SAWC campus

Southern African Wildlife College (SAWC) campus

This is one of our campuses for our IFGA Professional Safari Guide Course (6/12 months) students.

The SAWC campus is located just 50 minutes from Hoedspruit in the Greater Kruger National Park. Here, students are trained in collaboration with the Southern African Wildlife College (SAWC). You can read more about this collaboration here.

The Greater Kruger National Park is the vast landscape to the west of Kruger National Park, made up of private game reserves and protected areas (approximately 350,000 hectares). This landscape is open to the Kruger National Park, so animals can roam freely without fences to prevent natural migrations. The SAWC campus is found near the Kruger’s Orpen Gate, an area which often sees the Big 5 as well as general game, endangered African wild dogs and much more.

The campus itself is held within an electrified fence, so you’re safe to explore and even exercise while living here. Accommodation, classroom and catering facilities are a short walk apart – you might even see an elephant just on the other side of the fence as you make your way to class.

But being immersed in nature doesn’t mean you’re completely out of contact with the outside world. The campus is equipped with WiFi and electricity so you can keep in touch with family and friends, and supplement your studies with additional research.

Our unique location means we can offer our students direct access to the natural environment and train in an outdoor classroom that emulates their work places in parks and reserves throughout southern Africa. We are also surrounded by other land-use types, such as community-owned agricultural land and community trust areas, bringing even more diversity to our on-site training opportunities.

You can also spend free weeks in Kruger National Park if you heart desires. The Orpen Gate entrance to Kruger is just 10 kilometres from the entrance to campus. Visit this vast wildlife area – at nearly two million hectares, Kruger National Park is the largest reserve in South Africa and an incredible resource for budding field guide students!

Campus tour

Join us on a virtual tour of our SAWC campus in the Greater Kruger National Park. This could be your bushveld home for six months.

Facilities

Accommodation at SAWC is in lodge-style housing and facilities, within a secure fenced campus.

Within the electrified fence that surrounds campus, you are free to go for a walk or a run. We have a large variety of bird species that are regular visitors to our campus water features, as well as secretive species such as bush babies, honey badgers and civets that are often seen.

In these surroundings, you can sharpen your practical skills by going on bush walks, spending time birding, and encountering the animals that roam the campus.

What an incredible way to spend your free time between lessons!

Students will share a safari tent or a room that accommodates two students. Bathrooms are either shared or communal. Laundry service is provided for clothes and linen (to a reasonable extent).

It’s just a short walk along forest paths through campus to get to your classroom, so you’ll remain immersed in the bush during training. The campus dining facilities and other buildings are all close by, so you never have to drive or travel far for anything during your stay. And for the hot summer afternoons between activities, there’s even a swimming pool.