decision to choose one's career.
During a gap year, whatever they choose to do during this time, school leavers may come across a career opportunity they didn’t consider before and that opens up a whole new world. Or it can purely be seen as a time to take a year off, a breather of sorts, a time of personal growth and development that is valuable to any individual.
A unique gap year experience can be the one year Professional Field/Safari Guide course for people either serious about pursuing a career in field guiding or those looking for an educational and meaningful gap year. For one year you will be exposed to diverse ecological and geological terrains, landscapes, wildlife species and so much more at our wilderness camps in remote places such as the Kruger Park, Karongwe Reserve, Selati Reserve and Mashatu Game Reserve (Botswana).
Even better is that for this year of adventure, environmental education and conservation, you walk away with national accreditation by CATHSSETA, endorsement by the Field Guide Association of southern Africa, and 5 months of work experience at a safari lodge. You get an internship where you will meet international guests; fellow lodge and guide staff and gain a heap of essential life and work skills.
The second shorter option for a multi-destination gap year is to join a 55 day Field Guide Level 1 course which provides the fundamentals on safari guiding, conservation and adventure in nature. Certified and endorsed, it enables one to fully experience and learn what it takes to be a Safari Guide in about two months and offers stimulating variety to your gap year itinerary.
The unfenced bush camps provide a consistently stimulating environment in which to learn, supported by the highly qualified and experienced instructors, each with their own unique way of training and guiding that will enhance your overall training experience.
Our advice to a school leaver wanting to take a gap year?
Give yourself the chance to do something rewarding, try out new things and discover what this world has to offer. It will help you become more mature and confident in having to deal with the demands of the ‘adult’ world. If you apply yourself correctly, you can make a gap year experience work for you for a long time as it shows future employers that you are willing to open yourself up to new experiences.
What skills can you gain from taking a gap year?
Whatever one chooses to do during a gap year, the skills gained can be applied to everyday life. Volunteering, for example, gives you the opportunity to help people. The knowledge gained during this time can be used to make a difference in leading your day-to-day life, dealing with people, certain situations and handling yourself under pressure. Having a greater appreciation for life in general is definitely an advantage that will stand you in good stead.
3Game Ranger Vs. Safari Field Guide
People often confuse the terms "game ranger" and "field guide". There is a difference, and here is why …
A game ranger is mainly responsible for the physical and resource management of national parks and private game reserves. S/he acts as a custodian of the wildlife and maintains the game reserve on which the wildlife is kept – the biological populations of the animals as well as roads, fencing, water resources, erosion control, alien plant control, burning programmes, population control and bush clearing, among other tasks.
A field guide interacts with the tourists visiting national parks and private game reserves, sharing his/her knowledge about nature and the environment with these visitors. These guiding experiences are either conducted in a vehicle or on foot. A field guide acts as an interpreter between the environment and the guest, with the ultimate intention of promoting conservation and environmental protection to the tourists through instilling an appreciation for nature in them.
"Nature guide" is a synonym for "field guide" – it refers to exactly the same concept.
A game ranger is mainly responsible for the physical and resource management of national parks and private game reserves. S/he acts as a custodian of the wildlife and maintains the game reserve on which the wildlife is kept – the biological populations of the animals as well as roads, fencing, water resources, erosion control, alien plant control, burning programmes, population control and bush clearing, among other tasks.
A field guide interacts with the tourists visiting national parks and private game reserves, sharing his/her knowledge about nature and the environment with these visitors. These guiding experiences are either conducted in a vehicle or on foot. A field guide acts as an interpreter between the environment and the guest, with the ultimate intention of promoting conservation and environmental protection to the tourists through instilling an appreciation for nature in them.
"Nature guide" is a synonym for "field guide" – it refers to exactly the same concept.
