Потому, потому мы дипломаты......
Потрясающая статья от Wilderness Safaris - лёгкая, весёлая и очень правдивая.....добавить нечего)
Наслаждайтесь!
A recent story on TravelHub said that the SA Tourism team in Germany
were looking for the face of ‘khaki fever’ - a game ranger who was
enthusiastic, knowledgeable, good-looking and well spoken. Well,
excuse me - aren’t they all? I don’t know about you, but I think
anyone who puts on that paramilitary uniform with the green
epaulettes is at once blessed with flashing eyes and a dashing air.
Only once in my life (alright, maybe twice) have I come across a game
ranger who didn’t immediately make me want to take him home to mother.
But there is one attribute that these seekers-after- the-face- of-khaki-
fever have left out, and that is diplomacy.
Game rangers, who are at the cutting edge of the wilderness
experience, often have to field rather strange perceptions from the
public - most of which come from overseas tourists with Hollywood-
shaped ideas of Africa. Apart from the obvious and ongoing task of
preventing guests from climbing out of vehicles to pet the lions,
there are few things more dreaded than the impossible questions.
One guest on a game drive wanted to know at what stage monkeys turned
into baboons. Another asked whether zebras hunted in packs. Yet
another was firmly of the opinion that hippos laid eggs.
A ranger taking out a vehicle full of Americans near Sabie was
intrigued by one lady who continually hung over the side of the
Landrover, staring intently at the ground. He kept an eye on the
track himself, wondering if she was seeing some mysterious spoor that
had eluded him. Finally he asked her what she was looking at. “It’s
all this sand,” she replied admiringly. “Where did you get it from?”
Then there’s the story of a well-known television celebrity who was
travelling through KwaZulu-Natal on her way to a game lodge. She
asked her guide what was growing so lushly in the fields next to the
road.
“Sugar cane,” he replied and was rather surprised when she asked what
sugar cane was used for. “You get sugar from sugar cane,” he
replied. “Oh,” she said incredulously. “I thought they mined sugar.”
A British guest at an exclusive game lodge complained bitterly to the
management over breakfast that she had been kept awake for most of
the night by a leopard noisily killing a buck right outside her
bedroom window. Even when she had drawn the curtains to block out the
gory sight the struggles continued, not to mention the sucking and
slurping sounds she had to put up with as the leopard settled down to
its meal. It had simply ruined her stay.
Another guest had a far more sympathetic view of these graceful cats.
She came running back excitedly from an early-morning game walk to
call urgently to a group of rangers having breakfast: “Come quickly!
There’s a leopard stuck up a tree!”
Another ranger was hosting a table at a lodge near Thabazimbi when a
voluble lady guest returned to her seat and enthused about the
wonderful life-like display at the dessert table. Display? The ranger
didn’t remember any display….He went to have a look - and found a
three-metre python wrapped around the fruit-salad bowl.
A charming American couple who flew to a remote lodge in Botswana
mentioned casually to their bushpilot that they had had no hot water
during their stay. Their guide was appalled to hear this, and asked
them why they had not reported this easily-fixable fault. “Oh, it
wasn’t a problem,” the guests said, clearly discomfited by having
caused a fuss, “we thought everyone in Africa bathed in cold water.”
It is almost impossible to gauge exactly what will appeal to these
wide-eyed globetrotters.
We can only pity the ranger who arrived back in camp from a game
drive two hours later than usual. He staggered into reception, wild-
eyed and exhausted, his happily-chatting guests trailing behind.
Everybody was coated in sticky black mud.
To startled questioning, he admitted that the Land Cruiser had become
bogged down in thick mud near a waterhole. The only possible solution
was for the guests to help him push it out. Unfortunately they
enjoyed the experience so much that, once the vehicle was free, they
insisted he drive it back into the mud so they could push it out
again!
It is at times like these that the ranger’s diplomacy is tested to
the limit. But diplomacy is, after all, the stock in trade of all
people in the hospitality industry. One has to deal with all the
idiosyncrasies of the public without hurting their feelings.
First prize goes to a ranger at a lodge in Mpumalanga who was
standing on a raised wooden verandah in front of the lounge with his
guests, watching the sun go down over a nearby lake with all the
flamboyant glory of a day’s end in Africa.
“What a gorgeous sunset,” enthused one lady guest, laying her hand on
the ranger’s arm. “Do you get them often?”
“Oh, yes, ma’am,” replied the ranger, poker-faced. “Every night, in
fact, round about this time.”
Наслаждайтесь!
A recent story on TravelHub said that the SA Tourism team in Germany
were looking for the face of ‘khaki fever’ - a game ranger who was
enthusiastic, knowledgeable, good-looking and well spoken. Well,
excuse me - aren’t they all? I don’t know about you, but I think
anyone who puts on that paramilitary uniform with the green
epaulettes is at once blessed with flashing eyes and a dashing air.
Only once in my life (alright, maybe twice) have I come across a game
ranger who didn’t immediately make me want to take him home to mother.
But there is one attribute that these seekers-after- the-face- of-khaki-
fever have left out, and that is diplomacy.
Game rangers, who are at the cutting edge of the wilderness
experience, often have to field rather strange perceptions from the
public - most of which come from overseas tourists with Hollywood-
shaped ideas of Africa. Apart from the obvious and ongoing task of
preventing guests from climbing out of vehicles to pet the lions,
there are few things more dreaded than the impossible questions.
One guest on a game drive wanted to know at what stage monkeys turned
into baboons. Another asked whether zebras hunted in packs. Yet
another was firmly of the opinion that hippos laid eggs.
A ranger taking out a vehicle full of Americans near Sabie was
intrigued by one lady who continually hung over the side of the
Landrover, staring intently at the ground. He kept an eye on the
track himself, wondering if she was seeing some mysterious spoor that
had eluded him. Finally he asked her what she was looking at. “It’s
all this sand,” she replied admiringly. “Where did you get it from?”
Then there’s the story of a well-known television celebrity who was
travelling through KwaZulu-Natal on her way to a game lodge. She
asked her guide what was growing so lushly in the fields next to the
road.
“Sugar cane,” he replied and was rather surprised when she asked what
sugar cane was used for. “You get sugar from sugar cane,” he
replied. “Oh,” she said incredulously. “I thought they mined sugar.”
A British guest at an exclusive game lodge complained bitterly to the
management over breakfast that she had been kept awake for most of
the night by a leopard noisily killing a buck right outside her
bedroom window. Even when she had drawn the curtains to block out the
gory sight the struggles continued, not to mention the sucking and
slurping sounds she had to put up with as the leopard settled down to
its meal. It had simply ruined her stay.
Another guest had a far more sympathetic view of these graceful cats.
She came running back excitedly from an early-morning game walk to
call urgently to a group of rangers having breakfast: “Come quickly!
There’s a leopard stuck up a tree!”
Another ranger was hosting a table at a lodge near Thabazimbi when a
voluble lady guest returned to her seat and enthused about the
wonderful life-like display at the dessert table. Display? The ranger
didn’t remember any display….He went to have a look - and found a
three-metre python wrapped around the fruit-salad bowl.
A charming American couple who flew to a remote lodge in Botswana
mentioned casually to their bushpilot that they had had no hot water
during their stay. Their guide was appalled to hear this, and asked
them why they had not reported this easily-fixable fault. “Oh, it
wasn’t a problem,” the guests said, clearly discomfited by having
caused a fuss, “we thought everyone in Africa bathed in cold water.”
It is almost impossible to gauge exactly what will appeal to these
wide-eyed globetrotters.
We can only pity the ranger who arrived back in camp from a game
drive two hours later than usual. He staggered into reception, wild-
eyed and exhausted, his happily-chatting guests trailing behind.
Everybody was coated in sticky black mud.
To startled questioning, he admitted that the Land Cruiser had become
bogged down in thick mud near a waterhole. The only possible solution
was for the guests to help him push it out. Unfortunately they
enjoyed the experience so much that, once the vehicle was free, they
insisted he drive it back into the mud so they could push it out
again!
It is at times like these that the ranger’s diplomacy is tested to
the limit. But diplomacy is, after all, the stock in trade of all
people in the hospitality industry. One has to deal with all the
idiosyncrasies of the public without hurting their feelings.
First prize goes to a ranger at a lodge in Mpumalanga who was
standing on a raised wooden verandah in front of the lounge with his
guests, watching the sun go down over a nearby lake with all the
flamboyant glory of a day’s end in Africa.
“What a gorgeous sunset,” enthused one lady guest, laying her hand on
the ranger’s arm. “Do you get them often?”
“Oh, yes, ma’am,” replied the ranger, poker-faced. “Every night, in
fact, round about this time.”