I Want to See a Hippopotomus

Woke up to a heavy rain this morning but we were not deterred from our plan of going to Lake Saint Lucia and taking a boat excursion to see Hippopotamus.  It was a 90 minute drive from our lodge to Lake Saint Lucia and we gave ourselves plenty of time due to the heavy rain.  We would not actually get to see the lake as we will be cruising up part of the 22km (14 mile) estuary that links Lake Saint Lucia to the Indian Ocean.  The estuary and the lake have a high salt content which makes it difficult for the over 800 hippos as they can not drink salt water.  They survive by heading into one of several creeks and rivers that also flow into the estuary.  The good news for the Hippos is that the estuary is only 90cm (35 inches) deep which allows them to easily walk on the bottom and still be able to breath the air.  We arrived an hour before our boat cruise so we went to check out the Indian Ocean.  It was quite spectacular even in the overcast and stormy weather.  After a short stroll we headed to the pier to board our boat for the two hour excursion.  The estuary and lake are home to over 800 Hippos and 2,000 Nile Crocodiles, however we only had two sightings of the elusive Crocs but multiple sightings of the very impressive, but foul smelling Hippopotamuses.  The Hippos also did not seem to mind that there personal space was being invaded by a group of gawking, camera clicking humans as the boat maneuvered itself within a few feet of several Hippo pods.  The rain continued unabated during our cruise and well past our return back to the lodge.  We are hoping for better weather tomorrow as we will head out for our last couple of Safari drives before we have to leave this wondrous place.    

Rita balancing herself against the heavy wind and rain on a sandy beach in Saint Lucia



A pod of hippos that would include one adult male, several adult females and their offspring

One of the hippo youngsters having a yawn



The dominant male hippo surrounded by his haram and offspring. When you get this close to a pod the smell is overpowering and not in a good way

 

The dominant male telling the kids that size does matter



A large Kingfisher sitting on a Mangrove tree branch at the edge of the estuary looking for a fish dinner

 

 



 

Day 2 An Afternoon with the Pride of Phinda

We are able to get quite close to the Pride as they relax after a recent kill

Female Lion patiently waits while her 3 male cubs enjoy a liquid lunch

After lunch its time to play

Male cub playing with a live Tortoise.  The Tortoise survived the ordeal

Day 2 - Morning Safari Continueed

Adult Female White Rhino 

Young Male Kudu

African Yellow Billed Stork on the edge of a watering hole

Day 2 - An Afternoon with the King of Beasts

 

At 15:00 a group 11 of us were loaded into a van for the 20 minute drive to Phinda where we were put into 2 groups and headed out to see if we could find Lions.  As we headed out, the rain had stopped but it was still cool.  Phinda is over 10 times larger than Zulu Nyala with over 56,000 acres encompassing seven distinct habitats, including sand forests, mountains, wetlands and river valleys.  The diversity of landscapes, the scale of the terrain and the variety of animals, including the Big 5 makes Phinda one of the very best wildlife preserves in the world.  However, our ranger and tracker knew we were there to see lions and they knew where to go.  Sure enough after about 35 minutes of driving through rugged terrain a male Lion was spotted stalking a couple of Giraffes.  I could not believe how close they took us to the Lion.  Within a few feet!!!  And they slowly followed the Lion as it walked through the grasslands for 20 minutes maneuvering the vehicle to give us better photo ops.  The Lion did not seem to mind our presence.  It never moved faster than a slow walk and a couple of times even sat down and rested.  The ranger received a call on his radio that a pride of lions had been spotted a few kilometers from our location so off we went.  What an unbelievable and surreal experience this was.  The pride consisted of an adult female mother, 4 of her juveniles (3 female and 1 male) and 3 male cubs still breastfeeding.  The lions were sleeping and relaxing after a recent kill with the three cubs either breastfeeding or playing.  We were with them for a little over 30 minutes before heading back to the lodge.  What a wonderful way to end our day.  Rita and I will never forget this amazing experience.

 

 

Tracker rides shotgun looking for Lions while the Ranger drives on dirt track roads.  Not sure how he manages to hang on

Spotted this 5 year old male Lion who was tracking a couple of Giraffes until we came along.    

Obviously was not too concerned about us invading his personal space as he laid down to have a rest



This is why they call him the King of Beasts.  Beautiful.

 

Day 2 - Morning Safari

Mark our Ranger had set up a 06:00 start for our second Safari but we woke up to rain and got a call saying our departure would be delayed until 08:00 due to the wet weather.   By 08:00 it was a mere drizzle but the temperature was cool and so we were heavily layered including rain ponchos.  The animals were not as co-operative as yesterday but we did experience a few sightings before heading back to the Lodge for lunch.  After lunch we were heading for Phinda (pronounced Pinda) a neighboring Safari Lodge that had Lions, which Zulu Nyala does not have.



Rita in her stylish Poncho Haute Couture  

Young Impala Buck

Mother White Rhino with her Juvenile Male   

Technical Difficulties

Please stand by as we are having technical difficulties.   The reason we love where we are in South Africa is its remoteness from major population centers.  The downside is that the Internet does not always work or if it does, cannot do all that we ask of it.  I have been trying for several days now to download images to the Blog but cannot get this done for some reason.  While we wait for this to improve, here is a bit of history from this amazing region where Rita and I are staying.

Zululand

Zulu Nyala Safari Lodge is located in KwaZulu-Natal Province in the Eastern part of South Africa.  However, the largest part of the Province, including the Big 5 animal reserves where we are staying, is taken up with what is called Zululand.  The people are called amiZulu meaning “People of Heaven” and they represent the largest ethnic group within South Africa today.  Many call Zululand the real Africa as it is very rural with lots of wilderness, small farms and no large population centres.  Today tourists come here mainly for the wildlife viewing or adventure activities such as sport fishing, surfing, trekking, bungee jumping, etc. The West has been fascinated with the proud amaZulu ever since the first British settlers arrived here in 1824 and were granted permission by King Shaka to trade with his people.   Shaka was born in 1787, the illegitimate son of a Zulu Chiefs wife and was banished, along with his mother, from the tribe.  However, by 1819 he had conquered all 13 Zulu tribes and forged them into the largest single nation ever seen in southeastern Africa.  In 1828 Shaka was murdered by two half-brothers who then fought each other for the throne. Dingaan survived and became King.  He distrusted the “White Wizards” who were coming into his territory more frequently and in 1838 ordered the massacre of the Boer Trekkers who had arrived from Cape Town to look for new farmland.  Retaliation for the Boers came 10 months later at the Battle of Blood River where such a massive loss of lives created a split of the Zulu nation that lasted a generation.  In 1873, the Zulu nation was reunited again under King Cetshwayo.  But the British, who had established very profitable goldfields in his territory, wanted to place him under the supervision of the English Governor.  Cetshwayo refused and the British declared war against the Zulu’s on January 22, 1879.  The Battle of Islandwana was England’s most crushing defeat in the region.  Nine months later 5,000 British redcoats advanced on the King’s Kraal (his ruling encampment), raised it to the ground, captured the King and exiled him to England.  In 1883, Cetshwayo was reinstated as a puppet King with no real powers and the Zulu empire was finally broken.  After South Africa became a democratic country, the amiZulu people reinstated the monarchy within Zululand.  Today they freely celebrate their traditions and rituals including the annual Zulu Kings Reed Dance where some 15,000 young amiZulu women congregate to dance for their King in the hopes of being chosen as one of his wives.   

 

Hopefully I will be back with my trip updates and images in the very near future.  Thanks for your patience.  Oh, and yes we are having an incredible time over here.                    

First Safari at Zulu Nyala

 What an amazing day.  It all started at 08:00 when we met our Ranger, Mark and headed out for our first Safari in one of the specially designed 9 passenger safari Land Rovers that are used to shuttle tourists around the reserves.  Zulu Nyala is one of Zululand's  smallest reserves at just over 5,000 acres but we were assured there would be a lot of animals to see.  And we were not disappointed.  Each Safari lasts 2 - 3 hours and happen twice a day when the animals are most active. The morning Safari's are between 06:00 - 10:00 and the afternoon Safari's are between 15:00 - 18:00.   It is amazing how close you get to the animals.  Mark the Ranger told us that as long as we stay sitting in the vehicles the animals are not bothered as they know they are not in danger.

   

Male and Female adult Giraffes, with a juvenile in the background.  The male has darker spots

Two adult females and one young female African Elephants applying dirt to their bodies to protect them from the flies

Cheetah with a GPS collar to monitor her movements

White Rhino mother and daughter.  Two of their Rhino's were killed by poachers for their horns so far this year

Male Nkudo buck starting it's impressive array of horns that will attract a mating female

Wildebeest

Female Elephant moving rapidly towards our vehicle with its ears flared.  We moved away quickly

Standing next to our Safari Land Rover

From Here to There

Just before heading to the Vancouver Airport I called my 87 year old Mom to say goodbye.  She did not seem right and after some prodding told me she had an accident with her scooter and had been taken to the hospital.  She had gotten the scooter stuck and tried to get it to move and slipped and fell hitting her head on the sidewalk.  An ambulance was called and she was taken to hospital for observation.  After about 4 hours of tests she was allowed to go home.  She felt sore and had a bit of a headache but was otherwise fine.  I asked her how her scooter was and she did not know as it was left at the scene of her accident.  My sister, Jenny lives about 5 minutes away from my mother but was working at the time.  As we were waiting to board our flight to London, Jenny called and let me know she would go over and check on Mom in the morning and try to track down the scooter.  This was not the way you want to leave on an extended vacation.  When we arrived in London I checked my email and Jenny had found the scooter.  My Mom had fallen in front of a small grocery store and a clerk had called 911and when the ambulance took Mom to the hospital the clerk took the scooter into the store for safe keeping.  Good to know there are still very nice people out there.

Rita and I are staying with my cousin Lis in London and we had a lovely reunion with her family, who we are very close with.  The main reason for the family get together was to celebrate our 16th anniversary of meeting each other on a plane departing from London.  After making a toast to Rita and I we were all sipping champagne when my cousins daughter, Holly made a very an even bigger announcement.  Holly and her husband Rob are going to become parents.  Rita and I felt really blessed to be part of the baby announcement as we attended their lovely wedding September 2012.  What a roller-coaster 48 hours we experienced but in the end it was all good news.

Lis drove us to Heathrow on Sunday night for our flight to Johannesburg.  The bad news is that it is a 10.5 hour flight.  The good news is that it departed at 9:30pm so we could get some sleep on the plane.  We arrived at 10:00am and had a 3 hour wait for our flight to Richards Bay.  After a hearty breakfast, we boarded the 1.5 hour flight to Richards Bay, picked up our rental car and drove another 1.5 hours to Zulu Nyala.  Other than getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road and dealing with very strange passing techniques (on a 2 lane highway, drivers who are slow move over onto the shoulder to allow the faster cars to pass them) the trip was uneventful and we arrived happily at our Safari Lodge at 5:00pm.  Checked in, had a very much needed shower and went for a walk about on the property before heading to the bar for our first of many gin and tonics.  The temperature is a lovely 26c with a breeze.  Tomorrow morning we meet our Ranger, Mark and head out on our first Safari.  Can't wait.

Max (the lab puppy), Rob, Holly, Rita, Lis, Geoff, Charlotte, Matt, Pip and Tilly (the two Yorkies)

Rita Celebrating after 16 hours of traveling from London to finally get into our room at Zulu Nyala

Zulu Nyala looking across its crocodile pond

From an Empty Bowl to a South African Safari

 

Our good friend Wendy Hardy welcoming attendees to Project Empty Bowls Charity Auction

An African Safari was always on our bucket list of activities we wanted to experience but somewhere else always seemed to take precedent when it came time to book our trips.  Too far, too expensive, too much of an unknown.  However, that all changed the night we attended A Loving Spoonful's Project Empty Bowl.

A Loving Spoonful provides free, nutritious meals to men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS in Greater Vancouver.  Every year since 1994, volunteers hand deliver about 1,200 meals to over 250 people who are too ill to shop, plan or prepare their own food. 

One of its major fundraising events is Project Empty Bowl, an annual event in Vancouver since 1997.  The premise is simple, a small group of potters create and donate ceramic bowls for the event.  Invited guests donate a small amount of money, share a simple meal and keep the bowls as a permanent reminder of why they came together.

There are also silent and live auctions offering a wide variety of donated goods, services, activities and travel with the funds raised going to A Loving Spoonful.  One of the silent auction items was 6 nights at a South African Safari Lodge in Zulu Natal.  We put down an agressive bid and at the end of the evening became the proud owners of a Safari Holiday.  Now we just had to create a proper itinerary around the Safari.  After reading up on South Africa we decided to do the Safari first and  rent a car to drive through the "Garden Route" before spending two weeks exploring the sights around Cape Town.  The last decision was when to go. With South Africa's seasons the reverse of ours November/December was the perfect time to go.  So, we will start in South Africa and then travel to Denmark and join Rita's parents for Christmas and New Years before heading back home. It should be quite the adventure and am looking forward to sharing it with you.