Archive for the ‘South Africa’ Category

Addo Elephant NP

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

So it turns out a place called Addo Elephant has an incredible amount of… you’ve guessed it – elephants! Astonishing. We’ve seen about a million elephants already, but the calves are always fun to watch. The smaller the cuter, and each one with its own personality:

Grumpy

Pushy

Splashy

Addo Elephant NP Gallery

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See You Later, Sharks

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

Traveling this fast, and in a tight-knit group like ours, we seldom encounter people we have the time to get to know and like.

I cautiously approach tour operators. On one hand they want us there, on the other, they might resent the fact that their labor of love (if it is regarded as such) is yet another notch in our decked out belt of African freebies. Their concern is justified. Some activities on our itinerary are just checkmarks – necessary research on places we must write about but would rather skip.

Umkomaas was one of the core stops we have selected for our guidebook’s Shark Route. We’ve arrived so late that I was embarrassed to ring Dietmar and Rafaella’s doorbell, even though they’d said anytime before midnight would be alright. Tour operators rarely invite us to their homes, unless it’s a home office, so we were ready and expecting to have a short chat about tomorrow’s diving with tiger sharks and then go find a place to crash.

Surprisingly, we were invited to stay. A bit confused at first and trying not to overstay our welcome, we thought of declining the invitation, but somehow over some authentic Italian pasta and a few glasses of red wine we never got to that. For the first time in months we found ourselves at a proper dinner table, rather than a camping stove, having a relaxing dinner and good conversation. Not that we lack good conversation squatting over yet another pot of whatever-it-is-today stew, but it was a nice change of pace.

I’m used to making friends in a blink of an eye. Anybody who has ever done this sort of travel knows this is an inseparable part of being a backpacker. But this time I was just caught off guard – Dietmar and Raffa were just so naturally hospitable and friendly, it felt more like staying with good old friends.

Funny enough, we didn’t even get a chance to dive. The sky turned dark and the seas stormy. So all I have to show from our little stop in Umkomaas are a few photos of monkeys performing circus acts on Dietmar and Raffa’s telephone wires.

Not to worry though – we still have a job to do and no weather will avert us from doing it. We just need to wait out the storm. For now we will be continuing our way down to Cape Town, but as soon as we return Columbus we plan to fly back to Umkomaas. After all, we don’t want to keep old friends and tiger sharks waiting.

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African Highlands

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008

African highlands, Lesotho and the adjacent South African Drakensberg Mountains (Dragon Mountains), fall like soft folds of green felt and stretch beyond the horizon. This fairytale landscape is very different from the Africa we’ve been seeing so far. Iridescent green sunbirds with bright red bibs drink from equally bright red flowers in strange-looking trees. Every puddle has a frog in it, and if I didn’t already have a prince, I’d kiss every single one of them.

Grasshoppers and cranes are dressed for a ball. I don’t know, maybe at midnight they become boring brown and gray again, but right now their vibrant Victorian collars and crowns match their tuxedos, bowties, and pantyhose breeches.

The steep, slippery road to Lesotho was cold, windy, and foggy. It was like driving an obstacle course in molasses. Plus our windshield wipers gave up working. We couldn’t see the mountains around us until we reached the South African border post – a tiny house surrounded by knee-deep mud. On the bright side though, every mountain flower and bush was covered in dew drops and looked bejeweled.

Beyond the pass, the sun was shining. People dressed in blankets and Zapatista hats welcomingly waved at us as I took pictures of them and their cattle.

In open valleys between rocky peaks the sun was scorching. But on summits the freezing wind threatened to blow away all three of us. We didn’t climb too high – just a bit over 3,300 meters. Well, the highest peak of Southern Africa is only 3,482 m high, so we couldn’t go much higher.

Highlands Gallery

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The Happy Family

Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

vervet monkeys can be very protective when it comes to their babies. I often have to fend off relatives who don’t like me photographing their newest family members

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Lucia Leopard

Saturday, November 1st, 2008

This is Africa for you – a seemingly boring place can produce the most interesting of sightings. I shouldn’t knock St. Lucia. If you’ve never seen a croc or a hippo in your life, this is probably a good place to start. Cheap enough tours will take you everywhere from whale to bird watching, and though the park still recommends not getting out of your car, it’s relatively safe to do so – there are no lions. A small tourist town is adjacent to the park, and locals put up a good front trying to show competition between tour operators does not exist in this lovely place, and for the most part it’s true. Careful not to offend anybody, we tried almost every tour we were invited to. Vova even spent a night in the crocodile center to record mating songs and dances of local crocs. This would probably be my favorite part of the job. Not the freebee tours or accommodation, but the VIP privileges we sometimes get, like being allowed to climb into an enclosure with a Gabon viper to get a better picture, or to enter the park before the crowds swarm every decent waterhole in sight.

Our last event in St Lucia was going to be a night drive. Having visited the park during the day and finding nothing more interesting than a few wildebeest and reedbuck, we went through the motions as the guide pointed out chameleons and yet another bushbuck, until something big and feline appeared on a hill above us. Mesmerized, we found ourselves looking into the eyes of a striking leopard that squinted at the light from our spotlights and came down the hill towards our car to check what was making so much ruckus. It came and crouched beside the car. I could hear everybody’s heartbeat. The game drive car is an open jeep – nothing but some flashlights would stop an inquisitive leopard to come check what’s in the tin can. The driver waited until it was unsafe to wait anymore. When the leopard’s eyes begun to adjust to the light and it started looking like it has seen a fly it would like to catch inside the car, we sadly had to move on.

leopard

St Lucia Gallery

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Wild Dog Chase

Friday, October 31st, 2008

We’ve met our match, and it’s the wild dog. Our check list is almost complete. We found almost all rare animals we set out to see, but the elusive wild dog – it numbers only in the few thousand for all of Africa – has evaded us. We knew Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Nature Reserve had them, and for two days straight roamed its dirt roads in search of the elusive animal. We were not the only ones. Apparently some of the dogs had radio collars, and besides countless photographers and tourists trying to catch a glimpse, there were people with antennas and radio receivers. We tried to follow them at some point, but they had no luck either. Finally we found the pack. We could see them in the distance, just finishing a meal of fresh killed antelope. We stopped and watched them until they took off again. They were running towards a dirt road we knew all too well by now. This was our chance to cut them off and get our shot, but starting up a hill we realized our back left tire was completely flat. Cautions to the wind but keeping in mind the lions we saw yesterday in the vicinity, Shurik got out of the car and used our last tire patch to plug the hole. We pumped up the tire a bit and set off again, only to realize that the same wheel had another puncture. I and Vova were stumped, but Shurik quickly fashioned a patch out of duct tape. We were mobile again, but it was too late to catch up with the dogs. Close, but no cigar. Shockingly, Shurik’s inventive patch still holds.

Though our minds were set on photographing the wild dogs, it was hard to ignore the rest of the animals in the park. It was like the 1st of September. Everywhere we looked, pre-K candidates were stumbling out the bushes on shaky feet, hiding behind moms’ bums. The sight could melt the coldest of hearts. A young zebra foal is nothing but striped bushy mane and legs, a baby vervet monkey is all pink ears, and a rhino calf cannot be more adorable in a defensive stance with its bump of a horn next to his quietly grazing mother – her horn the length of his whole head.

Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Gallery

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KwaZulu-Natal

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

I hate the pace we are going at now, but it cannot be helped – we still need to complete data collection in South Africa and Madagascar before Vova goes to the US to write his portion of the book and we stay behind to meet with him again in Ethiopia two months later.

We swung through Swaziland – a surprisingly developed country considering the only piece of news I remember hearing about it was that of King Mswati kidnapping a local girl during the annual reed dance ceremony when he was supposed to choose yet another wife.

Zigzagging to and from South Africa’s east coast (KwaZulu-Natal province), we are either in the highlands or underwater. Diving here hasn’t impressed me much yet. The visibility is better, but with the absence of manta rays and whale sharks the eye itches for something more then just spiky-tailed surgeonfish and psychedelic nudibranchs. If you think I’m spoiled, you are absolutely right.

boxfish