Sleeping among the wild ones

Hluhluwe Mfolozi, South Africa. Late July, 2006.

Joe and I flew up to Durban early friday morning. From the airport, we were driven north for about 2.5 hours, by Mandla and Donovan. Upon arrival at the park we hung out several hours waiting for Joe's friends to arrive (they got lost while driving out of Joburg...). We ate ostrich schwarmas and then hung out in the artisanal shop, where the shade was welcome. There, something weird happened to Joe. He found the hat that would make of him an evil guru. Eventually the friends arrived, Joe removed his hat and we all hopped in the cars and headed off to our trailhead. 

 

Mandla turned out to be our guide and savior for the next few days. Our defendor against all the wild animals. We were part of the animals, tracking, smelling, following trails and running from angry rhinos. Friday afternoon we were provided with backpacks, sleeping bags and food. Then we set out on foot into the savanna... Here we just arrived at our first campsite and Mandla is telling us about the buffalo who almost killed him 2 weeks ago.    

To keep hungry cats and curious baboons

away we were supposed to keep the fire going all night long. Our guards slept well during that time, because, as they had explained, they had to be well well rested to protect us during the day. We spent about an hour trying to decide in what order the 7 of us would take shifts and eventually pulled straws. I got an early (cold) morning shift. After hearing lion roars all night, the morning was filled with weird bird sounds. A hyena came out to drink and wander around the riverbed. Joe was there too. His shift was before mine (3:40 to 5am). That day I had a hard time staying awake. First night in the bush is always hard... Later in the morning we saw a lion, far away on the other side of the riverbed. it was walking, checking out the area, looking for potential prey.

Here's a rhino spot - one of many that we saw... this park is full of them. Mandla taught us to tell the black rhino poops from white... they have about inch-long sticks that have been cut at a 45-degree angle. crazy. also, the white rhinos aren't white. it's those crazy danes who were saying wide (lipped) rhinos and the brits understood white. 

This is a tomboti tree (spelling?). the leaves have a white sap coming out - it's a little poisonous and full of an essence that smells strong. we used dead branches of this tree for firewood, but not while cooking as the smell can get into the food and make you go liquid... :) to get firewood we started collecting branches right and left while hiking, so that we wouldn't take all the wood from the immediate vicinity of the campsite. 

Far out, in the distance (i don't have a big zoom) you can see buffalo. generally females and their calves hang out together and are quite peaceful, moving away when you approach. Old bulls on the other hand go around alone, and in their grumpiness will charge if you get too close. At one point the guards made the hand movement meaning: run that way! and, although we hadn't seen anything, we ran. there was a buffalo chilling under a tree. he didn't move, maybe because the wind wasn't in the right direction for him to smell us.

This is a white rhino (i think). black rhinos tend to hold their head higher, and eat branches while white ones go for the grass. Mfolozi is rhino paradise. there are lots of them. On that note, in order to raise money, the park people capture a bunch of animals each year to sell to other parks or zoos. Hectic. There are aardvarks here - antbears. we didn't see than because they know how to hide. At night, on the other hand, they use their powerful sense of smell to find ant nests, then they dig a huge hole with their powerful forelimbs and stuff their snout down there sucking up ants. Crazy. Those holes make great hiding spots for warthogs. 

This trunk was polished by rhinos rubbing their sides to it. During the rainy season the rhinos rub themselves in mud, let it dry and then scrape it off against tree trunks. It helps them remove ticks and other parasites.

Lions were here, rhinos too...

The rhinos are all over. They wander around, with not much to worry about. Water, grass, water, grass. From afar we saw a bunch of big birds circling, and thought there must be a kill there. So we approached. Over a hill we (some of us at least, not i) saw a lion hiding in the grass. We lay low and peaked again but it was gone. From then Mandla started following the trails, going here and there, to find the fresh meat. It was exciting, but we found nothing in the end. We think the lion food was in the very tall reeds by the river, and going in there might well be suicide if a bunch of lions were having lunch. Wow, an elephant. actually there weren't any where we were hiking, but when we finally got back to the cars on Monday, we drove around a bit and eventually Mandla picked up indications that 2 males had recently been there (2 brothers, i don't know how he figured that out). Anyway, we drove a bit and there was one of them, eating away on the side of the road. By car you can see just about as much as you would hiking. But hiking is so much better. And sleeping out, under the stars. Wondering who those footsteps belong to... and the heavy breathing... and what just bit you...