Dung beetles have right-of-way here! Nothing else, not even pedestrians, just dung beetles.
I’m in South Africa and road signs proclaiming this law are everywhere. I first encounter the beetles in a game reserve, busily cleaning up after rhino drop their loads. The male rolls the dung into huge balls to attract females. And once successful, he rolls the ball with all his might while his mate rides on top. Dung beetles are part of the natural recycling system in Africa that keeps the continent clean and fertilizes the soil.
“Are you as excited as I am?” I say when my travelling companions, Jan and Fred, arrive in Durban. We’re all over 60 and beginning our South African adventure with two safaris. We chose two lesser-known game reserves, which are home to the big five: lion, leopard, elephant, rhino, and buffalo, as fascinating contrasts. Both reserves are smaller and cheaper than the famous Kruger National Park, but have excellent accommodation choices, are malaria-free, and allow the use of private vehicles for game drives. Our first safari is an easy 280 km-drive north of Durban at Hluhluwe-Imfolozi, a local favourite. It’s the oldest reserve in South Africa (est. 1895), once the hunting grounds of Zulu kings, and pronounced “sh-shluey,” preferably with a spit! Here white rhino rule.
Our excitement surges when a warthog family with tails aloft greets us at the park gate. We meander along the rust-red dirt roads up hills covered with lush vegetation and through valleys with rushing streams to Hilltop Camp. Zebra and cape buffalo, the most dangerous animal in Africa, ignore our passing but enchant us.
The thatched lodge, at the heart of Hilltop where vervet monkeys play, overlooks a wide, green valley. I push open the door of our comfortable cottage and my first sight is a warning about marauding baboons. “That’s why the windows have thick grills,” Fred says. “Don’t leave the patio doors open – ever!”
By 5 p.m. in mid-January, it’s not cooled down much. Armed with camera gear and binoculars, we scramble into the back of a Land Rover for our first three-hour dusk drive. The canvas roof provides shade, but otherwise it is a high, open vehicle that ensures we see over the tall grass and shrubs. We’re off!
Suddenly we stop, and the ranger points out a couple of nyala (antelope) on a distant slope. Then over the next rise, a black rhino grazes not 15 metres away. We turn another corner and nearly run into a giraffe. It’s hard to not shout with delight but we stay quiet. After that, the game appears thick and fast until the sun sets. As a photographer, I welcome the “golden hour” but later the fading light is challenging. The supreme moment comes after dark when we disturb a lion in the middle of the trail. He hightails it into the bush but stops three metres away, and with the aid of a spotlight, I can count his teeth when he yawns.
For two days, Hluhluwe never stops thrilling – in a pearly dawn, seven white rhino on a hilltop and two cuddling in a wallow, an elegant impala with his harem in a sun-dappled glade, seven giraffe with zebra at sundown, a half-submerged crocodile, and herds of jet-black cape buffalo.
We quickly learn where and how to spot game. Employing our new skills, we use our rental car on a self-drive through the southern section of Hluhluwe before returning to Durban. We never see leopard or elephant here, but the latter are to come.
After a short flight to Port Elizabeth, it’s 60 km to Addo: a small, very African village where I get my laundry done by hand for $7. The next morning dawns hot at Addo Elephant National Park where grey-green scrub covers dry hills – quite a change from Hluhluwe’s lushness. We book an afternoon guided tour, then head for a ridge overlooking the park, seeing little along the way. We stop at a viewpoint where a sign reminds us to “Beware of the lions” and spy an enormous herd of elephant in the valley below. Kicking up a plume of dust, we hurtle down to three waterholes. My long lens is useless – I’m now too close to the elephants. Two hundred strong, the herd surrounds us; some are grey and others covered in the rust-red dust. We marvel at their deep rumbles and grunts. A teenager leans on the car, while a monster bull trumpets a warning.
“I wonder if our insurance will cover a dent,” Jan muses.
“This herd is thriving,” Fred, the biologist, points out, never lowering his binoculars. “Just look at all the babies and juveniles.” He sports red circles around his eyes all day.
A nearly-newborn slithers down into a big mud hole and disappears underwater. Up comes his trunk as a periscope. A female rescues him by shoving him up the slippery bank. Soon I realize that this muddy waterhole is their swimming pool and each family group gets about half an hour playing in it. Some wallow, while others squirt liquid mud over their backs to cool down. All emerge glistening in the noonday sun. On the right is their drinking hole where elephant stand around the edge sucking a gallon of water up their trunks before squirting it into their mouths.
Our cameras nearly explode – it’s steamy in the car with windows open as our shutters fire repeatedly. After two hours, we need a beer and lunch. On the road back, inadvertently we get between a female in heat and a randy bull elephant; we hold our breath knowing that a male in musth can be unpredictably violent. Luckily, the bull is more interested in a mate than us, and after five anxious minutes, he follows her into the bush.
It’s 40 C in the open-air restaurant. “Make it three Heineken, please,” Fred says. “I’m having two!”
“And I’ll try the kudu salad.”
We eat fast – the humidity is brutal – and Jan cancels our afternoon booking. The air-conditioned car is the only way to continue. The afternoon sun has bleached the sky and deepened the shadows as we drive to Addo’s other waterholes looking for different game.
“They’re probably all snoozing,” says Jan. But, no, we find a family of red hartebeest, Egyptian geese, and ibis on the edge of one pool, warthogs browsing at another, and several greater kudu stare at us from the bush.
We are drawn back to the elephants at day’s end. Two juvenile males spar on open ground, while females gently touch trunks in greeting. Mothers hum to their babies to keep them close as they tear strips of bark off prickly brush. I concentrate on photographing their eyelashes and wrinkles, and marvel at the dung beetles manoeuvring their balls between massive grey feet that are constantly moving. Eventually, we drag ourselves away at dusk, and delete No. 2 from our bucket lists.
The memories of Hluhluwe and Addo fill my dreams for months – Africa has captured my heart.
If you go:
- South Africa is price-friendly.
- Best time of year to go to South Africa is April-June – it is the cooler, dry season.
- Bed and Breakfasts and guesthouses are plentiful: try www.bedandbreakfast.com
- Safaris work well for seniors, even those with mobility challenges, as long as you book those reserves with accessible accommodation and use the guided or self-drive game drive options.
- Guided game drives are best at dawn and dusk, so meals have to fit around them. It makes for long days, late dinners, and short nights. A nap is sensible if visitors want to survive; so are insect repellent, sunscreen, snacks and water.
Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve, KwZulu-Natal: www.sa-venues.com/game-reserves/kzn_hluhluwe-umfolozi.htm and www.kznparks.com/accommodation/hluhluwe_kwazulunatal.aspx.
* Choice of accommodations, with or without meals. You have to stay in the park, as there is little available close.
* Activities: guided drives and day walks with an armed ranger; boat tours.
* Self-drives allowed.
Amatikulu Tours: many packages available, some with transport from Durban included.
Our Hilltop package (Hluhluwe) included the park fee, two nights in a two-bedroom cottage, delicious meals in the main lodge, and two game drives, and cost C$410.00 per person. (Additional 3-hour drives – $42.00 each.)
Nearby and worthwhile – St. Lucia Wetlands Park, http://www.stluciasouthafrica.com/isimangaliso-wetland-park/
Car rental: All major companies at Durban airport and some downtown.
Addo Elephant Park, Eastern Cape:
– Park fee – $20/person.
– Official park website: www.sanparks.org/parks/addo/. Choice of accommodations; meals not included.
– Guided game drives (2 hours), C$32.00. Self-drives allowed.
– Activities: horse rides, walks, birdwatching, camping, and hiking.
– Package tours with transport to and from Port Elizabeth available.
Car rental: All major companies at Port Elizabeth airport.
Author Bio:
Julie H. Ferguson is an addicted traveller, a serious photographer, and the author of 17 books, four of which are about Canadian history. She invites you to visit www.beaconlit.com and www.flickr.com/photos/beaconlit.
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