Pyramids of Life is the annual three-week refresher training course for Alex Walker’s Serian guides in Maasai Mara and Serengeti. Guests can take part too – all you need is a strong interest in wildlife. Over five days, our classroom was Mara North Conservancy, our lessons totally unplanned. “It’s an immersive course.
We spend all our time in the bush, let situations evolve and learn from them,” trainer Clint Schipper explained. We didn’t just learn about wildlife. There were tips on guiding styles and skills, on interpreting animal behaviour, when to explain and when to simply let guests savour the moment and watch in silence or suspense. I realised how important storytelling is in guiding: giving context to the scenes playing out before you; allowing time for those stories to develop. I remember our stories so clearly: the tiny lion cubs hiding from huge buffalos that would have killed them to protect their future; the jackals goading lions to hunt so they could get the scraps; and sitting in silence in the dark, then hearing the first call of a dawn chorus building to a crescendo as birds gradually joined in, singing their hearts out. We now take more time in the bush and are more inclined to ask our guides to wait a while rather than rush around, recalling Clint’s words to the Serian team: “Let’s just sit and see what happens. It might be nothing. Or it might be a once-in-a-lifetime sighting.”