Oct 5, 6 and 7 – Going on Safari



Zululand



Our adventure started with a 2 hour flight from Cape Town to Durban followed by a 2.5 hour bus ride to Kwazulu Natal.  Our destination was Zululand Tree Lodge in the Ubizane Wildlife Reserve.  Zululand is similar to our Indian Reservations in that it is governed by the Zulu tribe according to trial laws and tradition and the property is owned by the Zulu tribe and not by the National or local governments.  The area, at least at this time of year, is lush and green with lots of Sugar Cane and gum tree fields.  The blue gum trees are used for paper production. 



Typical Zulu Home Complex

We passed small villages, but most of the housing was small Zulu style residences with several building and always a circular hut that is reserved to allow for the ancestral souls to return to their homes.  A Zulu family's wealth is measured in Cattle.  One of the jobs of the boys and young men is to watch over the family's heard as they freely grazed in the area.  Cattle are still used as the means to purchase a bride with a minimum price of 7 cows, and the law is that a man can have as many wives as he can afford.



Our TreeHouse



We arrived at the Zululand Tree Lodge and were greeted with fresh fruit drinks in the open air dining room, checked in and were shown to our tree house.  The tree house was among the large fever trees and is built on stilts about 8 feet off the ground.  These tree houses were much grander than we expected with big windows over-looking the reserve, king sized bed with mosquito netting all around and windows that opened enabling us to hear the birds and small animals during the night.

After a short stop to get unpacked, we took the first of 3 trips into the reserve to see what wildlife we could see.  This first trip was an evening drive timed to view the animals foraging in the cool of the evening.  We were in the smaller of the game reserves for this first outing and we saw impala, zebra, white rhino and giraffe in this outing as we drove on the back roads of the small, private reserve.

We returned to the lodge for dinner.  Cream vegetables, soup, salad, pumpkin, rice, sweet and sour pork, roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and cream cake and pudding with vanilla sauce for dessert.  All done in Zulu style.  The evening ended with the lodge staff singing happy birthday to one of our fellow travelers and doing a traditional Zulu dance.

Up early the next day our safari to the larger game reserves of Hluhluwe-Imfolozi.  This reserve covers 11,0000 hectors and is a 30 minute drive from our lodge.  As we entered the park the first animal we spotted was a warthog.  These animals being fed at the entrance of the park were more like the pot belly pigs than the ferocious animals that I think of.   Although the ranger told us that they could be very mean and dangerous if cornered - especially the males.  We continued into the park to see more impala, nyala, kudu, waterbuck, gnu/wildebeest, rhino with calves, zebra, giraffe, families of baboons and Cape buffalo.  At the end of the day we finally spotted a heard of elephant and a couple of single bull elephants.  One would think, given the size of an elephant especially the size of a heard of elephant that there would be no problem in easily seeing these creatures – NOT.  They certainly look big in the zoo, but in the bush that is gray about the same color as the elephant and once they move into the bush 10 feet off the road they are almost impossible to see. 

Bull Elephant Pulling Down Tree for Dinner

The highlight of the elephant sightings was a lone bull elephant standing along a clearing on the side of the read about 15 feet from where we passed.  We stopped up the road from him to watch as he hid behind a tree and peeked around it to see what we were doing.  Seeing a  trying to hide behind a tree and peeking around it with one eye to see spy on us was an interesting sight, but the show was only just beginning.  As soon as this bull decided we were not going to bother him, he decided to start dinner by wrapping his trunk about this tree that was 20 feet high and pulling it towards him.  Once he got the root of the tree loose, he reversed his direction and started pushing the tree in the opposite direction.  With a load crack the tree trunk gave way and the tree fell in the road in the direction of our Landrover.  Our ranger quickly started up the car and move forward to the tree miss us.  The bull elephant was very pleased with himself as he casually walked around and started munching on the tree leaves saving the soft roots for dessert.  You could almost see him laughing to himself thinking that he give us tourists a little scare by pushing the tree over in the direction of our car.

Julie and Ranger at Kwzulu Reserve

The Sufari Begins