From Friday 6th January to Friday 30th March, viewers in the UK will be able to get a behind the scenes look as 32 vet students from the UK attend one of the toughest vet schools in the world.

The students are at the Amakhala Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape of South Africa to learn valuable wildlife skills under the guidance of Chief Vet, Dr Will Fowlds.

It should be very interesting to see how students trained to deal with domestic cats get on with lions, elephants, rhinos etc!

Safari Vet School is on ITV 1@ 8pm from Friday 6th January to Friday 30th March.

Anyone who is interested in visiting the reserve might like to check out our Amakhala Game Reserve special offers.

I think it is fair to say that not only have the recent media stories about the terrible drought situation in the Horn of Africa wrenched at peoples heart strings, they have also had been of concern to holiday makers who are possibly considering going to Kenya for their safari holiday, and many people are now considering alternative holiday destinations.

During the whole of 2010, the prolonged drought in the countries to the north of Kenya and in the north-eastern part of the country have resulted in the drought being declared a national disaster, and efforts over the past few weeks have intensified to provide relief to those affected.

However, although the drought is tearing apart some of the country, it is ONLY in certain areas – and conversely, there are many other regions of the country – including the main areas where the tourist activitiy takes place – that have still enjoyed adequate rainfall and as a result, are not experiencing such dire problems. As a result, there is still fantastic game viewing in the Parks, Reserves and Conservancies.

I would stress that people who were considering Kenya as their holiday destination this year, or next year, to consider the knock on impact of not going here. It is very fair to say that there is a large proportion of Kenyans who wholly depend on the money that tourism brings in, either directly and or indirectly, as a means to live. This includes the people live in the communities around Parks and Reserves, and those who operate community owned conservancies as an alternative to farming.

Therefore, please be assured that anyone who was or is still thinking of going to Kenya can be confident that not only will they be able to enjoy their holidays as planned; they will also help to generate income and benefits to the local communities.

Guests looking for a great safari experience in the sabi sands reserve should check out the special offer that we have just added where guests can stay 3 nights for the price of 2 at Chitwa Chitwa between 1 May and 15 July this year.

This is great value for money in one of Africa’s leading game reserves, and at current exchange rates a couple staying 3 nights for the price of 2 would save approximately £640 / Euro 690 / US$ 900.

This offer is due to be featured shortly on Southern Africa TV, so anyone thinking of going might want to get in touch now before all the rooms are booked!

Anyone in the UK who was interested in the Okonjima update we posted back in December will almost certainly want to see the Cheetah Man progam tonight at 8pm on Five.

The program tells the remarkable story of Olivier Houalet who has worked for the last four years with 4 orphaned cheetahs at Namibia’s Amani Lodge, and has prepared them to be rereleased into the wild by acting as their surrogae mother.  I was at Amani myself a few years ago and saw Olivier’s amazing talents for myself, and I am sure that this will make fascinating TV.

Anyone who missed “Natural World: A Wild Dog’s Story” on BBC TV this weekend should have a look at the video on the BBC iPlayer site.

The film follows the remarkable story of an African Wild Dog called Newky and follows his life from puppy to adulthood…it is a magnificent film, and really captures the hardship of these fascinating animals lives.