A Last Visit to Hluluwe & iMfolozi

Our last visit to Hluluwe turned out to be one of the best game drives I have ever been on!  Our sightings started about 5 minutes after we had driven into the park.  We came across a family of giraffes that include over a dozen animals.  They are scattered in the bush right by the roadside and we catch them in all sorts of poses and watch in fascination as they amble then run across the road!  

Further down the road we notice that a car has stopped by the waterhole.  Curious about their sightings we reverse our vehicle but even before we get to the waterhole we come across a herd of Cape Buffalo.  They have a baby in the herd and again cross the road right by our vehicle.  It is my first sighting of a baby buffalo.

We get to the waterhole to find a male rhino making his way for a drink.  This is very exciting as the waterholes in this park are few and far between.  We watch him drink and take lots of photos but the rhino has noticed us and he is not happy.  He makes his way toward our vehicle and we start backing away.  He lumbers after us looking rather threatening and we increase our speed. 

I think he was just showing us who was top dog because after a few minutes he gives up the chase and clambers up the adjacent bank for his siesta.

We have been at this waterhole for almost an hour.  Our next bit of entertainment is in the way of a herd of zebras, again with a little one in tow.

We watch them cross the road before reluctantly agreeing it is time to move on.

We have hardly started to move before I spot the elephant charging toward us.  What’s with the animals in this park today?  We are not quite sure why he is angry but we are relieved when he gets off the road.  We are now in front of him but he is still unhappy and keeps coming after our vehicle.  Will this morning’s excitement never end?  We decide we better move on fast and feel relieved yet again when the elephant decides he doesn’t really want to play!

It has been an eventful day and it is hardly half over.  We stop for an early lunch but we can barely get any food down as the picnic spot appears to be the gathering place for Africa’s most colourful birds.

It must be our lucky day. In between bites of our bread rolls, we keep snapping and the above is a small sample of the birds we saw that day!

We have another encounter with a bull elephant later on that afternoon.  He isn’t as angry but again he is on the road right in front of us.  

We haven’t made it to any of the hides today and we learn later on they were quite devoid of any activity.  The rest of the afternoon passes rather uneventfully but as we are making our way to the exit a hyena crosses the road right on cue!   We can’t believe our luck.  It is a spotted hyena and he pauses long enough for us to take lots of great pictures!   We have one last bit of excitement in yet another elephant encounter just before we leave the park.  We are all buzzing from the highs of the day and as we say goodbye to Hluluwe & iMfolozi we smile in complete satisfaction.  It has been one hell of a day!

 “I can teach anybody how to get what they want out of life.  The problem is that I can't find anybody who can tell me what they want”.  ~Mark Twain

My Last Week in St Lucia

I can’t believe it is our last week in St Lucia!  We have spent most of Monday driving back from the mountains and it is a short week to begin with. The week starts at the Croc Centre where we document a croc being treated for a sore foot.  It is quite an amazing ‘operation’ to watch. The vet invites us in to the pen to watch the process close up.  The croc has been secured well, his mouth has been taped up and 4 men sit on him while the vet drains his foot of all the liquid that is making it hard for him to be mobile.  The stench is unbearable and I am glad to take my pictures and get out!   The rest of the day is spent taking photos of the baby crocs and helping to paint one of the pens.  This is our last time at the croc centre so we get a chance to pose with the babies and have a bit of fun!

During our last week, we visit the projects of some of the other volunteers and document their activities.  I visit the garden project where I find the volunteers hard at work weeding and watering and a variety of vegies thriving.  The produce is distributed to various needy families in the local community who are delighted to have a share of this fresh produce.

Toward the end of the week we visit Estuary Beach for a final sunrise.  I love this beach and find it to be the place where I am most inspired.  I snap away and come back with more memories of one of the most romantic spots in St Lucia! 

 

Our last game drive of the week is spent in Hluluwe & iMfolozi.  The drive turns out to be so amazing that I have done a separate blog post on this day. 

“If you resist reading what you disagree with, how will you ever acquire deeper insights into what you believe?  The things most worth reading are precisely those that challenge our convictions”.  ~Author Unknown

Exploring the Drakensberg

There is nothing glamorous about the life of a photographer!  I am learning that it involves a lot of early mornings, late nights and a lot of sitting around waiting for the light to change so you can get that perfect shot!  

We wake up at 4 in the morning on Day 1 to get ready for our 4 day trip to the Drakensberg Mountains.  We are all excited to be going on this journey.  The ‘Berg’ is another of South Africa’s World Heritage sites.  The mountains are quite majestic and are at high altitude which means the weather is very changeable and can alter quite suddenly which makes hiking here quite challenging.  

Emil, the professional photographer we worked with during our first week will lead this hiking & photography tour.  All but one of the photography volunteers have signed up for this optional gig.  Hayles, who has already been on the road for 6 months has opted to stay behind.  We are joined by Natalie and Siphewe, 2 of the African Impact staff who will share the driving with Emil and help co-ordinate this trip.   

It is a 5 hour drive and we reach the park in time for a picnic lunch before we have our first lecture on water photography.  We learn the technique of using a slow shutter speed to capture that feeling of romance in a small stream or waterfall. 

We then set off on a short hike to practice what we have learnt.  The best time to shoot a waterfall is when it is overcast.  Unfortunately, the sun is shining quite brightly and I have to manoeuvre myself into various contortions to get the right angle and avoid the bright sunlight.  We hike bare foot in freezing water and climb rocks  to shoot these pictures!

 

 

We are staying at a lovely lodge and Nat and Siphewe cook us an amazing South African Braai to end our first day in the mountains.

Day 2 starts by catching the sunrise at the Royal Natal National Park.  We have come armed with tripods so we can get the best shots of the amphitheatre, an 8km stretch of rock that changes colour with the rising sun.   It is a beautiful sight and I try and catch a bit of reflection in a stream mostly devoid of water. 

We go back to base for breakfast before driving to the start of our 14km hike.  It is a glorious day with blue, cloudless skies and great weather.  It is time to try some of our class room theory and get some great landscape shots.   Here I have used the theory of ‘near/far’, and captured some of the foreground to create a sense of depth in this picture.

Our hike ends by clambering over the rock bed of a stream to reach a tunnel caused by the erosive effects of water.  We eat the remains of our braai from the night before and take more pictures of this amazing landscape. We are exhausted when we complete the 14km hike but it is only a warm up for the next day where we will be hiking at a much higher altitude under far more challenging conditions.  We drive for 2 hours to reach the chalets we will sleep in for the next 2 days.  That night we have a warm fire and a slap up meal at the pub that serves the chalets we are staying at.

I lie in bed on the morning of Day 3 listening to the sounds of the wind whistling outside.  It is much colder than the previous day and I find it difficult to find the motivation to get out of bed to be ready for our 5 am start.  We have over an hour’s hike, at altitude in the dark to reach our view point for sunrise.  My chest feels constricted and I feel the effects of the altitude restricting my breathing.  It is dark and we are hiking with the light of our head torches.   The path is strewn with boulders and we are attempting to reach the viewpoint at 2800m before the sun rises above the horizon. 

Often, when I am in the middle of such challenging hikes I wonder what drives me to attempt it.  Then I finally make the view point and watch the amazing change of colour in this breathtaking sunrise and realise it is my passion for the beauty of the outdoors that keeps bringing me back!

The wind is picking up as we continue our hike.  We are attempting another 14km hike and our aim is to reach the top of Sentinel, the second highest single standing peak south of Kilimanjaro.  I am reminded of a pact I made with a girlfriend back home that I would climb Killi for my 50th birthday.  As I struggle up this mountain, I wonder at the sanity of such a rash statement.

The wind is howling and gusting at speeds that exceed 70 kmh.  We are hiking on narrow mountain ledges and periodically turn and grab on to the side of the mountain to ensure we don’t get blown off the edge. We get to a point known as the neck and stop to talk to a couple of who have decided to turn back. The guy tells us it is much worse further on and that he had almost been blown off the trail.  Emil asks us to stay put while he hikes to the ‘neck’ to take a look.  It is blowing a gale and we huddle together in the hope the wind will calm down.  It doesn’t and Emil makes the call for us to turn back.  We are disappointed but the last bit of the trail involves climbing steel ladders which will not be safe in these conditions.

As we turn back, we see in the distance that the couple we chatted to have climbed another peak.  It seems a little more sheltered and and we decide to explore this peak and have an early lunch.  There isn’t a marked trail but we make it to the top.  If you look closely, you can see my fellow hikers on the top of this mountain. 

If you look even closer, you can see where I hiked up to, to take this picture….

It is only half past ten but we are hungry and we have lunch on the ridge of this majestic mountain.  The vistas from up here are amazing and the howling winds have driven the haze away.  We are able to get some incredible views that are not always possible at this time of year.  There is always a silver lining to every cloud, or is that every wind gust?  The trail we took in the darkness of pre-dawn now lies spread out before us.  If you look closely, you will see the car park where we started out from.  I think going back down should be a lot easier…

This hike reminds me that we don’t always attain all of the goals we set for ourselves in life.  It also reminds me that it is during those time of struggle & challenge that we truly grow and realise our capabilities.  The pitfalls in our lives also enable us to discover the people who truly care.

We have had an amazing day and we have learnt to survive and hike under very difficult conditions.  Perhaps this is the most challenging hike I have yet attempted.  I am glad when I reach the bottom and as the wind continues to pick up speed and howl around me, I realise the  importance of knowing when to turn back.  Not every goal is meant to be reached, not every mountain is meant to be climbed!  

Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.  ~St. Augustine

Alien Plant Removal

I was quite amused to learn that the ‘alien’ plants I would be helping to remove were to be one of our beloved natives in Australia – the Casurina!  It is interesting that a plant that works so well in one country can be quite invasive and destructive to the ecology of another.

One of our volunteer activities involves helping out with a day of alien plant removal that has been organised by the park authorities.  The techniques used here are quite similar to those used at home.  Cut the tree just above the root system and poison the stump. 

Before we start, the strategy behind the program is explained to us.  Part of the program includes utilising local contract labour and providing jobs to the local communities.  These men and women wake up very early in the morning to make it down to St Lucia to be involved in the work here.  They are economically very badly off and this scheme provides them an income which some have used as a stepping stone to other ventures or often just to ensure their families are fed. 

I cross over to where they are sitting and strike up a conversation before I ask if I can start taking pictures.  The women are rather shy but the men are only too happy to pose for me.  They laugh and say stuff in Zulu which I don’t understand (are they talking about me?…possibly) but I don’t care.  Their crazy poses are what I am here to capture.

 

Cutting down a mature Casurina is hard work but fortunately there are only so many machetes around so many of us grab the cans of poison and follow the tree choppers around.

It was an interesting exercise to see how a volunteer activity is organised in Africa and how people come together to control an Alien!

“You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition.  What you'll discover will be wonderful.  What you'll discover is yourself”.  ~Alan Alda

Cape Vidal

My time at St Lucia is whizzing by.  The day starts at sunrise and ends long after sundown!  There is so much to see, do and photograph and my evenings are filled with editing and deleting some of the hundreds of photos I manage to take each day. 

Megs and I spend our weekends hanging out at a cafe called Illys where we splurge on English breakfasts and coffee, admire the photos of African wildlife on the walls, and catch up with our blogs & emails.  The staff get to know us well and and point us to our own ‘reserved’ table at the back when we walk in, the only table that is close to a power source in the cafe.  We split our time between cyberspace and enjoying the outdoors and break up the writing by going on another Crocodile and Hippo Cruise.

The cruises are the best way to view the hippos and crocs up close and a great way to spend a lazy afternoon.  We make friends with the skipper on the boat and after he hears we are volunteers with African Impact he allows us to stay on the boat all afternoon.  He is happy there are English speaking people on board as many of the other travellers on board don’t speak English.  

So we get 3 cruises for the price of one and although we don’t see many yawning hippos we get some great shots of the birdlife including  this Goliath Heron.

We do a number of bush walks and game drives in iSimangaliso Park during week 3.  One of these drives takes us to a place called Cape Vidal where we see many different birds including some of the rarer birds such as this Narina Trogan.   

Once we get to Cape Vidal, we are rewarded with a chance to photograph birds in flight and try our hands at macro photography, capturing the crabs and other sea creatures that inhabit the rock pools.   

The Cape is also home to the Semango Monkeys, a variety we don’t find down in St Lucia.  They make interesting subjects and we have fun trying to capture their funny poses before they take off into the trees.

The dune loop reminds me of our dunes in Australia except that 4 wheel driving on the dunes is strictly off limits here!The park is also home to many baboons who are far more aggressive and dangerous than most other primates.  We are lucky to see a troop run across the road and snap lots of pictures of these animals in motion.

Each drive into the park is vastly different from the last and while you may see very little life on a cold and breezy day, if the weather happens to be hot and sunny there will be many animals close to the roadside.

On our last drive into the park in Week 3 we get just such a day.  The hot weather has brought many animals out of hiding and we get close views of many kudu, waterbuck, bushbuck and reedbuck.

 

However, our best sighting in the park has been of the white rhino.  We count a total of 9 rhinos in the park and our most delightful sighting is that of a mother and her baby. Poaching for rhino horn has made this mammal one of Africa’s most endangered species.  I heard on the radio that about 160 rhino had been killed in this area and there is mention of removing the rhino’s horn to keep them safe from poachers.  A terrible remedy to save their life and I hope it doesn’t have to come to that for this majestic mammal. 

The term ‘white’ rhino does not refer to the colour of the rhino’s skin but rather it is a Dutch word that refers to the size (wide) of the rhino’s lip.  The white rhino is more docile than the black, is a grazer and is often found in the open plains munching on grass, while the black rhino is a browser and far more prone to charging.   We’ve got some great memories of iSimangaliso and as we say goodbye on our last run for the week we scan the darkening park for a Big Cat! 

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.  ~Henry David Thoreau