After Comrades, we still had a vacation to get on with. We motored up the north coast and headed to Hluhluwe/Imfolozi Game Reserve. This ‘Big 5’ reserve was established in 1895, making it the oldest game reserve in South Africa. The big five of Africa are rhino, elephant, buffalo, lion, and leopard and a reserve should have a population of all of these guys in order to be an upper echelon game reserve. Why these five? There seems to be some debate. Maybe they are the most dangerous. Maybe they are the most popular. There isn’t a consensus. The one thing everyone believes is that the animals will kill you given half of chance. So they tell you frequently to avoid getting killed. Versions of these signs are all over the reserve:
Before entering the actual park, we saw a family of warthogs near the park entry building. This guy had 100,000 acres of grass to choose from but instead he decided to get on his knees to scrub up some tender weeds from the dirt path. They don’t look that dangerous (about lab retriever sized) but a ranger told us that they would take you out if you got anywhere near them.
Hluhluwe (pronounced shloo shloo we) has a large indigenous rhino population. Many of the game reserves have had animal populations reintroduced into the park (actually elephants have been reintroduced in this park), but these rhinos are ancestors of the native beasts around when the park was founded. There are both significant populations of white and black rhinos. We, like most people, saw only the white rhino during our visit. The white rhinos eat grass while the black rhinos eat brush, so the white guys tend to be more visible.
After driving thru the park, we got to our camp in the afternoon. Kathy and I decided to go on a guided night safari while Jason and Rocio took it easy. They had done a night safari in Krueger before Comrades and figured one night ride was enough for anyone. At dusk, we hopped in our open sided Land Rover for a trip thru the bush. The first park of our ride it was still light out and we saw rhino and antelope. Shortly though it got dark. I mean DARK. The sky was absolutely wonderful – no light pollution and the stars were perfectly brilliant.
The driver busted out a pair of spotlights and we went off looking for game. We had a couple minor spottings (zebra, antelope, and some rabbits) but no major sightings. Then, while in the lee of a hill, our vehicle broke down. No joke broken. The engine would not turn over at all. The driver announced that his radio also wasn’t working (no signal). You have got to be kidding! But our intrepid driver climbed onto the top of our land rover, held the antenna as high in the air as he could, and was able to reach one of the other vehicles. They called back to base to send out up a rescue vehicle for us. Meanwhile, we waited in the dark. While waiting in the pitch black, we heard a rustling to the left of the vehicle. It sounded large. A couple times, the driver shined a spotlight in that direction but we couldn’t see anything. He speculated it was either a buffalo or an elephant. Thankfully, it decided not to kill us! After hearing it rustle around for a while the rescue vehicle arrived (after we waited a good thirty minutes) and we completed the safari. The best spotting after our rescue was of a group of hyena on the side of the road.
Needless to say, this experience (coupled with the gouging prices because of World Cup tourists) soured us off the guided safari. Why pay when you can drive yourself around? Our second day in the park we drove ourselves around and saw all kinds of prey animals. Some of our best shots are below:
By not doing another driving safari we potentially missed out on some animal sightings. One advantage of the guided safari is the Land Rover can handle the back roads and trails while we were tied to the paved roads. Also, the communication between the vehicles can help them find potentially good sightings. Our only disappointment was that we didn’t see a lion during our visit and our odds probably would have improved if we’d gone on another guided drive. But it was spectacular all the same. One of our best spottings was a pair of elephants down in a marshy area spraying water and mud on each other. It is really nice seeing these guys living their lives in their natural environment. I’m glad there are places you can still see this.
That evening we grilled sausage and chicken on our brae outside the cabin while drinking the ubiquitous Castle beer (basic American style lager – most drank beer in South Africa). Jason and I wouldn’t make good woodsmen. We had a mountain of kindling and matches and still struggled getting our fire going. Those years spent in the Cub Scouts didn’t pay off. To be fair, it was pretty hunky chunks of wood that we had for the blaze. But once we got that fire going, the smell of charred flesh was just heavenly. Luckily there is an electric fence around the camp that theoretically keeps out the most dangerous animals. Leopards did not attack us that evening.
In the morning, we prepared to depart our lovely setting to head over to the coast and the wetlands reserve. I could have easily stayed longer. Our lodge formed the corner of the perimeter fence around the camp so we expected to see wild animals right from our balcony. Alas, no luck, but the scene was pretty cool all the same. On the next visit, Jason and I will do a primitive walk. This is a four day/four night hike with a guide thru the wilderness part of the park. You even have to take turns standing watch during the night to make sure your fellow hikers do not get eaten!
Right after leaving the camp and the ever present warning sign, we started down the road. Not 500 yards after leaving the camp, a park ranger pickup with three guys in the back was hurriedly backing up the road. I turned to Kathy and commented that they must have forgotten something at the camp. This was a reasonable assumption. The roads are narrow and you often don’t have space to turn around. But right as I said this a bull elephant appeared coming up the road.
If park rangers are getting out of the way that’s a pretty good signal for you to get out of the way. Kathy started backing our vehicle up. Pretty soon we had a convoy of vehicles heading backwards and an elephant using the road as his personal path. Our reverse parade didn’t last very long though. The elephant decided that no people would die today and he turned off the road and headed into the bush.
After the elephant, our trip out of the park was uneventful. If spotting giraffe, zebra, and impala is considered uneventful! On to St. Lucia – the subject of another dark continent post!
