I’ve just totted up how much this trip is going to cost me. Actually that sounds ‘back of the envelope’ which is not the case, I’ve got quite an extensive spreadsheet.

• The Pro-field guide course for one year – £11,960
• SA visa security deposit – £600
• SA visa admin fee – £35
• Postal order admin fee – £51
• Police check – £45
• Flights – £1,000
• Medical – £30
• Radiology report – £135
• Spending money – £4,000 (40 weeks at £50 and 10 weeks at £200, the latter is for when I’m on leave from camp).
• Travel insurance – £587 a premium package from STA (it was hard finding someone to cover me given my plans).
• Subs – £400 to cover various subscriptions whilst I’m overseas e.g. MCC, BIAZA, ZSL.
• TOTAL – £18,793

Plus I want to have £3,000 as a contingency, not least to tide me over when I get back to the UK with no job.