Natucate
Gap Year: Notes and requirements for a year abroad
This blog article provides you with useful notes on taking a gap year with Natucate as well as an overview of the personal and formal requirements you need to fulfil.
If you’d like to spend a gap year with Natucate you must be at least 18 years old and have a good knowledge of English. Daily activities as part of volunteer projects, field and guide courses, nature and adventure travel programmes and internships can be very strenuous – in particular because of sometimes extraordinary climate and weather conditions. This is why your physical fitness should allow you to be able to hike for several hours in all terrain while carrying certain equipment. Long rides sitting on the back of a truck or on the sun-covered deck of a boat can be demanding as well.
As part of your application we therefore ask you to hand in a doctor’s certificate which confirms that you are healthy and fit enough to join our programmes. Furthermore, it is essential that you are interested in nature and are motivated to be part of a dedicated volunteer project/educational programme. You should be tolerant, open-minded and flexible, have a determined work ethic, be able to work in a team and on individual tasks.
Last but not least, you need to have a valid passport and obtain travel insurance before your departure. Depending on the duration of your stay and your destination you may also need a visa and/or specific vaccinations.
If you have questions concerning the requirements for taking a gap year with us, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Information on accommodation standards
Everybody interested in taking a gap year abroad should be able to adjust to entirely unfamiliar standards of living in their future host country. Therefore, we would like to point out the importance of being flexible and adaptable regarding the accommodation and sanitary facilities provided by the programme. Those are very basic and – depending on the programme – cannot be compared to European standards. The equipment and furnishings are limited to a minimum; air conditioning is not available. Depending on your host country occasional power blackouts or water outages are quite common. Please contact us if you have further questions about your accommodation. We are pleased to provide you with comprehensive information since we would like you to feel entirely prepared for your time abroad.
No animal sightings – no wildlife interaction
We realise that some of the people in programmes want to see as many animals as possible in their natural environment. However, this is dependent on a number of factors. Please note that Natucate makes no guarantee that you will see a variety of animals, including the Big Five, as nature doesn’t always give us what we want. To make such a guarantee would be unprofessional and against our corporate philosophy.
Furthermore, if you’re interested in joining one of our programmes, please note that none of them involve any direct interaction with wild animals. We are strongly against breeding young lions for canned hunting and have therefore signed the strict code of conduct of the organisation CACH (Campaign Against Canned Hunting). We can provide additional information, if required. To learn more about this subject, take a look at the following blog post:
Our trips: Animal sightings and wildlife interaction
Necessary equipment
A gap year with Natucate is an individual composition of our volunteer projects, field and guide courses, nature and adventure travel programmes, internships and safaris. As part of these trips, taking certain equipment with you is oftentimes necessary. Please find further information on what to bring on the following pages:
• Requirements Volunteer Abroad
• Requirements Field and Guide Courses
• Requirements Nature and Adventure Travel
• Requirements Internships Abroad
• Requirements Safaris
