 |
| Part of a Zebra Herd at Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve |
So it begins. One of
the primary reasons for deciding to do our second World Cruise ever and the
second in two years was to have the opportunity to visit South Africa and to
participate in several of the big game safaris which we had missed when we reluctantly
canceled our intended trip to Kenya and Tanzania with the Lincoln-Way teachers
group last June.
While this was of course our first time in South Africa, we
are fully aware of the tremendous upheaval that country experienced before the
1994 Constitution ended the discriminatory policy of apartheid and instituted
full constitutional rights to blacks. From our superficial observations, it
appeared as though there was racial harmony between majority blacks and
minority whites. However, we weren’t in
any position to know true feelings but we did see blacks and whites interacting
without any signs of apparent prejudices.
Our first port was in Richards Bay along the northeastern
coast of South Africa and not very far south of our previous port of Maputo,
Mozambique. Richards Bay was named for Sir Frederick Richards who was in charge
of the Cape during the Boer War in the late 19th century. Back in 1935, the Richards Bay Game Sanctuary
was established around the lagoon. The
town of Richards Bay wasn’t laid out until as recently as 1954 and the town
formally established in 1969. Expansion
of the harbor allowed large ships to dock and today Richards Bay has grown to
be the largest harbor in South Africa in terms of geographic size (but not
value of trade). While agriculture was
the original basis for the economy of the area, minerals like diamonds and gold
followed by titanium and aluminum were major components of the trade at
Richards Bay. Today Richards Bay has a
population of about 300,000 people.
The population of South Africa itself is now over 51 million
of which only about 8% are white. Our
tour guide, a white woman, was asked if things had been better before 1994 (end
of apartheid); after a short pause, she said “no” because while it had just
been a way of life and for the most part people had just accepted apartheid,
she was now aware how unconscionable the inferior treatment of blacks had
been. She acknowledged that her family
had had a “boy” who had acted in the role of servant but she realized that it
was totally wrong to have had that kind of a relationship with a black
man. So, yes, she agreed that things are
better now that blacks are treated as citizens with full rights. However, black pay scale is still very
inferior with an average wage of about $6 a day being common for many black
workers. An entire family might work
together to harvest a ton of eucalyptus at about $2 a ton. Typically they might
prepare three tons a day for a family income of $6.
There are eleven official languages in South Africa, the
first and most commonly used one being English.
Many black South Africans are Zulus and their traditions including
polygamy continue to this day in their areas.
They now tend to blend their traditional ancestor worship with many of
the Christian teachings brought there by missionaries. We noticed many
individual homes had a small round outbuilding with a pointed top. Our guide explained that that was part of the
Zulu religious tradition and the building was a major part of their worship. Richards Bay (and Durban, our second South
African port) is in Kwa-Zulu Natal province.
The name alone suggests the importance of the Zulus in the area’s
economy and culture.
As we approached Richards Bay, we were informed that this
was one of two countries that required a face to face meeting with immigration
inspectors (the other being Australia).
We intentionally arrived in Richards Bay somewhat early so inspectors
could come on board to check and stamp our passports. We were among the first to be processed and
found the bureaucracy significant enough that we had to meet with three
different officials – one to place an arrivals sticker in the passport, another
to stamp the passport and collect our landing card, and the third to do
something else, the importance of which escapes me. Such are the ways of bureaucrats everywhere I
guess! The process of doing this with
every person and not allowing anyone to get off the ship until everyone had
presented himself or herself to inspectors made getting of the ship for
everyone quite slow. In addition, like
Singapore, we are all required to carry our passports on our person whenever we
are off the ship. Frequent international
travelers will relate to the real inconvenience of this practice since it means
we have to be on guard for our passports at all times. The slightest mistake or loss of the passport
will create untold inconvenience.
Australia and many other countries require us to carry some form of
official picture ID so we use our state IDs instead. The requirement that we carry passports at
all times makes us constantly aware of where our passport is. The only thing more inconvenient for us on
this trip was Singapore where we have to pass through airport style security
and passport control every time we boarded the ship.
Our tour, our first ever real game drive, was called Hluhluwe-Umfolozi
Game Reserve by 4WD and was one we had been looking forward to since we
first saw it listed as a shore excursion. Weather forecast for Richards Bay was
81 and “chance of rain”. We weren’t
really worried as that forecast suggested rain might occur but it wasn’t
likely. Yes, the forecast of 81 was
lower than we had experienced but we could deal with that!!! Expectantly we got up and opened the drapes –
and saw a sky that was murky, gray, cloudy (and any similar adjective one could
say), and full of mist and rain. The
rain stopped and we were hopeful; we even imagined the sky was breaking up and
we would have another fine day of weather.
And maybe that chance of rain was happening now, while we were on the
ship, and would pass in time to give us a great day at Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game
Reserve! That was not to be however and
we had the worst weather of the 93 days since we left home. The odds had caught up with us.
We boarded our sleek, comfortable bus for our 90 minute
drive to the Game Reserve. Picture
taking through the windows of the moving bus with rain coming down and
raindrops on the windows was difficult but a few decent pictures were
possible. We passed some Zulu villages
with the round worship structures. There
didn’t seem to be the number of people out and about as in Maputo, but perhaps
it was the rain. You think? When we reached the game reserve, our guide
told us that we would transfer to our 4x4 vehicle for the approximately four
hour drive around the park and that we should break into groups of ten. We had decided to try to get on the same
vehicle with our friends, Bob and Nancy, so while three of us made our
mandatory pit stop, Bob held the front three seats of the 4x4 until we
returned. It quickly filled up and we
had a difficult time holding the seat for Nancy who unfortunately wound up in
the back row of seats. We willingly put
on our ponchos to keep some of the rain from soaking us and off we went with
our guide at the wheel. Both Bob and
Nancy are avid picture takers with much more expensive cameras than either of
us has so it was too bad that Nancy had to take pictures around us.
Thinking that we would do three major day safaris in Africa,
one in each port, we had our daunting goal to spot all five of the “Big Five”
animals to see (the lion, leopard, African elephant, water buffalo, and white
rhinoceros). We were told that it is
difficult to see all five but to be pleased with what we had seen. Since we sat the water buffalo in Mozambique,
we had an advantage in striking that one off our list. As soon as we began our drive, we spotted a
warthog with her offspring. Mammal number
one was spotted.
As we bumped along the rough terrain, way off in the
distance he pointed out a giraffe. With difficulty we saw it and used zoom
lenses to pick it up. Almost immediately, he saw a white rhino, named for the
color of its mouth rather than the color of the skin. Again it was in the distance. But that made
two more animals we had seen. After
another short drive, we saw a lone monkey swinging through the trees but
getting a picture was impossible. The
guide then pointed out, behind some trees, a huge African elephant eating some
lunch of tree leaves and branches. It
was enjoying its meal to such an extent that it seldom moved and since the
foliage was blocking much of the animal, we weren’t able to get an unobstructed
view. And with that citing, we had seen
five animals including two of the “Big Five” (rhino and African elephant). Those with the water buffalo spotted in
Mozambique, we had now seen three of the Big Five and had a good chance of
spotting a lion when we did our game trek near our next port of Durban.
Several of the tour buses gathered in a clearing with a
shelter for our “finger food” lunch, but as we were ready to climb out of our
4x4s, the heavens opened and the rain came in sheets. Everyone raced as quickly as possible to
shelter and stood, ponchos and all, eating their light lunches.
Back in the 4x4s again, with rain still coming down, we set
off to try to see even more animals. We
drove quite a distance before seeing any more wildlife. But the hills and the trees, brush, and
grasses made a pretty site, despite the rain and lack of the customary blue
skies. We always knew that when one or
more 4x4s with other tourists focused on one side of the road or another, they
had spotted an animal. Way back in the
trees and very difficult to see appeared to be a deer-like animal. It was approximately the same size and color
as our American deer. Our guide informed
us that it was a nyala. Though not an
animal we were searching for, it was great adding one more mammal to our list
for the day. That made six animals for
the day.
But the more interesting events were yet to come. Another African elephant was spotted, again
behind trees, and this time with its enormous back side most easily visible, we
watched carefully as it lumbered away from us into denser foliage. While stopped to watch the elephant, another
unusual animal appeared – unusual in the sense that it wasn’t one that we were
looking for and it had a strange stalking type walk. It was about the size of a wolf and it was
decided that a hyena was on the prowl. It appeared unconcerned about the
vehicles filled with gawking people as it came closer to the road, then crossed
the road, perhaps to afford people on the other side of the vehicle a better
look. We watched it go to a stream for a
drink of water, then come back to the road, following the road a short
distance, and then to the original side of the road where we lost sight of it.
Not much farther away, we had the treat of seeing several
graceful giraffes wander around looking for food from high branches. One shorter giraffe, probably an adolescent,
was standing as tall as it could to get food from the branches. Frequently it and the others would bend its
neck down making it harder to see. Our
guide on the bus had commented that it is a rare sight seeing a giraffe
drinking water because they have to bend so far down, much farther down than
this giraffe was bending. She had told
us that that was when the giraffe was at its greatest vulnerability to predators
because it takes time and effort for the giraffe to straighten up to its normal
position. Prior to this sighting of the
giraffes, the best view of them had come in a rather unlikely place –
Kalamazoo, MI! In 2011, we had spent a
few days visiting some friends and family in the Kalamazoo area and our cousin
Joyce had taken us to their nice zoo with a platform high enough to see
giraffes at virtually eye level. While
we watched the giraffes in Hluhluwe, we spotted a zebra, than a second,
third. Right near our 4x4, we could see
about ten zebras in close proximity to each other. It was impossible to take a picture with all
of them in the picture. Our ship Explorations speaker and naturalist indicated
that giraffes and zebras are often found together as they are not threats to
each other and often work together to warn of predators.
Time required us to move on but as we drove, directly ahead
there were six to eight baboons having a stroll along the road. We crept closer and they paid little
attention as they did what baboons typically do. Some of them began to observe us and had rather
cross looking expressions as the human species intruded on their space. The nyala, hyena, zebra, and baboon rounded
out our nine species for the day. We
missed seeing the lion and leopard, but hopes were high to at least spot the
lion on our game drive near Durban. By
the way, the guide pointed out that the “Big Five” gets that designation for a
not too pleasant reason. Each of these
animals hunters realized they need to kill almost immediately if they wanted
their trophy. If merely wounded that injured
animal would go after the attacker (in this case, the human) and had a good
chance of attacking and killing the person.
Rain still coming down, we ended our wonderful safari with
the satisfaction of seeing so many animals in the wild for the first time. Most other groups had seen almost as many
animals and a few saw some others. Barb
spoke with the ship videographer who said she had seen far fewer species than
we did which meant she couldn’t include those pictures in her DVD.
We boarded our buses and returned back to Richards Bay with
great memories of our game drive and not so wonderful memories of the pouring
rain that came down most of the day. The sights we saw weren’t as dramatic as what
our Lincoln-Way friends experienced when they were in Serengeti last June, but
we had a great day nevertheless! I looked out on the verandah after dinner and
again, just before bed, and it was still raining. A wet but interesting and busy day ended.
CT
No comments:
Post a Comment