Lots of UBBs


Advertisement
South Africa's flag
Africa » South Africa
October 5th 2018
Published: October 5th 2018
Edit Blog Post

This blog is something of an extended catchup as we have stayed in 4 places over 5 nights, none of which have had internet connection. We write the blog, mostly day by day, on a notepad app ready to cut and paste across to TravelBlog. The slow point of the upload is then the selecting and uploading of the picture files which can take an age with a slow upload connection.

So, we are told that tonight's final meal restaurant has WiFi so are hopeful of an upload during the meal there. ....


Day 9 - Sunday, 30th September
The village of St Lucia is nestled between the Indian Ocean and the St Lucia Estuary. The whole village is surrounded by a Natural World Heritage site, the first to be designated such in South Africa.

We had a very early start to drive the hour or so to the Hluhluwe Game Reserve in time for its 6am opening and the first of this trip's serious game drives.

At the lodge entrance there were dozens of yellow weaver birds building wonderful nests, then almost immediately through the gate a large herd of Cape buffalo. So many animals spotted on this first drive - 3 of the Big 5 though no big cats yet - and birds, especially lots of UBBs*. Rather than have Paul type out a list here we have photographed the running list in the photos. A particular highlight though was a hide overlooking a water hole and watching a giraffe and buffalo come down to drink, the giraffe somewhat inelegantly.

The reserve boasts the densest population of southern white rhino in Africa, as a result of the Kwazulu-Natal Nature Conservation programme that saved the white rhino from extinction. And we saw a lot of white rhino, including youngsters, though no black rhino. Our guide, Vern, told us later that on his last tour here a couple of weeks ago they saw none!!

This reserve was once the exclusive royal hunting ground of King Shaka and remains much as it has looked for centuries - thornveld, towering grassland hills and rivers.

Sayings of Pip : What do you call a rhino? Anything you want; it's got very thick skin!

In the afternoon we took a hippo cruise on the Greater St Lucia Estuary. As we set off the captain/guide gave us a safety briefing, and told us that the crocodiles only go for "the young and tender meat", looked at a couple of teenagers and pointed. They, in turn, shook their heads and pointed to Pip, who felt both honoured and flattered ?.

As you would expect on a "hippo cruise" we saw lots of hippos, including the 'townies' who roam the town at night for fresh grass (we saw them in town the following evening ), as well as crocodiles.

Day 10
Woke up to the news that Geoffrey Hayes (Rainbow TV programme - Zippy, Bungle & George) has died ?. And Charles Aznavour. Sad
Day.

Most of the day was taken up with another game drive, this time north (and return) through the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, the first World Heritage Site in South Africa. An expanse of prairie grassland, wetland, pools and then dune habitat.

Viewing wasn't as new animal productive as yesterday but the two little painted reed frogs were so cute, as were the elephant dung beetles. The guide explained, however, that there had been issues with the park and park management. No need to detail here but doesn't bode well for the future prosperity of the park. In the short term though 3 of the park's 8 rhinos have been killed by poachers in the last 3 weeks and the other 5 haven't been seen for a couple of weeks. And the park's 2 leopards have been poacher killed in the last two weeks too. Not good. We saw rifle armed rangers, but there aren't many for the size of park, nor is there any air support eg helicopter.

The northerly point of the day was at Cape Vidal, supposedly one of the best beaches in the area, on the Indian Ocean. And it did look wonderful. But it was blowing a hoolie! The wind was whipping across along the beach from north to south at around 80 kph, blasting sandpaper-sand across at leg level. So swimming was not advisable, let alone snorkeling.

So we dipped our toes and retreated to a bench above the beach to watch yellow-billed kites majestically hover above, and occasionally swoop onto the sand, whilst we enjoyed a natural exfoliation.

Sakhile, our guide, cooked us a 'braai ' - bbq - lunch of steak, sausages, banana, salad and beans in mayonnaise, plus wine, which we enjoyed on the sheltered side of the dunes whilst watching a pair of banded mongoose chase each other nearby.

That evening we were back in the same wetland park for a night game drive. Searching out the townie hippos first, now gorging themselves on the town's grass verges, we then headed back into the park, with Paul being the designated rear gunner. Sorry, searchlight operator!

The knack is to spot the shining light coming back from animals' eyes.

Clearly our night-time guide knew the way around. If anything he went more off-road than our daytime driver. The reserve seems so much different at night. You get to see, and hear, it in a whole new light, so to say. And when the lights are all switched off the crystal clear sky shows off the southern sky's constellations and the arc of the milky way majestically.

Really don't know how the driver/guide spotted some of the things he showed us. He managed to find chameleons and even bought one into the truck for some of us to handle. We also saw several bush babies scuttling around in the trees.

Day 11
Another getting from A to B day, going across country to get into Swaziland, or eSwatini as it is now officially called. Really hot today. Opening the van's windows only seemed to turn the conditions inside from dry roast to fan oven roast.

eSwatini is a Kingdom, somewhat autocratic. It immediately comes over as being noticeably poorer than SA. We passed through very fertile areas with vast fields of pineapple, bananas and sugar cane.

In eSwatini we are staying in a game sanctuary, Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary. There are no predators so we can walk around the park freely, though we still have to allow the animals some reasonable personal space because there are several you wouldn't want to mess with eg warthogs .

Our accommodation for two nights are beehive huts, which are each attached to an en-suite bathroom unit including hot water. But the power went out tonight leaving some in a tizzy about recharging. And, again, there is no WiFi until we leave here and move on to the Kruger on Thursday.

After dinner we passed by the camp's famous fire. Apparently this was first lit over 60 years ago and had never been out since. At night local warthogs are known to come and slow roast themselves by sleeping next to the fire - and low and behold there was one there tonight, and three in the morning when we went to breakfast, practically in the embers.

So, Day 12, was half and half. For an hour or so our guide walked us into the park. Walking is fine here as there are no 'predators' though you still wouldn't want to square up to a crocodile, hippo, wildebeast or warthog all of which roam here. Five of the six of us then completed the Hippo Trail around the lake, around 8 kms in pleasant cooler weather before chillaxing for the afternoon. The evening, though, saw a significant weather change to pouring rain which regrettably meant that the Swazi dancers' show, planned to be around the ever-burning fire, was cancelled.

It rained pretty much all night which made for a wet, cold and slippery departure from the park on the early morning of Day 13. On the way out we passed a posh coach which, on its way in, had almost slid off the dirt/mud road. The tourists were being loaded onto open safari jeeps to continue into the park, but they seemed to be taking it in good spirits.

Target this afternoon was to enter and do a 3 hour game drive within the Kruger National Park. This 2 million hectare wilderness is amongst the world's first proclaimed game reserves and is justifiably SA's showpiece. Highlight along the way to our overnight stop within the park was a hyena mother and pup who had decided the best place to set up home was an under road drainage pipe, with a resting and play area just next to the tarmac ?, though another hyena asleep in the coffee stop car park just slightly further on was fun to see too!

Turns out this Kruger camp also has no WiFi, although the in-house Wimpy, the only catering facility within the camp, does say it has free WiFi - but not today!

Day 14, another 5 am start. Gates are opened to let us OUT of the camp into the surrounding park at 5.30am. Except for a couple of meal/toilet breaks we were game driving around the Kruger for nearly 10 hours. Not surprisingly a lot of repeat sightings but we did get our 4th of the big five - a very content, fat, sleepy leopard stretched out on an upper tree branch next to the road with the few remains of a bloody impala hanging in front of him.

But we can't drive around the park for ever so had to leave mid afternoon, regrettably not having seen either a single lion (10,000 in the park) nor cheetah (5000). ?



*UBBs - Unidentified/able Brown Bird







Additional photos below
Photos: 38, Displayed: 28


Advertisement



Tot: 0.545s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 12; qc: 60; dbt: 0.1078s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb