My fantastic wildlife encounters in South Africa

From the 21^st of July to the 8^th  of August, I had the most amazing experience in South Africa with Operation Wallacea.

We spent our first week in the Somkhanda Game reserve learning all about the terrestrial world. We would spend our days travelling around the reserve looking for animals, spotting giraffes, elephants, monkeys and even 2 lionesses at dusk stalking prey and wandering around. I was even lucky enough to spot a rhino. Travelling around was spent sitting on benches in the back of a pick up truck which was an incredible way to get around and a real experience in itself! Back at camp we learnt all about different survey techniques and why we do them, before going out into the field to apply them. This included vegetation surveys (where I am now a professional at identifying White Buffalo grass) and game transects. Sadly, a huge storm and lots of rain meant I couldn’t go out to do the bird survey, but the staff were amazing and helped me to do a smaller one in camp so my inner bird nerd still got to shine.

Credit: James Cox

It was so surreal seeing two lionesses just cross in front of us and then pause to look straight at us. Watching elephants give us warning signals, then following them down the road (one rather annoyed one followed us too), herds of buffalo run, impala leap over vegetation. It all made me feel like I was in a documentary that David Attenborough should be narrating.

Our evenings were spent doing fun activities. Some of the most memorable ones included scorpion spotting with Summer and learning how they glow under UV light…be careful where you walk in the dark and what stone you move! Astronomy with Angie is also up there. Learning all about different constellations and being able to clearly see Capricorn, my star sign, was so cool. The best part of that evening was being able to see the Milky Way with my own eyes – although I spent far too long trying to get a photo of it!

We then spent a week at Sodwana Bay, which was a completely different but equally amazing experience. I chose to snorkel and I am so glad I did. Swimming with dolphins is something else. They would swim around us and if you duck dived, they would do it with you. Watching the huge variety of fish around us was incredible, and the lectures back at camp on fish identification meant we actually knew what we were looking at. Communicating underwater was rather difficult, so we learnt different hand signals for the fish we saw and could point them out to our friends (although I may have made some up!).

Credit: Alessandro Ingargiola

This trip was absolutely spectacular and has been one of the best experiences of my life. I have learnt so much about wildlife, conservation and fieldwork, whilst also making new friends and creating memories that will last a lifetime. Operation Wallacea gave me the opportunity to experience wildlife and conservation in a way that I could never have learnt from a textbook, and I am incredibly grateful for it.

Thank you, Operation Wallacea, for making these 19 days so truly special.

Written by: Brooke Sear
Title Photo Credit: Angus Cooper