Ngolwesibili 1 September
Spring starts today, but the plants and animals seem to ignore this arbitrary marker in time and carry on about their business just as they did yesterday.
Today we are at Skelm Gate, replacing fences next to the old Sodwana Bay Road. The sun seems to mock me for forgetting my hat today, beating down harder than the days before.
And then respite. Shade, sandwiches and water under the shade of a bush. Today we have a visitor again, this time a warthog. He gets a bit too close for comfort for Nkosinathi, who jumps up and chases him away, amidst a good deal of laughter. We reassure Nkosi that he is of no harm, but he remains far from convinced. The warthog’s nose is drooling with the smells of my apple and he moves in close again. Nkosi allows him, as my camera snaps away. I’m quite enjoying this intimate visit.
Wuh! He slams straight into my leg, knocking me over. The camera flies past my airborne apple and lands in the leaf litter. The adrenalin pumping through my veins makes it impossible to tell the extent of the damage, if any, to my body. Finding no blood I’m relieved to see that his razor sharp tusks seem to have left me alone. A very inexpensive lesson in not becoming complacent around wild animals.
The rest of the working day is uneventful, and soon we are riding the gravel corrugations down to Phinda’s southern gate, Sondela Gate. “It’s 64km on the N2 and then right” is what my uncle told me last night. To get to Pongola South Game Reserve.
We get directions to Nkwazi Camp in Zulu at the gate and the gravel road disappears over the hill. We follow it. Over the hill and the Lebombo Mountains rise up, blue, out of the Jozini Dam. Increasingly paler shades of blue recede into the distance until they disappear from sight, on their northward march all the way up into Ethiopia.
We make short work of an ice-cold beer at the lodge and then head off with uncle Simon for a game drive, by boat. Engines whine through the weeds by the shore, and warthog and impala look on, indifferent. Barely five minutes away from the jetty and Kristal gets her first view of hippo in the wild. A hippo blows bubbles in the water and then snatches a breath of air. Ten more float around next to him. We move in close but back off with some haste when a couple of hippo disappear underwater.
Two white rhino feast on the lush riverbank grass, just 30m away from us. And then another 5 rhino just off to the right. And two more on the far bank. We are not sure whether the party has just finished or is about to get going. We buzz back to the lodge as the flames on the hillside to the West leap up to touch the sun before it disappears into the evening. With such a wind as this, unlikely that this is a controlled burn.
Cold Amarula liqueur and crushed ice slide easily down our throats and we settle into fishing stories, family reminiscences and a delicious inyamazane (venison) dinner. I feel for whoever must be out fighting the fire in the distance tonight.
Ngolwesitathu 2 September
Blue overalls instead of the standard green habitat team uniform is what Umuzi is wearing. He has joined the team today, and hails from the nearby community of KwaJobe bordering Phinda. As we work on the fence close to Skelm Gate, again today, an impassioned Zulu preacher pipes up with keyboard, background music. It is Umuzi’s cell phone ring tone. This sparks a debate, in Zulu, on Christianity and its merits. I catch very little, but can see that Jimson, with two wives, remains skeptical.
We lunch in the thick grass under a bush. With the highest density of ticks in Africa and one of the worst strains of tick-bite fever here at Phinda I check my legs again and again. Carefully. “Take anti-biotics and risk getting it again, or last out the 8 days or so and build immunity.” Ross laid out the options when we arrived. Neither sounds like any fun at all.
A sms vibrates in my pocket. An offer to join Ross on game drive. Working just 10 minutes from home means that Kristal is able to steal me away just before the work day is done.
We set out with the 6 American guests, all staying at the nearby Zulu Nyala Game Reserve, and within minutes Latin names for orchids, trees, bushes, anything, are flying through the air, together with an account of the pre-history of the Maputaland region. Millions of years ago the sea lapped on the foothills of the Lebombo Mountains and today we drive on dunes that were once 50m below the sea.
We head straight for Imagine Dam, for the lionesses were spotted there this morning. It is no surprise to find them resting. Below the dam wall, in the heat, with a freshly killed nyala that will keep them busy later on. The lioness to our left, just metres away, is the biggest I’ve ever seen. By a long way. And her sister is probably the most beautiful.
We follow them up over the dam wall, to see them sipping the dam water. Wooly-necked Storks and Egyptian Geese peer at us across the reflection of the sky.
A ranger calls in an elephant sighting over the radio, a few minutes north, close to Pipeline Pan. We leave these girls alone and head off to find the long noses.
Woah! Dan, the tracker, shoots up his hand from the seat on the bonnet. He has seen them. The grey giants file past us, clearly heading for the dam two hundred or so metres away through the thick bush. A tiny baby, just 3 months old, bounces along between the adults, his head bobbing up and down with eager anticipation. Thulani, another ranger, pulls up and a young bull walks between the vehicles. If he stretched out his trunk he could scratch Ross’s ear, or flip the vehicle. He sniffs at our bumper nonchalantly and then strides on past, the closest elephant encounter you can have and still survive I reckon.
We move ahead of the ellies and beat them to the waterhole. Soon the bull appears through the bush. He breaks into a run. The sun has been fierce today and he is hot and thirsty. Mud splashes from his trunk onto his belly, and then his side. Jogging around past us, he splashes his way into the deeper water and rolls over, emerging several shades darker and way cooler. The rest of the herd arrives, ten in total. Three little grebes chase each other around while the ellies cool down. Baby ellie capsizes with excitement and pedals desperately to right himself. A responsible adult moves in to offer a helping leg but he manages on his own. One of the best elephant sightings ever, and the perfect end to another magical day in Phinda.
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