Day 6 – Drifters South Africa 18-day Tour

Zululand

4 September 2011

After an 8 o’clock breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon, we climbed into the open-sided jeep and headed off for our walk. False Bay joins the St Lucia Wetlands Park to form the largest estuary in the world. St Lucia is home to some 60,000 hippos and some of the largest crocodiles on the continent but we wouldn’t be seeing any of them on our hike.

False Bay

A simple warning sign

The warthogs don't worry too much about the crocodiles though 

We would be walking the Ingwe Trail, an 8 kilometer loop through the forest and along the coast where we would hopefully see some fossilized bones of various animals; including hippos.

The start of the trail... 

We did manage to see a couple of red duikers on our hike (a small antelope), although neither of them hung around long enough to pose for a photo, and an impressive set of leopard prints (sadly, a few days old so we couldn’t catch up to him).

A Leopard print

Walk this way

Kirsty showing she's not afraid of spiders 

Despite not seeing any animals, the hike was mainly about just enjoying a beautiful part of the world and learning about it. We learned more about the healing properties of trees, which trees are poisonous when burned, and also why we shouldn’t be afraid of spiders in Africa. We did see a couple of bones on the beach, including this one from a hippo, and the crowd of storks standing in the shallows constantly kept us entertained as they tried to move as one single unit.

An old hippo bone - or a bone from an old hippo?

A Thornybush tree

An action shot from Kirsty 

We returned to the camp at 12 and had an hour to have lunch and get some warm clothes as we would be leaving for an afternoon game drive at 1. Milton prepared a pasta salad that we all wolfed down and then we hopped in the jeep to head to Hluhluwe-iMflolozi Game Reserve. We assumed it was right around the corner but 45 windswept minutes highway driven minutes later we arrived. We would be in the park for roughly 3 hours – 3 hours that will stand out forever as it turned out.

A local village outside the game park 

Nothing could have prepared us for that first hour in the park. We passed zebras and warthogs, and then a big herd of buffalo.

The mighty buffalo 

We had barely gone a few minutes further when we caught sight of a male lion ambling towards some deeper bushes to get some shade. I managed to get a photo of what might be his right butt cheek but sadly, it didn’t turn out all that well. Next time I come on safari I will need an extreme telephoto lens. And yes, there will be a next time.

A Black-Collared Barbet 

Kirsty got extremely excited when we passed some rhinos close enough to smell them. We ventured down a smaller gravel road and had our path blocked by a very tall and old giraffe. For around 10 minutes we drove 5 feet, waited a minute, then drove 5 more feet. He reluctantly gave us the whole share of the road and we drove off, marveling at the photos of the giraffe’s butt we managed to get with the smaller camera.

"You shall not pass!" 

Giving us a salute, giraffe style, as we passed

Up ahead on the left I noticed some elephants coming through the bush. Milton said they looked to be heading for the river so he drove in that direction. We drove down a gravel ramp and parked just as the first elephant came into view. They stood on the bank drinking, and being in the back of the jeep meant Kirsty and I could only see their trunks. Then one waded out. Then another. And another. Soon, every elephant in the herd was across or crossing the 15 meter wide river. There were some very young elephants in the herd, some of them struggling to keep their trunks above the surface. Others were playing – splashing each other, rolling around, dousing themselves by flapping their ears. We sat at the riverside for 20 minutes and we all could have sat there longer. I have never seen anything as extraordinary as that. We really were lucky on this trip and I know I could come back to Africa 100 times and not see half of what we saw on this one trip.

Elephants having fun

We've reached the far side mom! 

Still buzzing from the elephant experience of a lifetime, we stopped at a picnic site inside the park for a pee break (although I had practically wet myself over the elephants) and laughed that we still had nearly 2 hours of game viewing left. Milton nearly fell out of the truck as he decided to lie across the front seat while he waited for us and somehow managed to get himself entwined with the stick shift.

A male Nyala 

Another high point was seeing a mom and very young rhino; the youngster proving to be quite fond of the cameras that were clicking.

Is this my good side?

And like our game drive the previous day, our last game drive of the tour ended with a treat as 3 grazing rhinos, the female with the longest horn on any of the rhinos we had seen, stared down our jeep so we had to stay put until they backed away from the road and we could safely proceed. One left hand turn later we were at the park gate and embarking on the chilly ride down the highway back to the lodge.

The three amigos!

The female shows us the horn! 

Back at camp, Milton was busy braaiing up some beef kebabs and chicken, and served it with peanut butter rice and gem squash stuffed with sweet corn and grated cheese. Apparently he doesn’t even do the cooking at home for his wife and 2 children so we all assumed his wife is a great cook. He says she’s okay.

The master chef at work

Dinner is served 

Again, we finished the evening sharing our favorite moments of the day, and we marveled at all the photos and videos that we had managed to capture.

 The video below was taken by Kirsty. Unfortunately, it was our turn in the back of the safari vehicle so Kirsty had to hold the camera above everyone's heads to try and capture this without getting the roof of the vehicle in the shot. I think she did fantastic. Another big shout out goes to our great friend Junior Shelver for adding the music and making this look somewhat professional. The man is a legend and insanely talented. You can look for yourself at Juniorshelver.com.