So yeah I didn't pass my mock ARH last Thursday, as I thought, but not as terribly as I thought, if that makes any sense? Like I was hitting the targets but just not the bullseyes, and I was finishing in the time, just not the best time... So I would have failed on the Immediate Action Drill - where you have to act as if there's a round that doesn't fire and you have to eject it safely and reload and fire again etc - just by a few points and if I'd either been more accurate or more speedy then I would have made up the marks. And I would have failed on the shot placement on one of the buffalo targets- there are two "buffalo" at 8m and at 4m and you have to shoot in a very specific place in the head, and I was a bit low on one of them. But all in all I wasn't too worried or bummed out, all my shots were a little bit low so for the real thing I just figured that for the real thing I needed to remember to aim a little higher with that rifle, and maybe be a little bit quicker.

My practical assessment drive on Saturday was wonderful! Both because I passed, and just because I really enjoyed it. Even though it's the same route I've driven and talked about like 4 times, you can always find something else to stop at. We had a couple of really cool sightings- nothing like Big 5, but now that we're spending more time out in the bush the sightings that really excite you are just the things that you don't see very often. The first cool one was a pair of green wood-hoopoes and a tree squirrel in a tree, appearing like they were having a bit of a tussle over a tree cavity. Not like they were actually fighting or anything, but both squirrels and green wood-hoopoes nest in holes in trees, and it looked like something was going on in regards to the hole. Maybe the wood-hoopoes had their nest in there and the squirrel was trying to steal it? Or maybe the squirrel was just trying to check it out? We don't know and that's what makes it such cool behaviour. We've all talked on our drives about the animals that nest in or make use of tree cavities - lilac breasted rollers, cape glossy starlings, hornbills, squirrels, and a whole load more - and we talk about how there's quite stiff competition for suitable holes, so seeing something that potentially actually demonstrates that exact thing was so awesome. Also nice that I could actually ID the birds and knew some facts about them, including something that Trevor didn't know! So yeah that was awesome, then the rest of the drive all went well, nothing really threw me off, I remembered most of the cool stuff I wanted to talk about and I actually really enjoyed myself!

The second cool sighting we had was a golden orb web spider reeling back in some of her web. I love the spiders here and had actually done a lot of research into all the little things that we see - spiders, wasps, termites, ants etc - and had talked about the orb web spider a bit earlier when we had seen a tropical tent web spider. This was right before the gate to go out and we stopped to watch it in the light of the spotlight from the vehicle. She looked to be doing repairs on her web, something they do regularly if not daily, and we watched her rolling up strands of spider web making what looked like a ball of silky yarn. We were trying to figure out what she was going to do with it and whether she was going to eat it, as is their wont to do- they can essentially recycle the proteins in the web by eating it and don't just throw away expensive materials, but instead she just dropped it! An amazing bit of behaviour to watch that you definitely don't see every day.

So I passed my assessment with flying colours and am super happy! Although actually it didn't all go right- the land rover that we had been using for assessments had developed a diesel leak at the start of the week and by the time my assessment came around on Saturday it had been taken in for repairs, so the last few of us to go had to use my old nemesis- the green landy! It actually wasn't too bad, the battery has been changed since I last used it so at least you could turn the engine off to talk without the fear of it dying on you! The clutch is still bloody stiff but you sort of get used to it and having had more practice driving in general it didn't seem as bad as it did the first time. There was still one bit of road that I got stuck on though! It was a hill that I was worried about as soon as I found out that we would be using the green landy. When we first drove that route it wasn't too bad, but in the intervening weeks somehow the right hand side of the track has washed away somewhat and is really rutted and gravelly- you feel like you're going to tip sideways while you drive up! In the cruiser you just sort of chug up it anyway but the landy wasn't really having it! Luckily Trevor switched with me to drive it out and said that it wouldn't be held against me for my assessment, because I did everything that I should have done, it was just a failing of the car and he is obviously much more practiced at driving than me and could wangle it out! But yeah, all good news in the end!

This week we have finished off the last few assessments on Monday (Gabe and I were guests on Marko's drive and we saw a leopard! I mean, kind of.. We saw it moving through the grass but not the best sighting), then Tuesday was reserve work where we barricaded a road over a broken dam wall and cleared overhanging branches from roads. Bit of manual labour as a reward for us all passing our assessments!

And I passed my actual ARH on Thursday! So so happy :) I only had to re-do one of the drills and that was the buffalo targets again. I did everything really quickly but just went maybe too quickly on the first buffalo and shot low; dead centre, but low. I did it in only 7 seconds when you get 15, so Trevor just reminded me to slow down on my second attempt. I nailed it the second time round in 9 seconds, just that extra couple of seconds to make sure of my aim. I was a bit nervous about the simulated lion charge because it's the last drill and that's what had been tripping up the people who'd been tested before. I'd gotten it every time in practice and mocks, so I just went with it, and got it! I wasn't dead centre in the circle, but I broke the line of the target area which counts as a kill, albeit -5 points, but doesn't matter- still passed! So so happy and kind of shell shocked about it! Even though I didn't feel mentally that nervous, I could feel my legs were weak for the whole assessment! Just kind of gets to you whether you want it to or not.

The rest of the second half of this week we've been going out on walks on Makalali to get ready for our Lowveld Trails course next semester, where we're doing 12 days of 8 hours walking a day, logging hours and encounters with dangerous game to count towards our Back-Up Trails guide qualification. The first day we went out we walked so fast, as a kind of baptism of fire. We’re trying to develop the skills to walk whilst simultaneously looking for tracks, looking for animals, keeping an eye out for danger, looking for trees or termite mounds you could climb in an emergency, watching you don’t trip over, and listening hard for any signs of animals or alarm calls! Seems overwhelming at first but practice makes perfect. Oh, and we also have to carry a brick in our rucksack to represent a first aid kit, and a brick in our hand to represent our rifle! On Wednesday I had 2 walks so had to do the quick march twice, but my walk this morning was a much more relaxed affair. Sadly I haven't actually had an encountered yet. On Wednesday morning it felt like we were so close to elephant- warm dung and broken branches everywhere but no sign of the animals themselves. Then Wednesday afternoon and this morning we were on the trail of fresh lion tracks. Sadly didn't manage to catch up with them but you also get the feeling that you could walk past them lying down 10 metres away in this long grass and just never know about it! Hopefully I'll have more luck on our last few walks next semester!

Off week starts now and I'm so excited to come home tomorrow! Although given that I'm bloody freezing over here at the moment I can't imagine I'm going to enjoy England's climate!