It’s never to late to live your dream

KAAPMUIDEN – Sometimes life takes you on several detours before you finally find the track that you should be on. Kaapmuiden’s Maryke Hastie, who calls herself “a field guide born in a city”, is delighted to say that she is now doing exactly what she wants to do.

Maryke fell in love with the Kruger National Park when she was still at school. Her father was an honorary game ranger and the family spent most of their holidays in the park, where they had the most wonderful experiences spending time with the game rangers.

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Back in the 80s, girls were advised to either become a nurse, a teacher or a secretary, and Maryke decided on becoming a teacher. She hated every second of it, and when she was in her 30s, she decided that she would love to be trained as a veterinary nurse. That opened a whole new world to her, and she is still extremely grateful for making that decision.

“It became quite an adventure, as I also obtained my microlight pilot’s licence. When I heard about a position on a game farm close to Mbombela, I applied for the job, brought my microlight here and started doing flights with their guests. There were two elephants on the farm that were used to interacting with the guests, and I soon found that I enjoyed the elephant interaction much more than the flying. I fell in love with these wonderful animals and grabbed the opportunity to be trained as an elephant stable master, becoming the first qualified female elephant stable master in South Africa. After that I obtained a qualification at the Field Guides Association of Southern Africa, and did a few other courses like tracking,” Maryke says.

There were more challenges to face when Maryke became very ill due to cancer. She had to rest for a while, but after an operation and successful treatment, she sent out her CV to a few places. One of them was Rhino’s Post, and to her absolute joy, she was appointed as a field guide. Rhino’s Post is a luxury safari camp on a 12 000 hectare private concession inside the Kruger National Park, and Maryke’s job is to take the guests out on a safari vehicle and introduce them to the wonderful wildlife of South Africa. She also acts as a guide on the sleepouts that the lodge offers, accommodating guests sleeping on raised platforms under the stars.

“The biggest challenge is to keep them in the trees whenever lions or other predators are walking somewhere close by,” she smiles.

Maryke used to work full-time at Rhino’s Post, but nowadays she does it on a freelance basis. She lives on a game farm in the Mara area, close to Kaapmuiden, where she has 15 horses, which take up a lot of her time as she offers horse riding on the farm. She also does rehabilitation of wild animals such as mongooses, duikers and warthogs.
Maryke believes it is important to give people a true bush experience during a game drive.

“It is quite a challenge to change the way people think. I don’t like the Big Five mentality that you often get. Some people don’t even know why these animals are called the Big Five. I try my best to change a tourist into a nature lover who not only wants to see lions, elephants, rhinos, buffalo and leopards. We have a lot of fun on the safari vehicles and sometimes we have a quiz, or I will jokingly tell them if they don’t see something special, not one of the Big Five, they won’t get any coffee at the next stop. I often get emails from gratified guests who thank me for a life-changing adventure,” she says.

Maryke definitely has a special gift while interacting with wild animals, and of course her horses.
She tells a beautiful story of an elephant who became unruly during the time that she was battling with cancer. She then asked someone to take her to the elephant. She explained to the animal, who came charging at her, that she was ill and that is the reason why she hasn’t visited for quite a while. The elephant started sniffing at her wound, and then became quite tranquil as if she fully understood the whole situation. Recently, one of the duikers she had rehabilitated came back to her house, proudly showing Maryke her baby. To experience the trust of an animal is a wonderful privilege, she says.

“Being in the Kruger Park with guests, and having the opportunity to see something really special makes me extremely happy. Hearing the guests say ‘Wow!’ at the sighting of a honey badger or a pangolin, or a dancing baby rhino, gives me so much joy.
“When you reach the age of 53 and you can live your dream, you have everything – whether it is watching the guests at the safari lodge enjoying the stars high above them in the dark sky or seeing the lions underneath the trees that we are sleeping in. I can’t ask for anything more.” Contact Maryke at marykehastie@yahoo.com.