2009 August » The Global Guy

Monthly Archives: August 2009

Hluhluwe Umfolozi Game Reserve

August 28, 2009 Posted in Africa, South Africa

Our final stop after leaving Swaziland was a lesser known park back in Zululand in South Africa called Hluhluwe Umfolozi. To be honest, at this point in the trip I think a good many of us were starting to suffer from “Africa Fatigue”, where things that got us excited on the first few days wouldn’t even get us to turn our heads. Another zebra? Yawn…wake me up if you see a leopard making a kill. Despite that, this park had quite a few things that kept our attention at peak performance for the entire day.

The terrain here was quite unlike any other game park I’d ever been to. Most parks are in the “veld”…fields of grass, trees, almost always flat. This park was so much more! Hills, ridges, streams running down valleys..lots of interest and a good challenge for photography. There were fewer places for tourists to stay in the park, but if I ever come back with someone “special”, I’ll definitely be staying at the Hill Top lodge..amazing views, beautiful furnishings, and what looked like a very fun bar.

From an animal spotting perspective, two events really stand out in my memory of this park. First we spent about two hours stalking and following a large herd of elephants, trying to intercept them around the terrain to get us into perfect photo distance. We eventually succeeded, but unfortunately the light was at the worst mid-day height. Still, for a fun experience this couldn’t be beat. Our most impressive encounter happened on our way out of the park…we ran across several rhino’s, two of which were large males fighting over a female. We watched the battle for about 45 minutes, with the animals getting increasingly more tired and bloody. Eventually the loser ran off in defeat, and we bugged out with the evening closing time right on our tail.

Hlane Royal National Park

August 26, 2009 Posted in Africa, Swaziland

Cutting thru Swaziland on the way back to J’berg was something I wasn’t expecting at all, but turned out to be one of the highlights of this trip. Crossing over the border, the difference between the third world conditions of Mozambique and the 2nd world Swaziland was immediately apparent. The roads were in better condition, the street signs were in good repair, and there were modern irrigated fields of sugar cane, instead of scraggly patches of subsistence farms where one single family would try to grow their own food supply, supplemented by food aid.

Swaziland is a fairly small country, but it has a remarkably well developed parks system. They’ve done a great job of developing the park infrastructure for a wide range of tourist types; everything from grungy overlander (like us!) to luxury and family friendly places. Hlane National Park is the overlander one, so we stopped in for an overnight visit. This place was fantastic compared to some of the previous campsites we’d stayed in! Hot showers, electricity for charging our camera batteries, and even a very well put together cultural show in the evening, asking only tips at the end.

Hlane has their wildlife fenced into two areas. They’ve got one area that is for game driving where the big cats can wander around freely. It was at this area that we got our first up close lion sighting of the trip. We’d previously seen a lion or two way off in the distance, hiding under trees, but this was the first time we’d spotted one up close, and walking around.

The other half of the park has relocated all of the dangerous cats elsewhere, and guests are allowed to walk with a guide. The big attraction to this is the opportunity to get up close with rhinos. We were not disappointed! We found several groups of animals, one with a small baby that were happy to stand still and be photographed for a while. Our guide was great at teaching us to read the wind, and sneak up on the animals so they didn’t detect our scent. As long as they weren’t disturbed by our smell, their eyesight was so poor that we could get right up to them!

Diving in Inhambane

August 24, 2009 Posted in Africa, Mozambique

Our next stop was another beach town farther south on the Mozambique coastline called Inhambane. This was another fishing village (are there any other types on the coast?) that was pretty well known for its whale watching opportunities. Whale watching is one of those activities that are the bread and butter of many tour companies. They love it because all they have to do is advertise the stuff that can be seen every once in a while, and if people don’t see the big attraction, you just have to say “Well, that’s nature!”. Generally there are a few dolphins or other some such ordinary creature that still thrills the tourists enough that none of them complain too much about missing the highlighted attraction.

This was kinda the way our tour went…we were told that there were whale sharks in the area, which if you are a diver will recognize as one of those holy grail type animals that everyone would be happy to see just once in their lifetime. I’ve never been lucky enough myself (yet!), but was hopeful from the initial talk that our guide gave us. Well, I ended up showing up early to the shop to chat about some diving, and the guide there told me that the chances of seeing the whale sharks this time of the year were slim to none..sigh, foiled again! Anyway, we did end up seeing dolphins (of course!), and a surprising number of humpback whales right off the shore. I’d seen humpbacks in the Antarctic before, but never this close, and for such a long duration! We weren’t able to get in the water with them, but I did have a great opportunity to see one of the biggest manta rays I’ve been around. Our guide spotted him below the surface, and told us to jump in with our snorkel gear. I was the only one who was interested, and I was down in a heartbeat chasing him with my camera. Unfortunately, I’m still learning how to shoot underwater, and chasing a fast moving animal on just snorkel gear isn’t the easiest thing to do, but I still managed to get at least one “decent” shot of him.

The next day the rest of the group slept in, and lazed on the beach while I went diving. The coral was pretty sub-average, but some of the critters were amazing! I’ve never seen octopus in the daytime before, but I spotted two HUGE ones crawling over the rocks, changing their colors constantly. Eventually the two of them ran into each other and immediately started flashing their colors. They extended an arm out, and did some kind of wrestling move, which I’m guessing was a type of courtship ritual. After a couple of minutes of that, they split off, and I decided I was going to need a cold shower. Unfortunately I fell victim to the most common of underwater photographer problems…dead batteries just before the most spectacular sight on the trip!

Vilanculos Beach Holiday

August 21, 2009 Posted in Africa, Mozambique

After four days of bouncing over some of the worst roads I’ve seen in the world (I thought nothing could beat Cambodia!), we finally arrived at our coastal destination in the town of Vilankulo. This was originally a small fishing village, but its proximity to the Bazaruto Archipelago has turned it into quite the backpacker hub. We arrived at around three in the afternoon, and promptly headed for the nearest beach…unfortunately the hotel that our tour company (Drifters) use was in a pretty lousy location, and it took a while of scrambling past half sunken fishing boats and broken glass before we finally found a small stretch of sand that was clear enough for us to strip off and head for the water. Once we got into the ocean, it was glorious! The water temperature was a little cool, but for winter in Africa it was absolutely refreshing. We splashed around for a while, and keeping in mind that we’d all had our tetanus shots, headed back to the hotel to explore the bar.

While the hotel might not have had the best location, the staff did a fantastic job of maintaining the beautiful landscaping, and the hospitality was superb. Our group composition was a bit older than most African overlander groups, and that definitely showed in the evenings. We enjoyed a few beverages, had some dinner and then headed off to bed at a reasonable hour..definitely not something I’m used to on a trip like this.

The next morning we were up early for one of the highlights of the trip, a dhow trip out to Magaruque Island. It took about 45 minutes using the motor to get out to the island, where I was surprised to find one of the prettiest beaches I’ve seen in a long time waiting for us. Our itinerary was pretty simple…do a little snorkeling, some sunbathing, and maybe work my way through a chapter or two in the Wilbur Smith book I was working on. The snorkeling was pretty decent, although the water temperature made it a little less enticing than the warm sandy beaches. Lunch was served by the boat crew..they were offering some of the freshest barracuda I think I’ve ever had. I hadn’t tasted fish that good since one holiday back in Texas when a couple of us went spear-fishing on the oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

After another nap in the shade, we headed back to the hotel, this time under sail. There was something really peaceful and relaxing about just chilling out, listening to the waves gently slap against the wooden hull, and hearing the fabric of the sails snapping in the breeze.

The next morning Ula and I decided to go horseback riding before we headed out for another day of driving. The riding was beautiful, although the guy we rented the horses from was a bit of a racist prick. He’d been kicked out of Zimbabwe a couple of years ago, and had resettled with his wife in Mozambique. He was full of opinions, mostly involving how lazy the locals were, and how they should be grateful for the white people’s generosity. Unfortunately this was something that we’d encounter several times over the next week or two. Still, despite his attitude, the beaches were beautiful, and we were able to get in a couple of great gallops in across the sands.

Bushbashing thru Mozambique

August 18, 2009 Posted in Africa, Mozambique

Immediately upon leaving the South African side of the International Transfrontier Peace Park, the landscape changed dramatically. We’d gotten used to seeing wildlife fairly regularly along the road..mostly impala and other antelope species, but as soon as we crossed over into Mozambique, they were no where to be found. According to Neil, our guide, during the Mozambique civil war both sides had come to depend on bush meat for sustenance. In addition, there are quite a few tiny villages still in the Mozambique side of the park, and between the hunting and the human presence, the wildlife just hasn’t returned.

Despite the lack of game, driving thru the back country was definitely interesting. We were going on roads barely wide enough for our vehicle, with branches coming in the vehicle that would quite easily take out an eye, or even remove your head if you happened to not duck in time!

For the next four nights we ended up camping at very primitive campsites with no facilities. Showers were basically wet-wipes, and toilets were pretty much pits that we dug in the ground. We did spend one really remarkable evening with a local family who had built a very primitive campsite for overland trucks. The head of the family was a friendly gentleman, but it was impossible to guess his age or his wife’s age. The husband was blind in one eye, and spent much of his time sewing on an old manually operated machine that he had under a thatched hut. We had a few things for him to repair, and for the most part he did a great job. We spent the afternoon playing bocci ball with the kids using “monkey-apples” for balls..tons of fun, and lots of laughs when the fruit finally couldn’t handle it anymore and exploded in a sticky mess on someone’s hands.

Still, despite the dust, noise, discomfort and the lack of ammenities, it was a good couple of days, although I don’t think any of us would have chosen to delay our upcoming beach holidays in order to extend the experience!

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