Raising professional standards.

 

We have a passion for growing people and our  multifaceted backgrounds allow us to do this well. We are committed to high standards and our client references reflect this. 

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We are a FGASA accredited specialist training provider.

 

Within the conservation and guiding industries we offer:​ 

 

• trails guide mentorship [accredited] that includes logging hours and encounters, working in remote areas, wilderness experience, bush craft, leaving-no-trace and conservation. Choose between backpacking safaris, from a trails camp or as sleep outs with watch.

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• wilderness backpacking mentorship that includes preparation, planning, skill, principles and ethics.

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• working safely in areas with potentially dangerous wildlife workshop.  Combining theory and practical, we build capability. 

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• introduction to conservation practice and challenges workshop.

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• guiding skill development workshops for teams building their capability.

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• FGASA and CATHSSETA accredited guide assessments. 

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Lutz Otto, our founding director, understands the process of learning, has lead numerous training conferences and is a well qualified, registered, assessor. Many teams and individuals have worked with him, and he is proud of their continual strive towards personal excellence.

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Walking/ trails guides.

 

Guiding is a profession and it should be dealt with as such.  Particularly with regards leading walking safaris, we cannot reiterate enough that there should be no short-cut to gaining experience. Within this context:

 

• passing the initial trails guide examinations sets the base platform to start of the journey towards building capability [knowledge + skill] and experience [capability and experience are not the same].

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• newly qualified back-up guides enter a very important apprenticeship period prior their been assessed for the full qualification.  

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• ​you should spend time walking in different environments, with different lead guides and in different situations. 

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• walking with clients, is different,on many levels, to training constructs.

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• mentorship plays a crucial part in professional growth - Who you work with is very important in helping you become the best you can be.​

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• leading trails is different to vehicle based guiding. It requires additional skills, different experience exposure and a different mindset.

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• until properly tested, under stress, in a real situation,  guides can be blase' about the associated responsibilities.  This is particularly apparent early in the trails journey or when guides have had limited exposure to different situations.  This changes, and a deeper respect builds, when the environment has uncomfortably challenged us.

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• time in exposure does not necessarily equate to an equal amount of experience - Experience is an outcome of a conscious facilitation process.  Contextually this means that guides may have only gained 2 years of experience in 6 years of exposure. ​

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• there is a marked difference between undertaking short walks with close at hand lodge support versus been comfortable in multi-day unassisted wilderness experiences.