28 Day Safari Guide Course

Learn how to track wildlife such as elephants, rhinos, lions, learn the skills of driving a 4 x 4 vehicle, shoot a rifle, camp out in the wilds, learn how to survive in the African bush, see the ‘Big 5’, have amazing photographic opportunities, have a fantastic adventure! If you are looking to have an amazing once in a lifetime opportunity, then this course is for you.

The dramatic landscapes and abundance of wildlife makes South Africa an amazing place for a safari, but what makes this safari guide course stand out from other safaris for uniqueness, authenticity, and beauty, is that it requires you to immerse yourself deep into the ways and wilds of the South African bush getting closer to nature than you could ever dream.

In in partnership with one of South Africa’s most prestigious and respected safari guide training school, this twenty eight day course will give us the knowledge required to complete level one of the Field Guides Association of Southern Africa (FGASA) programme. Renowned trainers will safely guide us through training that that professional guides go through, that will make us appreciate the wonders of Southern Africa’s wildlife. We will get a full comprehensive understanding of guiding, tracking, and the dangers existing in South Africa’s beautiful wilderness, that will give us the skills to not only explore the game reserve but actively thrive in it.

Each morning we will walk with our instructors into the wilderness learning the skills required to find our way around the reserve, using the sun, termite mounds and other natural indicators and discover the flora and fauna that lives in the area. To successfully master how to track animals we will be taught how to follow the trails of lions, elephants, rhinos, and leopards, using a range of tracking techniques from following spore (foot prints), to analysing animal dung for freshness. Constant vigilance is required to learn the variety of signs that animals leave in their wake, which if followed will lead you to amazing creatures that you will learn how to approach safely and that will blissfully unaware of your presence.

After breakfast we will have lectures that cover a wide range of subjects including geology, meteorology, animal biology, anthropology and many others. We will then have time to ourselves to relax and read wildlife books, before heading out again into African bush. The afternoons will be spent going on drives in a 4x4 ‘game viewer’ to look for more dangerous wildlife that includes the ‘big five’, which is the lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo. We will be taking it in turns to drive, or sit in the special tracker seat located on the front bull bar of the vehicle. Mastering the art of driving 4x4 vehicles in the terrain they were designed for will seem a world away from tarmac roads and roundabouts, and will require you to drive ‘off-road’ sensitively without eroding the environment. Those of us not driving will keep a watchful eye for animal tracks and hopefully bumping into some interesting animals.

Our experienced instructor will show us how to safely drive into sightings of elephant, rhino, lions safely. He will teach you how close you can get to the animals, and demonstrate how to be aware of escape routes that may be required. Our cook will have a freshly prepared dinner ready for, for when we return to camp, which we can eat under the stars and maybe listening to the calls of hyenas, lions and leopards.

This Wildlife course may test you beyond your known limits, but the sights you will see and memories you will take home will make all the hard graft all the more worth it and provide you with stories to recount for years to come.

Want to find out more about this course?

To request to be sent more information click here 

To see more information about this trip on the Yomps website then click here

To see more gap year programs

If 28 days is too short, then why not have a look at our 6 month Safari Guide Course.