I arrived in Hoedspruit last Sunday afternoon, along with 6 others who are participating in either the Photography program or the Research & Conservation program. We were met by two of the staff of African Impact, who runs the programs, at the airport; one took our luggage and the other took us to one of the private game reserves, where we loaded up onto a game vehicle and and were driven around the reserve until we arrived at the camp. We are staying in rooms with three bunk beds, I'm sharing a room with 3 other guys that are super nice; two from England and one from Greece.

You can see from the weekly schedule that we've gone on a daily game drive, either in the afternoon or early morning. The "Gin drive" on Monday involved a usual game drive, but half-way into it we stopped and had a shot of gin along with a soft drink (either Coke, Sprite, tonic water, and not sure what, if any, other options—I had a gin & Coke 😊).

On Thursday afternoon we (those in both the Photography and the Research & Conservation programs, along with some of the staff) went to PROTrack, a private anti-poaching company that is hired by the various private game reserves.

Click here to see images from the visit to PROTrack and a video of the dogs they use for tracking and capturing suspected poachers.