Adventurous Honeydew game ranger leaving behind a wealth of knowledge and stories

Away from the concrete there is a place where man is custodian of the beasts.

Passing through Honeydew like a migrating antelope, Arie Swiegers is on his way to Mpumalanga to his next professional pasture. Having helped Honeydew Residents Association brush up on their knowledge of their greenbelts, Arie will be resuming his full time role as game ranger. The 38-year-old grew up in Kroonstad and lived in America for two years after school before beginning his conservation career in Bela-Bela and parts of the Kalahari.

The bulk of Arie’s professional life was spent at Marataba Conservation Camps in Thabazimbi where he served as a game ranger for 12 years. Fallout from the global health panic forced a temporary break from the life he loves and after several months in Wilgeheuwel, Arie returns to his personal paradise in the bushveld. Thanks to regular trips to the Kruger National Park with family and a school trip to the Okavango Delta, nature became part of his existence.

Arie describes his line of work as a lifestyle, not a job. “If you want a career in game ranging you need a passion for the outdoors. You must be able to live remotely, think on your feet and adapt to every day. It is not an office where you walk in and there are back-up plans. You have to understand conservation and go into this line of work not for the fun of it but to make a huge difference in conservation,” he stated, admitting there is still plenty fun to be had.

This attitude has given Arie an intimate knowledge of southern-Africa’s wildlife. With too many highlights to recall in one sitting, he lists relocating buffalo, capturing elephants and monitoring cheetahs as some of his favourite moments. Most recently, he is incredibly proud of work done with SANParks to fight rhino poaching using tracking, tracing and documenting technology.

A specialised career in nature conservation is no easy one as Arie notes the competitiveness of the indusrty, especially in the first few years. “Once you are in it, you must always enrich yourself with knowledge. You can never have enough knowledge and never enough skills. You must always be learning,” he advised. Living far from city convenience, access to food, doctors and schools are among the biggest challenges too, notes the husband and father of two.

Connecting with the outside world may be limited but the job brings daily encounters with fellow lovers of the bush. “You graft hard during the days but they always end with a fire and beer in hand. We get to tell a lot of stories and learn from the best guys in the industry around a fire having a meal,” said Arie.

Few better ways exist to live than spending waking moments watching the sun rise and set either end of days consumed caring for creatures locked in the Earth’s embrace.