Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Training - The Beginning



Okay, so my training is complete, and it was completely different to what I was expecting!

I always knew that there would be a fair bit of physical and mental training, but I was definitely not ready for what was to come. Here is how it all began.
We arrived the afternoon before the course started, just to get ready and meet some of the other anti poachers. At our head quarters (directly next to the South African Air force base) we just relaxed and watched helicopters buzzing around in the distant sunset, and got a good nights sleep under the stars not far from HQ.




2nd June , day one.
We walk down to HQ and meet some of the other trainees, got issued our uniforms, boots, sleeping bags and ration packs. Our kit bags now weighing around 25 kgs. Not light at all!! So were all dressed in our uniforms, heads shaved, looking like fresh recruits. We are told to march to the training camp with all our kit, (the training camp being 4 kilometres away) now were walking with 25kgs on our backs and old army boots that aren't very comfortable as they are shaped to someone else's feet. Walking 4kms with a 25kg kit bag doesn't sound too hard but it was hell! Real hell! Some trainees being pushed to boiling point already, but still pushing on. Very funny to watch This was definitely a wake up call for all of us as we all started to realised that this course was going to be very military like and we weren't as fit as we thought we were...


3rd June Our first morning at the training camp was very different to a morning in the city, mainly because I used to sleep through the morning and wake up pretty late (my mom used to love that...) So we wake up at 5am after sleeping on the ground on a great winters night... Feeling not so fresh, we collect wood and make a fire to boil some water for coffee, during our coffee we polish our boots ready for drills. 7am-drills. Drilling is basically learning how to march, now at 7:00 in the morning in winter, it's not very enjoyable. Especially as we were drilling like a bunch of spastic penguins and being punished for swinging our arms when turning during a drill. Punishment is being told to 'FLY!'. Flying being- running around the parade ground flapping your arms. Hilarious to watch! Not so fun to do though. 8am - Obstacle course. This is no ordinary obstacle course, this is one hell of an obstacle course, I hope to post a video soon, just pressured for time at the moment. I'm not going to tell you about the obstacle course as I don't think i'll do it any justice, you are just going to have to wait for the video.

Okay so the hardest part of the day is over , now for some snares, they taught us all of the different types of snares, traps nets etc. They also teach us what a poachers kitchen looks like. A poachers kitchen is basically an area under a tree hidden well, where meat from poached animals is butchered and dried and later collected. We are taught what to do when we find snares or any other recent poaching activity. We have to lie in ambush near the snared area, where we will lie in wait for up to 3 days in dead silence, waiting for the poacher to come and collect his meat. Now for some tracking , we are getting taught how to track by a former Rhodesian army tracker. Tracking is quite difficult, but I think our tracking skills will improve as time goes on and we start to adjust to the bush. We then went for some basic survival skills training, like making a fire with one match using an ant mound.


We also learn how to set up a bivy (basically a rain/dew poncho) which protects us from the elements. We are then taught how to bone and polish our army boots, doing this is a mission! You have to put polish on your boot, heat up a spoon until it's red hot, then proceed on ironing out the creases in the boot. But the spoon stays hot for about ten seconds so it takes ages to bone the boot. Then once the boot is smooth, you have to polish them, not rub them until the polish is gone, polish them until you can see your reflection! Super mission.
After polishing our boots, we were told to go for a 2.4km run, still stiff from the march, the drills and the obstacle course we run in pain.

Okay now we have learnt a few basics and have had an intro into anti poaching, so I'm not going to mention the drills and obstacle course again, as it will get repetitive, but take into consideration, that we did this everyday!

Mat

No comments:

Post a Comment