Looking back
Blog by: Nicholas Porcellato – @nick_intheair
Sometimes it is a very good idea to stop and take a look back. Checking the progress, we have made in our lives over the last few years can boost confidence – or push us to make better choices in the years to come.
Just one and a half years ago, I only knew about Limpopo Field Guiding Academy from advertising on the internet, or some social media contacts that had been there. My dream of being a field guide in Africa seemed far in time, crunched between work schedules and restrictions to travel. Yet I managed to join LFGA for a 6-month programme at the end of 2021, and today it’s been one year since I finished that programme.
How has my time at LFGA impacted on my life?
Where I am now and how has LFGA helped
After one year from the end of my program with LFGA, I am now working as a tour leader for a Scandinavian company, Albatros. Guiding people on what may be their first experience in Africa has its challenges, like the long flights back and forth from Europe – but it is a job undeniably full of beauty. The beauty of working in the bush, of seeing in the eyes of your guests the same happiness you had, when seeing your first elephant – and having “lived” the bush as an LFGA student gives you the inside knowledge about this environment that will make you a precious guide for your guests.
Not many things can be so rewarding as organising a lecture on plants for your guests, with the knowledge from LFGA!
Considered that I got this job after working as a ranger in Honeyguide Ranger Camp, thanks to the sponsorship of LFGA, choosing this academy was a fruitful choice. But not only the contacts and the network have proven useful – the skills I have learned during my programme at Tau Camp with LFGA were also fundamental.
The birding week may very well be the toughest in the program, but being able to identify the call of the colourful Woodland Kingfisher, a must-do for all rangers, is exceptional knowledge to have when your first timers to Africa see the beautiful appearance of this bird. What about showing the kids in your group how to identify the tracks of their favourite big cat? And what if, during a dinner with your guests, you could tell them about that day when a family of buffaloes passed by right in front of your tent? All that knowledge and stories that only a field guide can tell has proven fundamental to my job.
Some things will never change. Most lion sightings will still look like this on a Monday morning!
It is an investment!
Even if you are not planning to be a tour leader after your experience at LFGA, the concept I would like to pass by is – wherever you will be one year after joining this academy, you will likely not regret it. The skills learned and the friendships developed will help you in whichever work environment you will be, and you will probably be a better person for just taking the first steps in chasing your bushy dream.
The bottom line is – your time in the African bush is an investment in yourself and in your future self, and will give you experiences that you can hardly make anywhere else. One year later my choice of coming to South Africa with LFGA, I am definitely happy with my choice – will you be taking this opportunity and say the same in one year?
