Day 38
Rifle training!
“Good things happen to those who wait!” I like that quote. I’ve been looking forward to this part of the course. We get to fire rifles. Not small calibre mind! None of those .22 etc, these are proper high calibre rifles. Elephant guns to be precise. We use .458 rounds which I’ve been told will knock a 7 tonne Elly right off its four feet! Mind you, I hope I never get into a situation where I’ll have to use one but we’ll be trained to a high standard regardless. I’m looking forward to actually shooting them this week but first things first. We have to know how to use them safely! We will actually shoot some rounds off this Thursday but we just have to go safety procedures today for the day.
We became pit lane mechanics this morning as well. We had to change a tyre as part of the course. Not that it’s very difficult but when the jack nearly recoils and hits you in the jaw it can warrant respect! Good craic though watching some of the girls trying to push the jack down. It hit nearly 40 degrees today so any amount of effort takes its toll. I can’t remember the last time I changed a tyre in that heat!
Day 39
Myself and King Moses tried to get our Driving licenses sorted out today. The other group went to the driving school and with their bribes paid they will probably get their licenses sorted before us but I’m gonna try and get mine an alternative way. As we left the other group our supervisor Nelie told Moses not to lead me astray into any Shebeen’s or any such like! Moses has a great rep here as you can probably tell!
Unfortunately King Moses’s contact didn’t pull through for us in the end and we had to make alternative plans for the day. Spur of the moment plans are always the best. “Wing it dot com,” is a favourite strategy of mine at this stage and so we went looking for a taxi that could bring us to a car garage. After the week in Kruger and the friction that resulted I decided to err on the side of caution and do my own thing from now on. There will be a more select crew going on any further trips!
Being the only white person in a taxi rank with hundreds of other African’s can be quite unnerving but everything went well and my “fixer,” King Moses organized a taxi for us. If you’ve been to Thailand and have been in a bus or taxi there you will understand how people get rammed into all kinds of transport. Actually if you’ve been on the Maynooth to Connolly train in the morning you’ll know what I mean when I say “Sweatbox.” We had all kinds of wares being transported with us from chairs to at one stage a front door of a house. I think it was number 22! A few of the passengers weren’t in great health as per the constant coughing and spluttering from the back. I had to close my eyes a few times with the mental case driving speeding up when he saw Baboons on the road! Eventually after 4 hours of switching to different cabs I finally told Mossie that I’d had enough. We bailed in Lyndeburg and went looking for a car. We had originally intended going to Phelaborwa but that would have meant another two changes of taxi.
We went in to a few places and were given the stereotypical car salesman’s lines about careful owners, good condition blah blah. Personally having met a number of these types in my time I wasn’t too confident I would end up getting anything decent. We wandered around looking at various models and prices and I eventually settled on a 4 wheel drive in decent nick but a bit beyond what I originally intended to pay. Fingers crossed “fixer,” as she is to be called will treat me well! So I survived the day just about and drove the car back from the garage whilst trying to avoid maniac drivers, Goats, Baboons, Cattle and the odd native. The beer tasted good at the end of a long day!
Rifle training!
“Good things happen to those who wait!” I like that quote. I’ve been looking forward to this part of the course. We get to fire rifles. Not small calibre mind! None of those .22 etc, these are proper high calibre rifles. Elephant guns to be precise. We use .458 rounds which I’ve been told will knock a 7 tonne Elly right off its four feet! Mind you, I hope I never get into a situation where I’ll have to use one but we’ll be trained to a high standard regardless. I’m looking forward to actually shooting them this week but first things first. We have to know how to use them safely! We will actually shoot some rounds off this Thursday but we just have to go safety procedures today for the day.
We became pit lane mechanics this morning as well. We had to change a tyre as part of the course. Not that it’s very difficult but when the jack nearly recoils and hits you in the jaw it can warrant respect! Good craic though watching some of the girls trying to push the jack down. It hit nearly 40 degrees today so any amount of effort takes its toll. I can’t remember the last time I changed a tyre in that heat!
Day 39
Myself and King Moses tried to get our Driving licenses sorted out today. The other group went to the driving school and with their bribes paid they will probably get their licenses sorted before us but I’m gonna try and get mine an alternative way. As we left the other group our supervisor Nelie told Moses not to lead me astray into any Shebeen’s or any such like! Moses has a great rep here as you can probably tell!
Unfortunately King Moses’s contact didn’t pull through for us in the end and we had to make alternative plans for the day. Spur of the moment plans are always the best. “Wing it dot com,” is a favourite strategy of mine at this stage and so we went looking for a taxi that could bring us to a car garage. After the week in Kruger and the friction that resulted I decided to err on the side of caution and do my own thing from now on. There will be a more select crew going on any further trips!
Being the only white person in a taxi rank with hundreds of other African’s can be quite unnerving but everything went well and my “fixer,” King Moses organized a taxi for us. If you’ve been to Thailand and have been in a bus or taxi there you will understand how people get rammed into all kinds of transport. Actually if you’ve been on the Maynooth to Connolly train in the morning you’ll know what I mean when I say “Sweatbox.” We had all kinds of wares being transported with us from chairs to at one stage a front door of a house. I think it was number 22! A few of the passengers weren’t in great health as per the constant coughing and spluttering from the back. I had to close my eyes a few times with the mental case driving speeding up when he saw Baboons on the road! Eventually after 4 hours of switching to different cabs I finally told Mossie that I’d had enough. We bailed in Lyndeburg and went looking for a car. We had originally intended going to Phelaborwa but that would have meant another two changes of taxi.
We went in to a few places and were given the stereotypical car salesman’s lines about careful owners, good condition blah blah. Personally having met a number of these types in my time I wasn’t too confident I would end up getting anything decent. We wandered around looking at various models and prices and I eventually settled on a 4 wheel drive in decent nick but a bit beyond what I originally intended to pay. Fingers crossed “fixer,” as she is to be called will treat me well! So I survived the day just about and drove the car back from the garage whilst trying to avoid maniac drivers, Goats, Baboons, Cattle and the odd native. The beer tasted good at the end of a long day!
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