Game Spotting for New Year's

Enjoy New Year's! Peace in 2007!

We hit the road this week and were so excited to see some of South Africa, touring our province KwaZuluNatal AKA Zululand. After a week of fabulous game parks, pristine beaches, great resorts, Indiana Jones scenery, and family fun we are convinced that the Peace Corps is one of life’s greatest adventure and a whole lot of fun. We started our journey by taking a Greyhound bus ride to Richard’s Bay, 2 hours north of Durban and renting a car. Although we then had to backtrack to pick up our son in Joburg, it was nearly impossible to rent a car closer to home and the connections to JoBurg would ave put us in a dangerous place at 10pm at night. (many decisions in South Africa are made on the basis of safety) Our initial thought was to rent a four wheel drive vehicle to tackle the rough roads in the game parks, but the costs proved prohibitive and so we ventured forth in a Hyundai Sonata sedan. Richard’s Bay is a new city that was formerly just a bait station for St. Lucia National Seashore and Game Preserve. Today it is an industrial city with monkeys in the nature preserves, subdivisions without walls or electrified fences and a shopping mall at the heart of the city. Very first world!! The hotel garden looked just like Hawaii with thatched roofs, hibiscus, palms, pool, and ferns.
Our first stop after JoBurg was four nights at a beach house on Zinkwazi Beach for family Christmas and beach R and R. Turkey and ham dinner with dressing and cranberry sauce plus monkeys, hawks, and weaverbirds in the backyard for entertainment. Durban is famous for mouthwatering curries where mild means hot hot hot so we did not hesitate to try any curry offered. Our older son arrived on Christmas day to sunny tropical weather; we were glad we didn’t have to apologize for the thunderstorms that have been constant the last two months.
On to Zululand game resorts hoping that they would not disappoint. In fact, we toured four game preserves in four days and found three of the Big Five (elephants, rhinos, cape buffalo) plus numerous giraffes, zebras, impalas, tesserbes, nyala, wart hog, bush pig, wildebeest at close range. The graceful impalas joyfully chased each other with an elegance found in pretty pubescent ballet dancers and contrasted with the awkward gawky wildebeest that hump along rather than prance. Baby giraffes were spotted munching on thornbark trees supervised by their vigilant mothers. A quick visit to Umfolozi Park on the way to Durban airport yielded a rhino within 20 feet of the road causing one to quickly roll up the windows and stare in amazement at this prehistoric creature. Game spotting in the preserves is great sport and a good excuse to enjoy the amazing scenery consisting of jagged mountains covered with bush, aloes, thornbark trees and colored flowers. All eight eyes survey the terrain as an excited voice calls “Over there, Zebras! Hey to your right impalas caucassing.” The entrance to our hotel was canopied with four tall trees containing thousands of nests built by weaverbirds singing a chorus as guests arrive. The nests, which hang like Christmas ornaments, is constructed by the male and then inspected by the female for suitability. Nests that do not meet the female’s standards are lopped to the ground and the male rejected.
Touring the game parks in a small sedan is not without its challenges as the dirt roads are very rough and the recent rains required careful fording methods over the numerous creeks and Arizona bridges. Brendon’s methods (which proved successful) were to take the fords very slowly and smoothly, methodically driving without a wince or hesitation. The hyandai groaned and creaked from the low clearance and brush under the carriage but got us through the parks. Next time maybe we should rent a car with higher clearance or a ride on the tall canopied jeeps from the lodges in the area.
South Africa is a fantastic country for touring with great tourist facilities and hundreds of game preserves with accommodations for every pocket book ranging from cabins with pit facilities to deluxe hotels to air-conditioned tents with hard wood floors and bathtubs in the bush. It is difficult to understand how this beautiful country has been so hard hit with AIDS; the disease seems far away on this dream vacation. It is a little jarring to be staying in a hotel room that is larger than our flat at the hospital but after 11 days of first world travel we are looking forward to getting back to the task we came to do; work is also very pleasurable. At times I wondered what the Peace Corps purpose was for the five month lock down that prohibited travel outside our town. Today I understand the advantage of integrating into a small place and building from that experience. South Africa looks like a treasure chest waiting to be opened. Even so the rest of Africa. Come and join the fun!