Sunset in Ithala Park: 21-22 October

We spent the weekend in the Ithala Game Reserve 3 hours inland from Ingwavuma and were greeted by this majestic sunset at the close of a guided walk through the park. (Walks permitted as there are no lion in the park!) Just divine to be out of safari vehicles for once, up close to the animals. And we had the fortune of coming face to face (within 200m, I'd say) of a whopping 600+kg black rhino - the aggressive & dangerous, prone to charging one! But s/he didn't charge, and we were on our way.

We had a great guide, Simon (!), for the walk. A local Zulu man whose English wasn't strong but was very sweet & clearly loved his job. He told us about the recent history of the park (unlikely to be found on the site above) that in early 1970's, the Government decreed the area a National Park & forcibly relocated all the resident Zulu population out of the borders. Many moved to neighbouring Vryheid, others to Pongola & other towns. In addition to the animals, he showed us ruins of homesteads in the park. We were assuming them to be around 1900 vintage, until he informed us that it was the very house of his friend, and his old home was only a short way over the rise. A significant number have gained jobs working within the park, but they must live away from their families (in the park, due to the distances to local towns) for weeks on end. You really feel a guilty tourist.

Saw plenty of game the next day also - giraffes, many antelope, almost all of the 23, 000 impala in the park & marginally less German tourists. There are so many German tourists! It is absolutely amazing. Even the guide books are bilingual: but not English/Afrikaans, but English/German!

Aditi & I in Ithala Game Reserve

Aditi & I climbed up the escarpment outside our chalet in the morning.

End of story, really!

11,642km to Sydney

Here is Aditi at the Cape Point in the Cape of Good Hope National Park, outside of Cape Town - feeling a little homesick at the distance so stark on the sign!!

The Cape of Good Hope is touted in many tourist brochures as the southern-most tip of the African continent & thus the place where "two oceans meet," being the Atlantic & Indian oceans off South Africa's west & east coast respectively. You're meant to be able to look out and see a clear demarcation in the water as the cool Atlantic collides with the warm Indian currents.

This, however, is absolute hogswash! The oceans meet about an hour further east off Cape Agulhas.

White Rhino, Hluhluwe: 7-8 October

One of my favourite snaps: that is not zoomed in! The rhino is <10m>wijd which means wide, as the white rhino is square-jawed for grazing on the grass, as shown. While the black rhino (just named as opposites) has a pointed jaw with sharp incisors for breaking the branches of scrub/trees on which it browses.

The black rhino is part of Africa's "Big 5" game animals (elephant, black rhino, leopard, buffalo & lion) - not grouped according to any scientific thing, just their sheer difficulty to hunt in days gone by. The black rhino is particularly aggressive & prone to charging, while the white is more placid and just grazes quietly, cow like.

Giraffes in Hluhluwe Park

Fantatically elegant creatures, they really strut like the supermodels of the park. Graceful, but virtually silent as they lack a voicebox!! Though they do very occasionally generate guttural sounds to communicate. I've meant to look up their closest relative: camels, horses or antelope - but haven't the time yet.

Hluhluwe Park: 7-8 October

Our first safari!! In to the Hluhluwe Park (pronounced shoo-shloo-wee) which was fantastic. Driving around in an open-topped converted toyota, we & tour group (7 of us) had our eyes glued to the bush to spot any movement or animals. Many rocks & stumps were erroneously spotted, all part of the fun, and quickly dubbed "Rocko-" & "Stumposaurus."

We were very lucky & within 3 hours of entrance our guide had raced us up to the known elephant quarter & we found a herd of 50+ elephants! It was just sublime: watching the babies play, and the cows & bulls move to effortlessly & almost silently through the bush/scrub given their bulk. They're called the 'grey ghosts' by guides as despite their size, they are notoriously difficult to spot as their hides make great camouflage in shadowed woods.

We had watched them four an hour or more (though seemed only 10 short minutes!) when a curious baby wandered a little close to the vehicle: well Mama elephant went right off!! And this photo is her. She flared her ears, trumpeted & came at speed towards us from 15-20m away. But the guide was onto it, truck in gear & we pulled away gently. Just an awesome sighting.

Hippos in St. Lucia Park: 7 October

St. Lucia Wetland Park: 7 October

We took a boat trip on the estuary in the St. Lucia Wetland Park, 2 hours north of Durban. Absolutely brilliant - our first sightings of classic African wildlife, including hippos & crocodiles (Nile Crocodiles, at left.) The park is world heritage listed, as it has the world's 2nd largest vegetated sand dunes, the largest being Australia's own Fraser Island! And many wetland birds too: kingfishers, herons, egrets & the awesome fish eagle.

Our tour guide for the weekend was called Brent - he was great! Highly recommend Tekweni Ecotours for trips around KwaZulu-Natal. We spent a 3 day tour with them from Durban, into the St. Lucia park and thence into Hluhluwe-Umfolozi for real safaris!

This is a photo taken literally 2-3m from the crocs on the shore as the boat pulled up by them. 3 of about a dozen lazing in the sun. Like walking with dinosaurs. Lazy dinosaurs!

The Garden Route

Writing from an internet cafe in Knysna (pronounced Nie-snah), on the southern coast of South Africa. Stayed overnight in a lovely place, the Beach House: an enormous house with wonderful timber floors right on the beach. Too freezing for any swimming though & today has come over super cloudy and rainy, contrast from week of high 28-30 degrees we had in Cape Town.

Have left Cape Town & now travelling along the scenic Garden Route by the south coast to Port Elizabeth. CT was brilliant, quite like Sydney in many ways: very cosmopolitan.

Have come via a little town of Outdshoorn (? pronunciation) which is absolutely ostrich crazy: they made stacks of cash selling ostrich feathers in the 1920's as fasion. They farm thousands of ostriches there, it's insane. We ate ostrich burgers for lunch & ostrich eggs for b'fast. Tasty: yellower & richer than chicken eggs. And larger!

Then found our way to Cango Caves, a bit like Jenolan but smaller: limestone caves, but less well kempt. A lot of the formations are covered in greenish algae from over light exposure. But what you can do (unlike Jenolan) is take an Adventure Trek through them which involves contorting your body into shapes & positions you never thought you could to squeeze through the tiny caverns between wonderfully large & spacioius great halls. Some of the tight spots though, at 1.5m were still talle enough for Aditi to stand straight up!! For once I was very jealous. But there were much tighter bits of only 25cm you had to squeeze through.

No time for photos.