Flatdogs Camp Guides benefit from additional guide training

Guides at Flatdogs Camp spent 10 days with guide trainer Schalk Pretorius from Ulovane Environmental Training school. Schalk shared his knowledge and skills with the team of nine guides, focusing on detailed subjects such as tracking, botany, geology and astronomy. This in-depth training has helped the guides to expand on their already existing knowledge, so that they are able to delve deeper into these specific topics with their guests.

With the South Luangwa National Park as their training ground, Schalk was able to spend nine hours each day out in the bush using real situations to explain information. Every morning the team headed out on foot to practice tracking animals, studying tracks, and learning more about the geology of the park. The afternoons allowed time for one-to-one mentoring as well as sessions focused on the African night sky. The guides, who already have years of experience guiding, were excited to work as a team, sharing knowledge with each other and learning new skills from Schalk.

Schalk was impressed that all the Flatdogs’ guides are from the local community, growing up in this environment which gave the guides a great advantage over many guides elsewhere who move to an area for work!

Flatdogs Head Guide Malama Zulu said “It has been a great experience having Schalk with us for 10 days. We have learnt a lot of new information about specific topics that we requested training for, and we are very excited to share this new information with our future guests”.