Starting the safari activity

Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Hluhluwe, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
How to describe. Start with Ho-hum, next was great, and finally spectacular best describes the progression since landing in Johannesburg. Ho-hum on the sights from Richards Bay to the lodge and for the lodge itself. Great, for the first safari outing and spectacular for the last outing we took on Thursday afternoon.   

With a night's sleep in Johannesburg and still being a little out of whack with time zones, we woke up early Wednesday morning for the short flight to Richards Bay. Our friends from Oregon and the drivers from Zulu Nyala were waiting for us and along with several other guests on the same plane. We made the 60 mile trip north to Hluhluwe (pronounced Sha-shu-ee). Putting it simply, it was hot (pushing 100 degrees, with no air conditioner in the 10 person van) and uncomfortable. Nice roads very dry land, meager housing, little commerce, with not a lot of obvious abject poverty. Agriculturally we saw sugar cane and pineapples.
Intercontinental - Johannesburg  Transportation from Johannesburg

We arrived at the Zulu Nyala lodge in time for lunch and just enough time to put on some of those recently purchased safari clothes and jump into our Isuzu pickup with canopied seats in the back. The first day of animal spotting was great. Each guest is assigned a guide that they will have for the entire stay. Ours was Allan, who was a professional lifeguard who got his certification in safari guiding and as a cultural guide. First day safari spotting included giraffes, warthogs, nyalas, impalas, kudus, red duikers, white rhinos and cheetahs. The highlight was finding two female elephants with a youngster. The late afternoon light for photography was just about right and we were able to get relatively close. A great start and plenty of good pics

Zulu Nyala Lodge 1   Zulu Nyala lodge room  Guide Allen - planning safari day
Impala in meadow  Male impala   Vervet monkey - juvenile
Elephants - Zulu Nyala 1  Elephants - Zulu Nyala 3  Rhinos - Zulu Nyala


The Zulu Nyala lodge rooms are adequate, certainly not fancy or plush. The views from one side of the property are great. The tap water is salty and undrinkable with bottled water provided for drinking along with a can of insecticide to keep your room free of flying insects. Dinner in the lodge was a good, not great, buffet. Most of the guests are from the U.S. and most were at Zulu Nyala for the same reason, they purchased their six day trip at a charity auction, as did we. Good marketing approach for the lodge and game preserve. Overall, we found the accommodations to be adequate, but certainly not luxury.

Thursday morning we took another trip through the Zulu Nyala preserve (approximately 5,000 acres) and got up close to a momma white rhino and her 4 month old baby (not so small). Among the other creatures we spotted including our first sighting of zebra, we also saw some beautiful birds, including a rare and colorful vulture and an eagle
Rhino mother and 4 month old baby  Rhino baby  Zebra - Phinda

For the afternoon, we arranged a trip to the Phinda preserve (about 60,000 acres). The preserve is a super exclusive operation with multiple lodges and apparently is a favorite among the rich and famous. It is next door to Zulu Nyala but was a 45 minute drive on mostly dirt roads.   When we arrived it was just beginning to rain (a fine mist) and we covered up with ponchos in our open Land Rover and took off to start a spectacular afternoon. Our objective was to see lions. While we spotted some unusual animals like the Suni (a very small antelope like animal) and mongoose along with wildebeest and zebra, the highlight was the lions.

First we were up close with a couple of female lions who had just made a kill and were fat and happy.
Momma lion and her big cubs  Lion Cub brothers  Lion cub - big

The second lion sighting was a mother and her three cubs, (two males and a female) who were also well fed from recent kills, happy and frolicking because the weather had turned a bit cooler. We were unbelievably close but as long as no one talks loud or stands up in the vehicle, we were assured that everyone would be safe. The lions were found next to a large pool of water. Since this is the dry season, they apparently hang out there waiting for other animals to come for water and pounce for dinner when they desire. Looking around the area, you would have to surmise they pounce a lot. With multiple carcasses lying about, some fresh, others not, our guide informed us they called this area the "Den of Death".

Leaving the lions in the woodlands, we moved to an area that resembled the open plaiins of Africa and found a large group of wildebeests along with zebra. We parked our Land Rover and the guides broke out wine and tasty local treats. It was at this point that our friend Julie from Portland reached into her pocket and found that she had left her dog walking “poop sack” (a plastic bag with dachshund poop) in her jacket. Nothing like importing dachshund poop from the US to Africa. On the other hand, considering the level of exports from the US, that little bag could be symbolic of our balance of trade.

Phinda - the gang  Phinda - Rod & Mary

Our trip back to the Phinda lodge at night was memorable. The guide was using a high powered light to spot animals. We were looking for a pack of hyenas and didn’t find them. Instead we rounded a corner and standing in front of us was a very large elephant with his ears flared and moving quickly towards us. The driver immediately informed us that elephants are irritated by the lights, will charge and will do harm. He immediately put the Land Rover in reverse, doused his headlights and used his spotlight to back up the narrow dirt road much faster than we had come in. The elephant was following and the first opportunity we had to turn around was about a quarter of a mile. Interesting!!

A very dark drive back to our Zulu Nyala lodge, dry clothes and a good dinner capped off a great day. Internet services are inconvenient and time to write the blog postings has been non existent. I am hoping to get this posted Friday morning. -- Finally got internet access Friday afternoon

Comments

Jennie
2010-09-19

Said at the end of a post card"Wish you were here". I certainly wish "I was there"

2025-02-06

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