An eventful and challenging year spent in South Africa - it started off with a field guiding and trails guiding course at Limpopo Field Guiding Academy in Dinokeng Game Reserve with advanced rifle handling, guiding, birding and dangerous game encounters in the bush. I took a road trip to the Cape area as well, visiting Cape Town, Boulders Beach, the Cape of Good Hope, hiking up the Table Mountain, driving on to the Cape wine region (Franschhoek and Stellenbosch) to reach the southernmost tip of Africa, and spend a couple of days watching whales in the pleasant town of Hermanus. After the successful completion of the course I participated on a primitive trail in the Balule Nature Reserve, and worked as an apprentice trails guide in the Amakhala Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape.  I returned to South Africa a couple of months later to volunteer as a research assistant on a lion study in the Limpopo Province, while we took trips to the Kruger, Mapungubwe National Park, and farms of the Alldays-area as well. 

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