While you currently might sit somewhere indoors in European winter longing for more sun, we here at EcoTraining spend all day outside, sometimes wishing for a little refreshment, a little breeze of cooler air. If you are thinking of doing a Field Guide Course, the best time to do it is right now, but have you ever considered the season for your course? This blog will give you an idea about what you can expect from summer in the bush and whether it is something for you or not.
Wet, wetter, Africa?
Especially as Europeans, we often picture an African summer as the perfect sundowner scene, but we forget that the South African Lowveld has its rainy season in summer.
In order to offer enough food and water to the plants and animals throughout the year, the bush depends on good summer rains. Most of the rain falls in January and February and can even lead to local flooding. You better pack your gumboots!
The best things to do in camp on a rainy day are to study with your mates, watch a movie or play some games, look forward to the next day and learn how the rain changes nature.
Speaking of weather
Let’s tick this unpleasant point from our list. Yes, South African summers are hot and humid. 40 degrees C° plus can easily happen. There will be days when your brain literally doesn’t know how to function because of the heat. You’ll find yourself walking from A to B, and by the time you arrive at B, you have forgotten what you actually wanted.
But don’t worry; after every heatwave comes a cold front again, giving you time to breathe and relax.
Best way to keep yourself cool: Short and cool showers, a wet towel, a T-shirt or Kikoi around your body or head, a battery-operated or solar fan, and a lot of water to keep you hydrated.
An abundance of everything
Summer in the bush means lush, green vegetation and an abundance of food for the animals. As soon as the first big rains arrive, the bush literally starts to change. The grass shoots high off the ground, trees flowering, and waterholes slowly fill up. I don’t know if that’s scientifically correct, but to me, the animals look a lot happier during that time of the year as they don’t have to stress too much about food and water. The abundance of food and water resources is also the main reason why a lot of mammal species will have their babies in summer.
Come November, you will experience the change from seeing pregnant antelopes to a whole kindergarten in the herd. The high grass and the thick bush make it much harder to spot animals than in winter when most trees and bushes don’t have leaves. Yes, sometimes it can be a bit frustrating. On the other hand, it is even more rewarding to spot something in the dense bush, and a little challenge keeps your brain fresh.
The best way to deal with the thick bush frustration is to keep your eyes and ears peeled, listen to other animals’ alarms, and watch out for tracks. Focus on the more minor things in the bush. Sometimes, they will lead you to unexpected sightings.
Summertime and learning are easy
Imagine you get a list of trees you must study; the most obvious ID feature is the leaves. But none of the trees actually have left. Welcome to winter! It’s the same with many other things you have to learn. In summer, flowers bloom, and you see them every day, whereas in winter, you have to know most of them from a picture. Frogs and insects magically appear during the summer rains, making them so much easier to study. It’s what we see that arouses our interest. Despite all the wonderful mammal species, there will be plenty of topics to discuss on your game drive, whether flowering and fruiting trees, insects, or birds. A lot of birds in the Lowveld are migrants, meaning they spend the summer in Southern Africa breeding and raising their chicks, for example, and flying further north during the South African winter.
Therefore, doing a Field Guide Course in winter means you will not see many of the birds you will be studying. You won’t believe how much easier it is to learn bird and frog calls if you hear them daily in camp or on your drives.
The best ways to learn in summer are to find a place in the shade, watch, and listen to nature. Remember the tips on how to keep yourself cool. With trees, I found it very helpful to make my own drawings of the leaves, leaf structures, and flowers.
Fruits and freakouts
Now that I’ve mentioned insects, I decided to give them their own topic because we can not talk about them, but to make it a bit easier to digest, let’s combine this section with mentioning the delicious fruits the bush offers during summer. From Marula fruits to Sour Plums, you can regularly stop on your game drive and try the different fruits and berries that elephants or monkeys love. Not to mention the fresh and juicy mangos and paw-paws we get daily for breakfast and lunch. Isn’t that something to look forward to? As soon as the first rains reach the camps, it feels like everything starts to get feet and legs and creeps up on you. Insects, Arachnids, and snakes pop out of nowhere, making life a little harder for some of us. Walking into a spider web with only half-opened eyes before even reaching the bathroom in the morning is definitely nothing I enjoy. But the good thing is, you get used to it and it becomes less and less scary.
Best ways to reduce your freakouts: Find the right tent mate who can remove all the creepy crawlies from your tent, and learn about snakes and spiders because what you understand is less frightening.
The best time to become a Field Guide is NOW
Summer, Winter, Winter, Summer. Whenever you decide to do your course, you’ll learn to live with nature and plan your day and activities according to the weather. It’s something that can have a very calming effect on you because you take it day by day and every day as it comes. I think every season in the bush has its own magic. I love the clear and cool days in winter as much as seeing the bush in full bloom and sleeping in my tent while a summer storm is raging outside. If we didn’t have these hot and humid summer days, we wouldn’t wish for the colder winter days and the other way around. The seasons are so different, and the constant change keeps living with nature refreshing.
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Why I wanted to be a Professional Field Guide
Erik Beusse did a Professional Field Guide Course where he started his journey by connecting with the wilderness around him. Erik tells us about his passion for the African bush, why he wanted to be a guide, and what it means to be a Backup in one of the EcoTraining Camps.
