Calypso's Journal: A Brief but Fabulous Safari

Over the years that we lived in South Africa, Paul and I had been fortunate enough to visit the game reserves on many occasions but this didn't stop us from wanting more. I don't think one can ever get enough of these experiences and, now that we're so close to some of those reserves, we just had to have that one last safari.

Along with Tanya from Pedoja (her partner, Don, was too busy supervising boat work), we took a three day trip up to St Lucia and Hluhluwe/Imfolosi game reserves just north of Richard's Bay.

A 9-month old Cheetah

Firstly, we booked to visit the Emdoneni Animal Care & Rehabilitation Centre, a fabulous project whereby Africa's endangered cats receive care if, for a variety of reasons, they are unable to survive on their own and any offspring are nurtured until they can be released back into the wild. We learned about the African wild cat, ancestors of our domestic cats but threatened with extinction due to impure breeding. We saw beautiful specimens of caracal whose status is considered of concern; the serval, considered threatened and finally, the cheetah which is extremely vulnerable and considered endangered. It was a thrill to see that there is such a caring project in existence, to learn about these magnificent creatures and even get to pat one. Definitely worth the visit.

Serval

Caracal

Next, we went in a boat onto the St Lucia Estuary to search for hippos and found plenty. Again, a thoroughly enjoyable and educational experience. Our tour guide was a fountain of knowledge on all things 'hippo' and, as it was the evening trip, we were able to take our sundowners with us to doubly enjoy the excursion.

Elegant creatures

The following morning, we rose before the crack of dawn to arrive at the gates of Imfolosi at opening time so we could have the entire day available to us. When we were living in Durban many, many years ago, Imfolosi and Hluhluwe were two separate reserves but joined by a corridor that allowed the animals free access between the two, however, humans had no such privilege. They have now been combined into one much larger park which makes for a much better reserve in every respect.

White rhino

These two parks are famous for their rhino, in fact, they state that 'every single southern white rhino population in the world has its genetic origins in Hluhluwe/Infolozi Park'. One of their biggest problems is the constant threat of the poachers in this part of the world and there are massive programs continually being put into place to try to counteract this threat. We did manage to see two black rhino which are now extremely rare due to poaching. At one stage, the population of the white rhino was down to a mere 20 animals but they have since thrived under the protection of the Parks board to such an extent that it has allowed translocation to other reserves. Poaching, however, is still a very serious problem; we heard that two had been killed within the park very recently.

We saw a total of 26 white and 2 black rhino; a very good tally indeed. In addition, we were thrilled with the number of giraffes we encountered as well as kudu, nyala, wildebeest, hundreds of Impala, lots of buffalo, zebra, a few warthogs, birds galore but only one solitary elephant. All in all, a great day.

We considered going back again the following day but after sitting in a car driving along the dirt roads for over 14 hours, we felt satisfied with our one outing besides, we had to get the car back to Richard's Bay by mid afternoon which would have meant that another trip into the reserve would have been a bit rushed. Instead, we had a more relaxed start to the day then visited a local cheese farm which was also very interesting. We even tried our hand at milking a goat.

PHOTO ALBUM:

The fruit and craft market on the way up to St. Lucia