South Africa-Month 4-ish

South Africa Month 4-ish (whose counting?)
In this episode, I...
-get lost in the Drakensberg mountains
-have a wild African predator sit on my head in Kruger National Park
-nearly drive off of a bridge in the Cradle of Humankind
Work was pretty normal this past month, most of the time I spent working on logistics for an upcoming conference in July (basically I need to get people here from all over the world) and so I made up fancy multi-coloured spreadsheet to keep things, and as exciting as that is, I’m sure there’s other things you’d rather read about, so let’s move on.
This past month I basically had three big trips: 1st to the Drakensberg mountains, than to Pretoria and the De Wildt Cheetah Sanctuary, and finally to the epic Kruger National Park.
DRAKENSBERG
The Drakensberg was kind of a spur of the moment thing. Originally I had planned to see the Cradle of Humankind that weekend, but when one of my meet-up groups said they were trying to organize a trip to the Drakensberg, I smelt free ride (or at least someone with a car who could give me a ride if I paid for petro) and signed up.
Southwest of Johannesburg, in northwestern Kwazulu-Natal you can find the Drakensberg mountains, which means something like dragon’s peak in Afrikaans, are actually more an escarpment, forming a dramatic edge to the high plateau on which Lesotho sits (this is not to be confused with the Drakensberg escarpment near Kruger National Park which lies a distance east of Joburg). The fact that it is flat on top of these peaks—and then in fact they are a rough edge of a tremendous geologic shelf—is truly mind-boggling.
They are a beautiful, if fairly dry (at least during the season I visited) landscape. There are mainly peaks in a vast chain of mountains, but we stayed in view of a ring-shaped group called the Auditorium. Initially, I took some flack for insisting that the B&B we originally booked was too expensive, but the hostel I got us into, something like the South African version of an Albertan ranch hostel, ended up giving us a cabin to ourselves for the price of dorm beds with a fantastic view. The only major issue with the place was the hot water, lit by a gas heater that seemed to leak fumes more so than actually heat anything and the noise from the pub, but since we also partook in the pub on many occasion it all worked out.
The first day we went to an area called Cathedral Peak to do some hiking. The plan was to hike to a set of waterfalls, but each member of the small group I was with had a different opinion of the plan, but after climbing a steep hill to what the parking security had said was the start of the hiking trail, I had no intention of hiking back down again. So I went off on my own and said we’d all meet up again in a couple of hours.
Turns out the security guard was completely wrong (the trails started from a nearby hotel) and I ended up bushwhacking my way through venomous snake territory (I was wondering why the trail was so poorly groomed). Of course I didn’t realize this until a couple hours later—after crawling my way across steep grass cliffs and river rapids—when I finally came upon a groomed path (with signs no less!). I was quite dishevelled by the time I showed up back at the hotel.
The next day went a little better, this time we went to Royal Natal Park, a much more developed area with more clearly marked trailheads. While originally planning to hike to Tugela falls—famous for being apparently the second tallest waterfalls in the world and requiring the climbing of shaky metal ladders to reach them—this turned out to far to go, so we instead focused on reaching a more modest set of falls that looked like a curtain of water over two caves, one above the other. This one was reached by going through a variety of trails: some steep, some paved, and some overgrown, but we found the falls alright, hidden away in a mini-forest (Royal Natal was much greener—and wetter— than Cathedral Peak). All and all, a beautiful part of the country, although be prepared to climb a lot of hills.
PRETORIA AND DE WILDT CHEETAH SANCTUARY
My colleague and friend Emilar Vushe (originally from Zimbabwe) invited myself, Henrik, and Kristina for a traditional African dinner at her place in Pretoria. While I didn’t see much of Pretoria, I did enjoy the good food and hospitality, as well chatting with Emilar’s family and friends.
I rented the car for the next day to see some out of town sights that I had trouble accessing otherwise such as the De Wildt Cheetah Sanctuary and the Cradle of Humankind. This proved to be more trouble than I anticipated as even getting the car in the first place was a bit of hassle (they required more ID when I arrived then they had told me on the phone). But I did manage to get a wimpy cheap Suzuki Alto to drive around in, although it was a standard transmission and had trouble with any and every hill and stop light.
Fearing I would get lost, I actually arrived at the Cheetah centre almost 45 mins early, which meant I ended up having a morning tea with no one else around but a bunch of curious cheetahs constantly pacing back and forth along the perimeter of their pens. I soon saw the staff appear and was greeted by a friendly and gregarious middle-aged man who spoke to me until the tour guides arrived, both of whom were fairly young. When the girl—who would be our guide—had trouble getting out of the truck he attributed it to her “big butt” which he promptly slapped. This was a bit of a strange place.
Anyway, eventually the rest of the tour arrived and I joined them as we walked around the cheetah sanctuary, starting off with a cheetah run. Since we were told we needed to be in good physical condition for the cheetah run, I assumed that meant we would be running with the cheetahs. Turns out we just watched them run, and boy can those cats boot it. They had this wire system with a decoy made of plastic strips that they would whip around on a course where it would zig-zag like quick small prey and then go on a straight away, allowing the cheetah to show of its hunting speed and skill.
The cheetahs here are reasonably tame, or at least used to people, and one even walks from its pen to the running grounds on its own. Apparently females, which usually hunt and live on their own (as opposed to the males who live in groups) were generally faster and more aggressive, so we watched all females. As the tour went on we saw king cheetahs (a rare variation) and I even petted a tame male cheetah which purred just like a regular domestic cat only enlargened and stretched out like an extreme greyhound.
We also saw a few of the other endangered predators the sanctuary looks after including caracals (like an African lynx), wild cats (the ancestor species to the domestic cat) which actually meow, and one especially drowsy brown hyena. The brown hyena, which looks quite different from its spotted cousin, was not exactly a morning person er... well hyena. They’re apparently nocturnal creatures and the guides had to kick up a bit of a fuss to get one of them to come out, throwing rocks into their cage with wild abandon (apparently they did this to trick the hyena into thinking they were tossing food into the pen, but hyenas apparently have intelligence to rival primates so this ruse didn’t work so well). We did see one, but his expression suggested more of “What? What is it? Do you guys know what time of the day it is? We’re sleeping here!” kind of expression.
The other big attraction here though is the wild dogs, an incredibly rare predator these days in the wild, wild dogs used to number in the 50s to 100 in one pack, but they were hunted to near extinction mainly because of agricultural interests who saw them as a threat to their livestock.
As a dog person myself, I could easily see the parallel behaviour between the African wild dogs and their very distant domestic dog cousins. African wild dogs don’t really bark per se, at least not like a normal dog would, but they did chase after our truck like a pack of dogs would chase a car and when one of the guides offered food you could see the same “oh boy, oh boy, oh boy” excited expression and familiar body language. Basically the pack consisted of a mother and older father with their litter of about six of seven pups (there were other wild dogs at the site which they will likely breed with the pups when they reach a certain age). The pups, being wild dog puppies, were the most rambunctious while their Mom and Dad would look on. When they fed the pups, the Dad would sometimes try to sneak in for a nibble, but this would usually result on him getting bitten on the nose. Not the brightest animals, the wild dogs would often fight over the same piece of kibble while leaving an entire pile untouched (much like a domestic dog will be much more interested in the tennis ball in your hand than the one sitting idle on the lawn). Still though, captivating creatures, especially seen up close.
Unfortunately my attempt to drive to the Cradle of Humankind was not nearly as successful. I got lost numerous times due to poor signage and changing highways (and at one point ended up deep in Pretoria). When I finally got to the park, I found 80 km/hr (sometimes up to 120 km/hr) highways going through hijacking zones and sharp turns on large hills. The drivers in South Africa are notoriously bad, and the high highway speeds, poor maintenance, and steep edges and turns don’t help matters. There’s also plenty of pedestrians that walk these dangerous roads (often from town to town) and some will jump out in front of you without much thought.
Finally I was about to reach the turn off I needed for my destination, I found myself coming down a steep hill, going into a sharp turn, and coming upon a narrow bridge—painted for two lanes, but it should have really been one. The traffic circle were I had to turn was just beyond it, but the bridge had other plans. A curb on either side further narrowed the bridge, and this basically raised hard cement edge was blocked on the side I was coming from by a bit of shrubs. I thought I moved far enough to the right (they drive on the left here) to miss it, but apparently I was wrong. I hit the curb, it spun my car out of control, sending me hurtling to the otherside of the bridge. Terrified I would go off the bridge and fall into the rapids far below, I cranked the wheel as hard as I could the other way, but I still hit the curb on the other side. My wheels had been turned so they hit the curb sidesways and I broke off my wheel as my car skidded to a stop on the other side of the bridge on the shoulder. Nobody else was involved in the accident, and I was unhurt, but the car lost its front right wheel, seeming to lose a tirerod. A nearby horse rancher saw the entire accident and helped me call a tow truck.
The tow truck took 3 hours to arrive (it got lost) I was left in a high jacking zone with no one else but a family of baboons to keep me company. That said, a few people including the rancher, another tow truck driver (whom Budget Car Rental forbade me to use despite the fact she could have gotten me out of there two hours earlier), and plumber and his wife who worked in insurance who stayed with me at the end until the two truck finally arrived. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to all of these folks, although I’m still fighting with Budget Car Rental to see the actual cost of the damage and what is fair for me to pay. Don’t rent with Budget, as it stands they’re charging me nearly $2000 despite having insurance through them.
KRUGER NATIONAL PARK
For those who don’t know, Kruger is massive and famous wilderness area in South Africa larger than countries like Wales or Israel, and famous for its big 5 sightings (lion, leopard, rhino, buffalo, and elephant). While I had initially planned to rent a car and drive through Kruger like most people do, the car accident squashed that idea. So I caught a ride with Henrik and Kristina, whose vehicle was perfect for safaris anyway, and we got to stop off at the Blyde River Canyon on route.
The Blyde River Canyon was a majestic peace of landscape, although bit unnerving for people scared of heights (such as me). Henrik and Kristina were far more bold, perhaps too bold (Kristina disappeared for a little while), but we had a good camp and I even saw a family of baboons up close (I hadn’t seen baboons up until this point, so I was quite excited).
Now before we left I had tried to find my way onto a tour since I didn’t have a car, and I ended up getting on of the SANPark wilderness trails, Kruger’s highly coveted 3 day wilderness hikes that need to be booked a year in advance in most cases. I booked mine two days before I left, but I got lucky on a cancellation and ended up going on one of the more popular routes Olifants. The only problem was it started from the Letaba rest camp which was in the north central region of the park, meaning it was a bit further from the more popular southern section. While they was apparently less animals up here, I didn’t find them to be in that much shortage and most of the sightings we made ourselves (ie we were the first people on the scene, whereas down south you’d likely come upon an entire caravan of cars at so much as an impala). And boy did we make sightings. We saw our first elephant within 5 minutes of arrival, and that would set the tone (we actually ended up seeing more elephants than anything else, including impalas for the rest of the day). We saw literally tonnes of elephants, including a massive herd at one point going to the watering holes.
But we also saw giraffes, buffalos (an entire herd), hornbills, zebras, wildebeest, dassie, and more (the big missing items being hippos, leopards, wild dogs, cheetahs, and rhinos). That night we stayed at Mopane rest camp at the edge of northern Kruger and I tried to make a Canadian-style fire to cook our dinner while Henrik desperately tried to find a means to watch the Championship League final (he ended up listening to it on Swedish radio through this cellphone).
The next day we saw even more elephants gathered beautifully around watering holes in the distance like moving behemoths and we found a bridge you walk outside your car on where we observed baby crocs and monitor lizards. The rule is most parts of Kruger that you’re driving through, you’re not supposed to get out of your car. If you drive slowly and carefully, like you’re supposed to, you can surprisingly close to the animals, but apparently as soon as you open the door they bolt. Its not they can’t tell there are humans in the car, but as long the humans stay in the car, the animals don’t seem to see them as much of a threat (much the same way lions and impalas can hang out together so long as the impalas know the lions aren’t hunting at the moment).
We cooled off after a hot day in the pool at the Letaba rest camp before Henrik and Kristina bid me a fond farewell and dropped me off with my tour group.
The tour took us out to a very remote rest camp, deep in Kruger near the border with Mozambique where we lived without electricity in little huts by the river, so close you could hear the hippos wallowing and talking to each other (and we definitely saw plenty of them, mostly in the water, but we also saw a few bolt to the river when we came around a bend).
While we had central hub to drop off bags—thank God—we spent most of the time hiking the mornings in the bush near the camp and the late afternoons by the river in croc and hippo territory (two of the most dangerous animals in Africa, although I still have all my limbs). The area we hiked during the day was beautiful and certainly had plenty of wildlife tracks which our guides helped us understand, but sightings of actual animals were few and far between. The land was quite dry and a recent rash of poaching in the area, especially towards Rhinos which apparently are worth more than gold in Vietnam these days thanks to some crazy guru who claimed that they could cure cancer. That said, I personally think the woman on our group who didn’t understand the whole “be quiet and use your inside voice” mantra didn’t help matters, as she went on and on about birding at full volume and promptly scared even the lions away (at one point we were surrounded by lions, and we heard them, but didn’t see them and they took off). We did see a leopard on the drive back to Letaba, but she other and made such a commotion, including one man asking his wife to hold his hand (despite the fact that we were protected by armed rangers in a massive steel vehicle), that the thing quickly bolted. Same with a jackal that was in mid-poo when we came upon it. Granted most of the group were seniors with thick Swiss German, German, and Cape Town Afrikaans accents (some didn’t understand English that well) and most of them were impressive troopers and managed all the hiking, about 20 km a day, without so much as a complaint. We did manage to catch up with some birds and trees, and a leopard turtle was too slow to get away, and just being in a natural area in Africa so far from civilization was a rewarding experience in itself.
I did have a problem with my end game, as while I did get back to Letaba rest camp, unlike the lady on the phone advised me, there was no means of transferring out of the camp to another camp back to civilization. Thankfully, my recent guide, Steve, took pity on me, and offered me to crash at his place and drive me the next morning to the nearest town Phalaborwa, where I could catch a bus back to Johannesburg.
As such I ended up having a bit of a take your kids to work day with Steve as I helped him collect wood for the next camp out and deliver KFC from Phalaborwa to his colleagues. Steve introduced me to a fair bit of the Letaba staff who seemed like quite the close nit crew, and we ended up having a braai that night (I bought some meat and booze as a thank you) at Steve’s place with two of his ranger friends, Rianna and Travis. We were all about the same age, although Steve clearly knew his stuff and was something of a mentor to the other two.
Rianna at the time was keeping wild Genets as pets in her place. Genets are these wild African mammals, something a small weasel or ferrit, that are distant cousins of the big cats; and they are striped black, grey, and white something like racoons. While they are predators, they’re far too small and cute to be much of a threat to humans. Rianna had apparently rescued them from the wild as cubs and was having trouble letting go, though the scratch marks on her hands made it clear it was time for them to be released. (Since she had two separate species she had to keep them in the two separate rooms, kitchen and bedroom, of her small apartment).
Shy creatures, they spooked pretty quickly once I entered the room and hit behind curtains and ovens. That said, it wasn’t that difficult to coax them out, just use the same method as any dog or cat and simply let them sniff your hand and then shake a toy like an animal to get them to play with it (but be careful, as they will pounce on your hand). At one point, one got comfortable enough to sit on my head and but when it apparently started “marking its territory” in my hair, I was decidedly less so. Still though, wonderful little things.
The next day on the drive back to my early bus, Steve and I encountered perhaps the best sighting of the whole trip to cap it off. A leopard sitting on the road, was stalking a herd of Impala, and we got to see its entire hunting strategy, as it lurked through the bushes ever closer to the Impala. Ultimately the Impala got increasingly nervous until they spotted the leopard and began giving this strange shrill hiss/bleat, basically to tell the leopard “we see you! We see you! Nanner-nanner.” The leopard looked back at us glaringly, as if we had somehow screwed up her hunt, but Steve argued with her and told her she had no one but herself to blame. She trudged off grumpily in the bush, presumably to angle around try the hunt again. All in all, it was a very rare sighting, the kind that Steve said most South Africans wouldn’t believe me if I told them. It was great way to top off a great trip to one of the best wilderness areas in the world.