I've been meaning to post about
Zululand for sometime now. For the last four years I have been
fortunate enough to guide a safari each spring/early summer to this
beautiful part of South Africa.
In actual fact, the main reason I've
just been back there is due to extolling its wonders to Dave and
Jean, whilst they were on safari with me in Kruger in late 2009. So
this year, they returned and asked me to guide them on an
exhilarating 10 day exploration of this amazingly diverse province.
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| Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve |
Picture in your mind - steep, grassy mountain sides; dense
cool shady forests; crashing Indian Ocean rollers; endless silver
beaches; colourful coral reefs; glittering lakes, lazy rivers and
reedy marshes; and in-between, around these carefully conserved
wilderness areas, the scattered rural homesteads and settlements of
the Zulu and Shangaan people and the extensive sugar, pineapple and
eucalyptus plantations of “big” agriculture.
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| Nyamithi Pan, Ndumo Game Reserve |
A province of contrasts, a modern
melting-pot of the low-intensity but persistent competition for the
rich, rain-endowed rolling landscape, between people and wildlife,
big business and traditional practices, conservation and
development.......
For many years, this part of South
Africa has been little known except to South Africans themselves, but
international visitors who want to experience Africa beyond the “big
5”, are growing in numbers.
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| Cape Vidal |
The destinations roll off the tongue –
the Elephant Coast, Maputaland, Ithala, Ndumo, Sodwana, uMkhuze,
iSimangaliso, iMfolozi, Hluhluwe, St Lucia, Cape Vidal......
And so.... to the safari
itself......
The rains came early this year, so for
October the country side was unusually lush, with wild flowers
scattering colour over every open grassland, and woodlands intensely
green with the bright colours of new leaf. The pans, lakes and rivers
were all full and muddy brown and the skies were mostly grey, black
and white with mists and thunderstorms.
The mammals, birds, insects and
reptiles, thriving on this early release from the privations of late
winter could be seen anywhere you looked and we had some really
memorable experiences. These are just a few of them:-
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| African Wood Owl |
A Marsh Owl perched on a fence post
next to the roadworks – a first sighting for all of us, and then
the very next morning, another first, an African Wood Owl perched
deep in a forested mountainside going down to the Phongola River;
We saw at least one (usually more)
White Rhino on every day of this safari;
A tense, bumpy, slippery 20 kilometre
drive, on deeply muddy roads into Ndumo, culminating in a wonderful
sighting of giraffe soon after entering;
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| Zebra at uMkhuze |
An hour, plus, sitting enraptured in
the car park of an uMkhuze hide, watching Blue waxbills,
Yellow-fronted canaries, Pink-throated twinspots, Golden-breasted
buntings, Green-winged pytilias, White-browed scrub-robins, Fire
finches..........;
A leopard dragging it's antelope kill
away into the thickets close by;
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| Morning on the beach |
Seeing hump-back whales breaching
against the sun rising over the Indian Ocean;
Coming back to our log cabin after a
long day out bird and animal watching to find all our bread and
bananas scattered into crumbs by invading monkeys;
The agile bats whizzing around our
heads, inside the cabin, catching insects attracted to the lights;
The magnificent, stately Kudu bulls of
Lake St Lucia Eastern Shores;
Two large crocodiles patiently stalking
warthog and bushbuck just in front of the hide (not successful whilst
we were there);
On a rare sunny day, vultures, eagles,
kites filling the skies above the rolling iMfolozi hills;
First hearing and then spotting a
Gorgeous bush-shrike in a thicket right next to the road;
Picnic breakfast on the banks of the
Hluhluwe River;
First, one large family of elephants,
youngsters digging holes, chasing each other whilst mothers calmly
carry on demolishing bushes and pulling lush grass.
Then as we carry
on up the river valley, more and more groups, herds, families of
elephant, young males sparring, youngsters flopping down on river
banks, older males deep in the trees up the hill sides, stately
matriarchs with babies hugging their flanks........
And our last morning, on the open
grasslands of Ithala, seeing Secretary birds, Blue crane, Bald ibis,
Ostriches, Lanner falcons, zebra, rhino, Tssessebee, Red hartebeest,
warthog......
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| Tssessebee in the flowers |
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| Blue Crane (our national bird) |
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| Hartebeest and Wildebeest |
A glorious finale to an unforgettable
10 days.
Thank you Jean and Dave!
PS. The company that organised this
particular trip now offers 7 day Zululand Explorer packages, so if
any of you are inspired to visit Zululand after reading this post,
please contact me and I will put you in touch with them.
