Sondela Nature Conservation

working weekend 29 August

2010-08-30T23:28:00.000-07:00

The weekends work was fun,but we worked hard and long hours.

Friday was welcoming until 9pm ,there was a little problem with one of the guests but it was sorted out in no time.
Saturday was very busy working gamedrives and at the farmyard,we also exterminated more of the ink berry bush on saturday.
Sunday we did more gamedrives,and I also helped to build the box for the biltong to dry in,and then I had to hang the ''biltong'' and ''droe wors'',It was a fun weekend...

Combat problem plants

2010-08-17T06:53:00.000-07:00

We did controlling of problem plants on sondela.
The plant we took out was Cestrum laevigatum,some of the cattle ate it and they died.

We controlled them by cutting them off at the bottom and putting poison on them.

The poison we used is Roundup..

Cultural heritage-collecting of specimens

2010-08-17T05:31:00.000-07:00

This morning we went to tambuki to look for some tools that people used in the stone age.
I found pieces of pot,that was interesting to see...you can see the markings on them.

We also found sharpening stones and peeling stones.
It is very interesting to see how the people of the stone age also melted rock to get iron and copper out of the stone...we also found slag which was part of the meltings.

School trip

2010-07-28T07:41:00.000-07:00

Today was nice,I had the privilege to go to 3 schools to market the academy...it was lots of fun and I got the chance to talk to allot of people!In the beginning it felt strange...but after a while you become used to it.

The children we talked to looked very interested and excited about sondela academy.
It was very good experience , learning some new people skills in communicating on their level!!

Boma building and catching Kudus

2010-07-28T07:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was very cool,we built a boma to catch Kudus and it was very fun...

How it works when they set up the boma is very important because of the animals that you are catching.
It is built in a v-shape and at the front is the truck that is connected to passage where the animals run through and into the truck....at the back it is open for the animals to come in.

They use a Helicopter to chase the animals into the boma,and as soon as they enter there is an alarm that goes off notifieng the people on the ground to close the boma.....It works like a curtain...it has a cable running above the ground and on the ground and the tarp is connected above and on the ground,it glides between the 2 cables..and the people pulling it is well camouflaged by bush that they put in a certain way so the animals cannot see you.

When the back of the boma is closed there is 2 more tarps that needs to be closed,one in the middle and one near the entrance to the truck...so the siren goes off again when the animals advance to the truck and then the tarp close behind them.....so it is with the last one as well.

When the animals is in the truck and secure another siren goes off and it is now safe for all the tarps to be opened again.Then the Helicopter goes again to find more animals......and the same is done until the required amount is caught.

I learned allot,especially how to build a boma and how to catch the animals.

Species Care in a Controlled Environment(24 May)

2010-05-24T23:33:00.000-07:00

I did my assesment on species care in a controlled environment on the 24th of May.

It was lots of fun though it wasn't that easy,but with this Qualification I would be able to do lots of work and work at different places.
I learned a lot of new things although I studdied for the assesment.
We fed the new Giraffe but it wasn't easy at all and you got to have lots of patience.
First you must put on the collar and then when the giraffe gets close and lets you work with him you must first play with its mouth for a while so that it knows you are going to give him his bottle milk.
You then put your finger in his mouth with the bottle and rub his tongue,while doing that you squeeze the botlle softly and wait till he swallows.

We also did Care for animals within area of responsibility.
Assist with selecting, preparing and providing of food.
Recognise and care for plants in area of responsibility.
Explain basic ecological principles.
Occupational Health and safety

I learned alot of new things, and this course was one of the best i've been on.....

Wild life capture(Rhino's) 5 May 2010

2010-05-05T23:24:00.000-07:00

We went to catch Rhino's on Elandsdrift near Rustewinter.
It was real fun.
The vet flew in with his helicopter and prepared everything before going up in the air to look for Rhino's.
The owner of the farm sat in the back of the chopper and he darted the Rhino's. First they darted the Rhino then we had to race to get to it, as soon as we got there we put a blanket over his eyes and taped it, that helped because it made the Rhino's less stressed out.
Then we took a thic..k rope and put it over the head like a collar, to guide the rhino once he got up. Then at the back leg there was also a rope to brake the rhino if it walked to fast!
The whole time we had people including myself supporting the rhino's so that they don't fall over when they walk.

It was hard getting some of the rhino's up because they are so heavy.
They easily weigh around 2000 Kilograms....that is 2 ton.It is very heavy.
We had to do everything right because if something went wrong and the rhino didn't make it, the owner could have lost anything between R200 000 and R1 500 000 for a rhino depending on the size and sex.

It was an awsome experience that I will never forget, and I gained a lot of knowledge for my first time doing wildlife capture. It was unforgettable...

Debrief & Report Writing (Vacation)

2010-04-15T01:26:00.000-07:00

Debrief & Report writing
1.Theoretical Training
## The strong points is that it helps the students to interpret things better. More theory would be good, because then you have more stuff to talk about.
## The challenges is to remember everything you learn.
## I learned a lot of stuff that I used on my game drives and bush expedition.
## Improve by doing the practical directly after the theory.

2.Roster
## It helped allot in organizing the students in the workplace.
## There was no challenges regarding the roster.
## Learned to make my own roster by looking at the one given to us.
## Make the roster more simple.

3.Welcoming
## Helps to build people skills and communication skills.
## Challenges is to work with different guests and difficult guests.
## I learned lots of communicating skills and how to handle guests according to their expectations.
## Better communication between students.

4.Conservation
## Working in the bush is fun and it gives you experience on all the dangerous stuff like the brush cutters, gives you a bit more responsibility.
## Working long hours in the sun is hard.
## learned to work with brush cutters, repair the roads and control erosion.
## It sometimes feel as if we are doing cheap labour, because if you have done something and you do it again you don’t gain any experience out of it!

5.Wildlife Centre
## Working with the animals is fun.
## Getting the rhinos from one cage to the other.
## Learned how to feed the animals, make bottles for them and clean their cages.
## Give the students other things to do, and not the same stuff over and over again.

6.Guiding
## Talking to guests and giving them interesting information.
## Trying to give information to a guest that already know everything about the nature.
## To talk on game drives and to work with foreign guests.
## Give students more opportunity to do guiding and gain experience.

7. Student on Duty
## I haven’t yet had the chance to be student on duty.

8. After hours Activities
## Bring and braai is okay except if you work long hours.
## Getting the meat perfect so that the guest is satisfied.
## How to Social better with people I don’t know.
## Put more Hotel and Lodge students in that department.

9. Academy Duty.
## I haven’t yet had the chance to do Academy Duty.

10. Social
## Talking and communicating.
## Talk to complete strangers.
## Talking with strangers and getting to know them.
## Have more Socials to develop your social skills.

Gamedrives (10-11 April)

2010-04-11T23:14:00.000-07:00

I worked on game drives this weekend and learned how to work better with the guest and how to interact with them on a vehicle.
It was lots of fun to do the tractor game drives and it is very helpful in gaining more personal skills because you have to work with a lot of people at a time and keep everyone happy.

I learned how to approach different people just by looking at their body language and looking at their field of interest.
This weekend was the end of the 1st school vacation and I think it was a great success!

Brush Cutters course 6 April

2010-04-06T05:19:00.000-07:00

Today we had a crash course on how to handle and repair the Brush cutters,we also learned how to use them safely so that nobody gets hurt!
We also wrote a test and we are going to get a certificate to show that we are capable of handling and using brush cutters safely.
The Brush Cutter looks like a wheat eater, except that it has a steal blade infront that is used for cutting small bushes and grasses.like khaki-bush for example.

Tambuki Camp 23-25 March

2010-03-26T01:22:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday morning we left at the boys house for Tambuki.
On the way there we did an assesment on guiding,it was lots of fun.

Later Oom Diederick came to visit us,he took us on a little tree identifying course of his own,it was really helpfull and I learned about 6 new trees.

On Wednesday we woke up,and got ready to go visit a cultural and heritage site,on the way there we also did some looking at the roads we walked on,that was part of Conservation.
We got to the site and then Cobus began to tell us about the site,and it was interesting that we really found artifacts that cultures used there.
We found scrapers and holes in the rocks where the people sharpened stuff like arrow points,and more interesting stuff like ostrich eggs.

That night the hotel & lodge students also did their practical and cooked for us,the food was really great.

Thursday morning we got up and prepared our stuff to get on the way back to the Boys house.
We got assesed on the way back,it was better this time because you could reflect what you learned more easily.The more you practice something,the better you get at it,or the luckier you get.

We got home and we gave Cobus a Debrief of our camp at Tambuki.

What is Important?
1.Planning 2.Responsibility 3.Helping others 4.Taking the lead in some situations.

It is very important to plan before the time,because planning helps to make everything easier and more fluently.
This was a great experience to go camp at Tambuki,I gained a lot of knowledge that I can use in the Future.

9-12 March 15-19 March (Site Guide Course)

2010-03-21T23:42:00.000-07:00

We are doing our Site guide course to work when the vacation starts!

I learned so much from Cobus these few weeks when we were busy in class and doing practical in the veld.
We learned what is important-procedures that you must go through before taking guest on game drives or game walks.
We then got asessed on what we had learned etc.
We then moved on to trees,grasses,ecology,weather and climate,biomes,taxonomy and lots of other interesting work.
We moved on to Mammals,Birds,Reptiles,Arachnida,Fish,Amphibians and more stuff about the nature!
It was everything in a nutshell.
I now know lots of interesting stories that I can tell people and I can do a game drive or game walk confidently!

12-14 March (working at Entertainment)

2010-03-21T23:28:00.000-07:00

This weekend was lots of fun!
I worked at entertainment with Michelle.We set up on Saturday morning,playing music for the guests and playing with the children!
I learned new skills on how to work better with children and understand their point of view better.
I also helped the people at Food & Beverage,that was also very helpfull in learning new skills.

8 March Start of the conservation course

2010-03-11T22:15:00.000-08:00

We started the course with Cobus spies.He is the facilitator for Nature Conservation.I know the course is going to be very experiencefull and that I will learn a lot of new things.

5 March End of Gap year

2010-03-11T22:11:00.000-08:00

We finished the gap year full of excitement,because we learned so much during the gap year!The gap year changed me as a person,it changed my perception of the workplace and responsibilities.I look at life through a different view point now!I know that I benefited well from the gap year and everything I learned will not be wasted!

Fire Fighting 2 March

2010-03-02T21:48:00.000-08:00

We learned all about fire fighting on Sondela,and we learned about all the gear that you must have in order to fight a fire.

Although I have fought fires before on a few farms,I still learned a lot!The gear used at Sondela is the same we also used to fight fires!

Heino learned us how the whole process works when the fire alarm goes off.We were in 3 teams and each team had a chance to do a fire drill.We gained lots of experience!

We were sent back to class and then suddenly the fire alarm went off and we had to do a fire drill!

I learned so much out of the whole crash course!I learned you need to have lots of Responsibility and make sure that you work fast and effective!
Always work in a team to get things done faster!
If a fire was to break out and they needed my help I would be able to fight the fire just by what I have learned out of the fire fighting!

27-28 February Wildlife Centre

2010-02-28T21:39:00.000-08:00

This was by far the most experience I gained at Sondela!

I worked very hard,but it was so much fun,I would do it again anytime!

We walked with the lions on the first morning,It was a great experience!
After that we had to feed the Rhinos and the Giraffe and the Zebras.
Then we fed the little Bokkies-Nyalas,Blesbuck,Impala and the Red heartebeest!

We then fed the Cervils and Carracals,the Cheetahs and the Lion cubs!

We helped to fix a injured leg of a Zebra-It's ligiments was torn in it's front left leg!

The experience I gained was amazing!

The skills I gained was caring for Rehabilitated animals!
I would now be able to work at any Wildlife centre!

Meeting with Mr.Reynecke

2010-02-25T22:05:00.000-08:00

We had a board meeting with Mr.Reynecke on the 25th of February.
We discussed all of the problems we had.

It was very Professional,and we came up with good solutions for our problems.

We grew a lot from when we first came here to Sondela,and personally we developed a lot of skills during the time that we have been here!That is why we held a professional meeting and all went well.
Mr.Reynecke said that he is very proud of us!

First Aid 23-24 February

2010-02-24T21:44:00.000-08:00

We did the course over 2 days and everyone passed the course!

We learned almost evrything of the human body and how it works!

We learned a lot about how to help people that is in need of medical attention!

We learned about Heart attacks,snake bites,and lots of more but most important was CPR!

I know I will be able to assist someone that is in need with the things I have learned with the first aid.

But I hope that I never have to use it on someone!

Thursday 18 February Cross Marketing

2010-02-21T21:57:00.000-08:00

We had a cross marketing workshop,it was given by Daleen Michau!

We learned how to market other events at Sondela through talking to people and telling them about the activities going on at Sondela!

We learned how to talk to the people and how to make them feel comfortable!
The cross marketing was easy to learn,and I think it will help everyone a lot in developing their personal skills and guest related skills.

The workshop was very interesting and I learned a lot!!

Wednesday 17 February BEER Night

2010-02-17T21:55:00.000-08:00

This was by far the most information I processed in one day!I learned a lot of new things that I never knew,like how to brew Beer and all other things about Beer like the History!
It was great fun learning about Beer,and we also had the chance to taste 3 different German Beers
1.Weissenbier Klassik and Dunkel
2.Bitburger Lager-Germany's no.1 Draft Beer.

Norman talked to us about Beer and what he is doing in the industry,he worked in the UK for 10 years.He has a Masters Degree in brewing Beer.
The plan he has is to start a brewery at Sondela!

The night was a great succes,and we learned a lot about Beer,we also had to create a presentation on powerpoint.
It was one of the best times for me at Sondela so far.

Friday 12 Feb-Sunday 14 Feb

2010-02-16T22:06:00.000-08:00

We did welcoming on Friday!I went to the main gate to work!It was very hectic working there because it was a fully booked weekend at Sondela and the cars was coming in non-stop till 9pm that night!I was running around like a mad person,but I learned a lot working there.I mostly learned to work with guests and to communicate in a way that is friendly to them!!!

On Saturday I worked in the Cocktail Bar.It was lots of fun helping the people,and working with the guests.I learned how to make a few cocktails and soon I was very good at it.It was good experience in communicating with guests and helping them to their needs!

On Sunday I worked in the Cocktail Bar.It wasn't that busy but it was a lot of fun!I worked really hard this weekend and I went to bed early because I was very tired!!

Debate 10 February

2010-02-10T22:17:00.001-08:00

We were briefed that we were going to have a debate about the Red Billed Queleas.
I chose to be for the killing of the birds,and other people chose to be against it.

I did some research about the impacts Queleas have on the economy and food security.
So I based my opinion on the fact that the Queleas threaten the food security.

Then we all got together at the debate and each one had a chance to lift his opinion on the Queleas.
It went well to all of the sides.

Then we gave our feedback of what we learned through having a debate and what is important,also
how to approach a debate and go in with the necessary plan!

I learned that everybody have a different opinion about the debate and everyone gave good facts on why to have a debate!!

It was fun!!!!

Tour Bela-Bela 3 February

2010-02-03T03:44:00.003-08:00

This morning we were briefed by Cobus on the tour we were going on and he told us all of the stuff.
Safety of the passengers is very important.

Everything on the vehicle must be checked before going on the tour like the oil,water,tire pressure etc.

We were all very excited.

Our 1st stop was the Information centre-we looked at the inside and Cobus briefed us about how the centre is run and that it is run privately.We departed at 9:36 am

The 2nd stop was the Sondela Fun seekers....we arrived at 9:42

They showed us where it was located and told us a bit of what they are doing.

The 3rd stop was the grave yard where the the famous ''voortrekker'' Andries Pretorius's wife is buried-Christina Pretorius.

The 4th stop was the African Market.
we arrived there at 10:07 and departed at 10:15

We learned that people from kenya,Zimbabwe and other African Lands come to sell their stuff they made.
They have all kinds of stuff like carved animals from wood and all kinds of nice folded wire stuff like crosses etc.

The 5th stop was the block house.
It was build by English forces to protect the railway nearby it.
It was manned by 7 people.
It consists of 3 levels.

The 6th stop was the silos.
The silos is run by NTK.
There is 5 small silos and 7 big silos.
they are 45m in height.
The railway past the silos goes through to Zimbabwe.
And last but not least, we went through the township.
The township is nice,the people is very friendly and social.
There is nice Taverns that play good Jazz music.

The whole tour was a great experience,and it was lots of fun.Learned a lot!!!

Pest Control at Sondela 1 Februarie.

2010-02-01T22:31:00.000-08:00

There is certain procedures you must follow when doing pest control.
The guys from the Agricultural Department was here to talk with us and told us all about the whole story.
1.The Target was the Red billed Quelea that was causing problems for the farmers.Their farms was situated in the area of Sondela,so in the day the birds grased in the farmers lands and at night they went to their nests wich was situated at Sondela.

2.The guys from Agriculture walked with a GPS and marked the whole place where the birds was sleeping.

3.There is 2 methods they use to control the birds.Chemicaly and with fire.They used the chemical method.

4.Where the guys marked the place they put torches out,because the plane had to spray the birds at night when they were busy sleeping.

5.About 5pm we went out to chase away the non-targeted species so that they didn't get affected by the poison.

6.Around about 8pm the plane began to spray the birds till about 9pm.

7.They left the birds through the night so that they could inhale the poison and that it could start doing it's job.

The next morning the farmers brought their workers to pick up all of the birds they could find.

Although it is very sad to see the birds die in that way it is also experience gained in a way that cannot be described.