FCE Interview 13

Fail

And now for The Holiday Programme with Mandy Rice. Today I’m talking to Don Nicholson, a tour leader who spends ten months of the year looking after groups of up to eighteen tourists in southern Africa. They travel together in the back of a truck, put up their own tents and cook their own food. Welcome to the programme, Don.

Thanks.

This is a holiday with a difference, isn’t it? Tell us, first of all, what sort of people go on a camping trip in Africa… and a long one at that… it is a month each trip?

Yes. Well, it sounds a sort of studenty thing to do, but in fact, the majority of our passengers are people like doctors and lawyers. We do get some students but they tend to be the ones that are studying something like conservation or wildlife.

And when do they all first meet?

The evening before we set off. They fly in and I pick them up from the airport and immediately before we start sorting out places in the truck we go through what they’ve brought with them. Amazingly, every now and then we get somebody who genuinely doesn’t realise it’s a camping tour, so I have to rush out and get them blankets and a sleeping bag.

It must be difficult – a whole group of strangers coming together and then having to live together like that.

Mmm… It goes surprisingly well, but I always think the first day is critical because it sets the tone for the whole trip. We’ve had the odd nightmare start where we’ve got a flat tyre twenty minutes after we set off or it’s dark and pouring with rain and people just can’t get their tents up. Yeah, once we were making pasta late at night and the cook put in a tin of strawberry jam instead of tomato paste – those are the bad starts!

Basically, everyone has to take part in the domestic chores, do they?

Yes. The brochure makes it clear that people have to work on a rota system and they usually do about an hour’s work a day. We get a few who don’t want to muck in but more often they are just untidy and I’ve got a bit of an eye for that because… well, they might leave a fork lying on the ground, for example, and okay, it’s just a fork, but in a lot of places in Africa you can’t get forks, so I’m quite possessive about the equipment.

And do people really get on? A lot of people have never lived in a tight community situation like this before and you do get conflicts and personality clashes. The best approach is to observe it from afar. If it gets out of hand, I might point out in front of the whole group that there’s a problem between certain people. Shame them a bit…. Mmm. Sometimes it works. To be fair, conflicts are rare but small problems can mount up in that kind of environment. Evening noise, for example. Some people want to go to sleep early and others don’t. On occasions, I’ve had to be the sort of go-between and impose a ‘lights out’ time if things start getting out of hand.

What about getting up, because that’s something we’re really not keen on on holiday?

If we’re going into a wildlife park we might have to be on the road by six a.m. but people still ask why they have to get up so early. I’ve learnt how to do it now. If they’re a quick group I’ll get them up at five, but if they’re slow I won’t shout and scream at them – I just get them up at four thirty.

Well, perhaps now we should go on to talk about what there is to see in some of those game parks that you have to get up so early for.

And now for The Holiday Programme with Mandy Rice. Today I’m talking to Don Nicholson, a tour leader who spends ten months of the year looking after groups of up to eighteen tourists in southern Africa. They travel together in the back of a truck, put up their own tents and cook their own food. Welcome to the programme, Don.

Thanks.

This is a holiday with a difference, isn’t it? Tell us, first of all, what sort of people go on a camping trip in Africa… and a long one at that… it is a month each trip?

Yes. Well, it sounds a sort of studenty thing to do, but in fact, the majority of our passengers are people like doctors and lawyers. We do get some students but they tend to be the ones that are studying something like conservation or wildlife.

And when do they all first meet?

The evening before we set off. They fly in and I pick them up from the airport and immediately before we start sorting out places in the truck we go through what they’ve brought with them. Amazingly, every now and then we get somebody who genuinely doesn’t realise it’s a camping tour, so I have to rush out and get them blankets and a sleeping bag.

It must be difficult – a whole group of strangers coming together and then having to live together like that.

Mmm… It goes surprisingly well, but I always think the first day is critical because it sets the tone for the whole trip. We’ve had the odd nightmare start where we’ve got a flat tyre twenty minutes after we set off or it’s dark and pouring with rain and people just can’t get their tents up. Yeah, once we were making pasta late at night and the cook put in a tin of strawberry jam instead of tomato paste – those are the bad starts!

Basically, everyone has to take part in the domestic chores, do they?

Yes. The brochure makes it clear that people have to work on a rota system and they usually do about an hour’s work a day. We get a few who don’t want to muck in but more often they are just untidy and I’ve got a bit of an eye for that because… well, they might leave a fork lying on the ground, for example, and okay, it’s just a fork, but in a lot of places in Africa you can’t get forks, so I’m quite possessive about the equipment.

And do people really get on? A lot of people have never lived in a tight community situation like this before and you do get conflicts and personality clashes. The best approach is to observe it from afar. If it gets out of hand, I might point out in front of the whole group that there’s a problem between certain people. Shame them a bit…. Mmm. Sometimes it works. To be fair, conflicts are rare but small problems can mount up in that kind of environment. Evening noise, for example. Some people want to go to sleep early and others don’t. On occasions, I’ve had to be the sort of go-between and impose a ‘lights out’ time if things start getting out of hand.

What about getting up, because that’s something we’re really not keen on on holiday?

If we’re going into a wildlife park we might have to be on the road by six a.m. but people still ask why they have to get up so early. I’ve learnt how to do it now. If they’re a quick group I’ll get them up at five, but if they’re slow I won’t shout and scream at them – I just get them up at four thirty.

Well, perhaps now we should go on to talk about what there is to see in some of those game parks that you have to get up so early for.

And now for The Holiday Programme with Mandy Rice. Today I’m talking to Don Nicholson, a tour leader who spends ten months of the year looking after groups of up to eighteen tourists in southern Africa. They travel together in the back of a truck, put up their own tents and cook their own food. Welcome to the programme, Don.

Thanks.

This is a holiday with a difference, isn’t it? Tell us, first of all, what sort of people go on a camping trip in Africa… and a long one at that… it is a month each trip?

Yes. Well, it sounds a sort of studenty thing to do, but in fact, the majority of our passengers are people like doctors and lawyers. We do get some students but they tend to be the ones that are studying something like conservation or wildlife.

And when do they all first meet?

The evening before we set off. They fly in and I pick them up from the airport and immediately before we start sorting out places in the truck we go through what they’ve brought with them. Amazingly, every now and then we get somebody who genuinely doesn’t realise it’s a camping tour, so I have to rush out and get them blankets and a sleeping bag.

It must be difficult – a whole group of strangers coming together and then having to live together like that.

Mmm… It goes surprisingly well, but I always think the first day is critical because it sets the tone for the whole trip. We’ve had the odd nightmare start where we’ve got a flat tyre twenty minutes after we set off or it’s dark and pouring with rain and people just can’t get their tents up. Yeah, once we were making pasta late at night and the cook put in a tin of strawberry jam instead of tomato paste – those are the bad starts!

Basically, everyone has to take part in the domestic chores, do they?

Yes. The brochure makes it clear that people have to work on a rota system and they usually do about an hour’s work a day. We get a few who don’t want to muck in but more often they are just untidy and I’ve got a bit of an eye for that because… well, they might leave a fork lying on the ground, for example, and okay, it’s just a fork, but in a lot of places in Africa you can’t get forks, so I’m quite possessive about the equipment.

And do people really get on? A lot of people have never lived in a tight community situation like this before and you do get conflicts and personality clashes. The best approach is to observe it from afar. If it gets out of hand, I might point out in front of the whole group that there’s a problem between certain people. Shame them a bit…. Mmm. Sometimes it works. To be fair, conflicts are rare but small problems can mount up in that kind of environment. Evening noise, for example. Some people want to go to sleep early and others don’t. On occasions, I’ve had to be the sort of go-between and impose a ‘lights out’ time if things start getting out of hand.

What about getting up, because that’s something we’re really not keen on on holiday?

If we’re going into a wildlife park we might have to be on the road by six a.m. but people still ask why they have to get up so early. I’ve learnt how to do it now. If they’re a quick group I’ll get them up at five, but if they’re slow I won’t shout and scream at them – I just get them up at four thirty.

Well, perhaps now we should go on to talk about what there is to see in some of those game parks that you have to get up so early for.

And now for The Holiday Programme with Mandy Rice. Today I’m talking to Don Nicholson, a tour leader who spends ten months of the year looking after groups of up to eighteen tourists in southern Africa. They travel together in the back of a truck, put up their own tents and cook their own food. Welcome to the programme, Don.

Thanks.

This is a holiday with a difference, isn’t it? Tell us, first of all, what sort of people go on a camping trip in Africa… and a long one at that… it is a month each trip?

Yes. Well, it sounds a sort of studenty thing to do, but in fact, the majority of our passengers are people like doctors and lawyers. We do get some students but they tend to be the ones that are studying something like conservation or wildlife.

And when do they all first meet?

The evening before we set off. They fly in and I pick them up from the airport and immediately before we start sorting out places in the truck we go through what they’ve brought with them. Amazingly, every now and then we get somebody who genuinely doesn’t realise it’s a camping tour, so I have to rush out and get them blankets and a sleeping bag.

It must be difficult – a whole group of strangers coming together and then having to live together like that.

Mmm… It goes surprisingly well, but I always think the first day is critical because it sets the tone for the whole trip. We’ve had the odd nightmare start where we’ve got a flat tyre twenty minutes after we set off or it’s dark and pouring with rain and people just can’t get their tents up. Yeah, once we were making pasta late at night and the cook put in a tin of strawberry jam instead of tomato paste – those are the bad starts!

Basically, everyone has to take part in the domestic chores, do they?

Yes. The brochure makes it clear that people have to work on a rota system and they usually do about an hour’s work a day. We get a few who don’t want to muck in but more often they are just untidy and I’ve got a bit of an eye for that because… well, they might leave a fork lying on the ground, for example, and okay, it’s just a fork, but in a lot of places in Africa you can’t get forks, so I’m quite possessive about the equipment.

And do people really get on? A lot of people have never lived in a tight community situation like this before and you do get conflicts and personality clashes. The best approach is to observe it from afar. If it gets out of hand, I might point out in front of the whole group that there’s a problem between certain people. Shame them a bit…. Mmm. Sometimes it works. To be fair, conflicts are rare but small problems can mount up in that kind of environment. Evening noise, for example. Some people want to go to sleep early and others don’t. On occasions, I’ve had to be the sort of go-between and impose a ‘lights out’ time if things start getting out of hand.

What about getting up, because that’s something we’re really not keen on on holiday?

If we’re going into a wildlife park we might have to be on the road by six a.m. but people still ask why they have to get up so early. I’ve learnt how to do it now. If they’re a quick group I’ll get them up at five, but if they’re slow I won’t shout and scream at them – I just get them up at four thirty.

Well, perhaps now we should go on to talk about what there is to see in some of those game parks that you have to get up so early for.