Learning bushcraft in Botswana

EcoTraining has been training bush guides for more than 20 years. Now, it is also offering short courses to tourists as a more immersive alternative to a traditional safari – and at a fraction of the cost

‘Wow! You hear that?” Not a word has passed Jacob’s lips. It’s his eyes, lit up by the flickering glow of the campfire, that are doing the talking. The call we have just heard is unmistakable, like the jagged pulse of a handsaw. We can’t see the creature that is making this eerie sound, but we know it can see us. And we both know exactly what it is – Panthera pardus, as zoologists call it, or just plain “leopard” to you and me.  

Our eyes scan the horizon, looking for the silhouette of the big cat we know is out there. Above us, Scorpio, with its pulsing heart star and giant pincers, is chasing Orion across the inky blackness towards the Southern Cross. Jacob is a local Botswanan, and he and I are on the “graveyard shift”. The time is just after 3.15am.  

Our 90-minute watch will finish just before the first glimmer of dawn heralds the start of another day in the African bush. We are the only ones with our eyes open and our ears listening. The rest of the group, huddled in sleeping bags around our makeshift camp beside the huge rocks of a tree-covered kopje (a small hill rising from flat land), are dead to the world. It’s up to us to keep them safe. 

I have listened to the nocturnal sounds of the bush many times before from the safety of my bed in a comfortable safari lodge: the rhythmic strumming of cicadas; the chirrup of frogs; the piercing cry of a fish eagle; the eerie whoop of a hyena; or the gut-vibrating snarl of a lion.

Sometimes I have even heard the sickening squeal of ambushed prey, unsettling to say the least. But this time it’s different. This is a sleep-out, the eagerly anticipated climax of our bush guide course at nearby Mashatu Camp, at the eastern tip of Botswana near the border with South Africa and Zimbabwe. Here, delving deeper into Egyptian cotton sheets is not an option. It’s our job to know exactly what’s going on in the bush around the camp, to keep the fire burning, and every quarter of an hour to patrol the area in front of camp. 

By now I can recognise many of the sounds of the African night. While my abilities as a bird mimic are still at the primary-school stage, I can now identify the call and plumage of birds I had never even heard of a fortnight ago. I can tell you a surprising amount about the family behaviour of hyenas (they are actually quite cuddly creatures on home turf) and my tracking skills are improving daily. 

I can recognise the difference between the paw prints of canine and feline species, and I know that the cheetah is the only cat that can’t retract its claws. I am even halfway competent at interpreting the direction of travel of everything from a warthog to an elephant, and whether it was running or walking.

EcoTraining – which, as well as Mashatu in Botswana, has camps in South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe – has been training bush guides for more than 20 years. Now, it is also offering shorter courses as an alternative, more immersive experience to a stay in a traditional safari camp – and at a fraction of the cost. They range from six to 28 days in duration and include guiding, wildlife photography, birding and wilderness trails. The idea is that guests not only learn about the bush, but also act as evangelists when they get home, spreading the gospel of conservation.

“Our guests come from all over the world,” says Anton Lategan, EcoTraining’s co-owner, “everyone from our all-important local communities to Europeans, Americans and Australians. We get people of all ages and an ever-increasing number of women. They learn about the whole spectrum of the environment: wildlife, of course, but also geology, ecology, and everything from insects and butterflies to the big cats and man’s place in nature. 

“They also learn about themselves, discovering that they can sleep out under the stars in the bush and have confidence in their abilities – not by taking risks, but by realising their strengths and empowering themselves. Things they found challenging, they later find easy. Often, it gives people a whole new mission in life.”

Mashatu Camp is in the Northern Tuli Game Reserve – 71,000 hectares of diverse habitat straddling the Shashe, Motloutse and Limpopo rivers. It is very easily reached from Johannesburg in neighbouring South Africa. Camouflaged among the trees on the banks of the Limpopo River, it has 10 simple dome tents, a washing and showering area, plus the main dining and lecture tent. Electricity is produced by solar power with a back-up generator. 

Mashatu’s routine is a simple one. At 5am, rhythmic drumming marks the start of the day. After breakfast there is a game drive until mid-morning. Lunch is followed by a lecture and another foray into the bush around 4.30pm before the group returns for dinner and an evening lecture. Later, everyone congregates around the campfire, the beating heart of camp life, to chat about the events of the day.  

During our stay, there were two groups in camp, the local Botswanans, many of whom were working in safari lodges already and were training to become full-time guides, and our group of Europeans from Germany, Holland, Switzerland and the UK. We all took turns at leading our groups, both in bush vehicles and on foot. We decided on the places to go for the best possible wildlife experience, depending on the time of day, the weather and the likely movement of the game, tracking the animals as if we were guides with our own guests. 

On walks, we would stop by termite mounds and discuss the collective genius of a species that can build a structure with a self-regulating temperature, and which is now being copied by humans in a form of architecture know as biomimicry. We learnt how waterholes develop, sometimes over decades, started by animals making a small scrape in the earth when looking for mineral salts. Over time, these gradually get bigger, collecting water and becoming an important water source.

We discussed the concept of “keystone species”, animals that are crucial to the health of an ecosystem even though there may not be many of them. Without them, the populations of prey species rapidly get out of control, destabilising the natural balance. Lions are a classic example. Meanwhile, our tutors were a bottomless source of inspiration and knowledge.

The bush around Mashatu is very varied, with rivers, woods, rocky escarpments, marshland, avenues of baobabs, grassland and sandstone ridges within easy reach of camp. It also has a fascinating history. We enjoyed sundowners among the boulders of a kopje towering over the plains next to an ancient baobab with the carved signature of Cecil Rhodes still recognisable on its trunk. This very spot was where Rhodes signed an agreement with the tribal king to run the Cairo to Cape Town railway through his lands, a project that never materialised. 

During our stay, we saw lions and leopards at close quarters and came within a few feet of a breeding herd of elephants as we hid behind rocks. Another close encounter was with a trio of black mambas that slithered out of nearby jackalberry trees.

One was more than 10ft long. We were alerted by the alarm calls of a family of glossy, blue Meves’s starlings protecting their eggs. These tenacious creatures mobbed the snakes like a gaggle of fishwives until the intruders reluctantly retreated underground.

Rather them than me. Luckily, we didn’t get to see the black interior of their mouths. If you do, it’s usually the last thing you will ever see, so quick is their strike and so deadly their poison. It’s also the derivation of their name, as a mamba’s skin is actually olive brown.

The world’s wild places are coming under ever-increasing pressure from our own voracious species. On one level it is a matter of space and dwindling resources, but on another level our time with EcoTraining taught us how out of balance humans are with the rest of nature. There was, and still is, a mutual dependence and inter-connectedness between every species on the planet. 

Out there in the darkness of the African night, our true status in the grand scheme of things becomes much more obvious. It’s a lesson that we ignore at our peril.

Getting there

South African Airways (0844 375 9680, flysaa.com) flies twice-daily from London Heathrow to Johannesburg, with return fares from £645.

Guiding courses

EcoTraining (0027 13 752 2532, enquiries@ecotraining.co.za; ecotraining.co.za) runs courses throughout the year at camps in Botswana, South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe. 

They include a seven or 14-day EcoTracker stay (£935/£1,655), a seven-day Birding in the Bush course (£805), and a 28-day Safari Guide course (£3,000). Modules include every aspect of bush knowledge from tracking skills and animal behaviour to ecology, conservation, navigation, astronomy and radio drills. The price includes all course fees, activities, and full-board accommodation under canvas, but not international travel. 

A 20 per cent discount is being offered to Telegraph readers joining EcoTraining’s upcoming 21-day Safari Guide course, which starts on April 14 (reduced to £1,610) and its 28-day Safari Guide Course from May 6 to June 2 (reduced to £2,290).

Other options

Informal guide courses are run on an ad hoc basis by &Beyond (0027 11 809 4300; andbeyond.com), Cottar’s 1920s (0025 47 3377 3378; cottars.com) and Gane and Marshall (01822 600 600; ganeandmarshall.com).

Further information

The Field Guides Association of Southern Africa (FGASA) is the leading accreditation body for professional field guides across southern Africa. 

A list of FGASA-endorsed training providers can be found on its website (fgasa.co.za), or call 0027 11 886 8245 for details.