Author: Jacky

Hot and light clouds which are gradually clearing, so I braved the outdoor shower today. Certainly an experience to admire the scenery while showering.

Breakfast special was Eggs Benedict – properly poached (not in the shaped cups I normally use) on English muffin with bacon and a light hollandaise sauce.

Finally, after 6 attempts, got a secure connection, so I’m communicado again.

Relaxing this am round pool before the trip to Scotia Game Reserve. It’s doubtful we’ll see The Big Five (lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant, rhino) but we should be able to ‘tick off’ some of them. I hadn’t appreciated that the important difference between a National Park such as Kruger or Addo and a Game Reserve, is that National Parks only consist of the natural wildlife and there is minimum human intervention, whereas a Game Reserve can buy in whatever animals they can afford and for which they can offer a suitable environment.

John, a retired citrus farmer, drove us along dirt tracks to take a short cut to the Reserve. John is a quietly spoken real gentleman and told us the story of how his father fought in WW1 and as jobs were short in UK, he, as with many other soldiers came out to the colonies to start a new life. He met John’s mother in Cape Town one evening, looked her up and down and decided ‘she was rather gorgeous’, but then he had to leave to go to Port Elizabeth. Six months later, he returned to Cape Town and sought her out and asked her to marry him – whereupon she was so shocked she said ‘yes’! – What a romantic story. John took over his father’s citrus farm which was set up to promote local economy and establish trade with UK and Europe.

Archie had told us that John was as old as Addo Elephant Park – which would make him about 78 and apparently he is a mine of information. He certainly kept us interested during the drive. One the most interesting things was that if an elephant is carrying a male foetus and the environmental conditions are adverse, her body will absorb that fetus (not a miscarriage) because a male elephant needs the best possible start in life as he has to develop to be strong enough to challenge other males in order to ‘win’ a female. Apparently the conditions 2 years ago were so excellent – they’d had a lot of rain, they saw a steep increase in the birth rate this year (remember 22 months gestation), but are anticipating that because it is so dry this year, there will be very few births in 2 year’s time.

We boarded a similar converted Land Rover to yesterday’s, driven by Niekie, a handsome (by consensus of the 3 women in our party!) young Afrikaner with a witty sense of humour. He certainly knew his way around the reserve, taking some hair-raising side turns to try and track down the animals.

Useful tip – should you come across a burrow that could possibly house a warthog (who takes over burrows that the aardvark with their sharp claws have obligingly dug) – stand above and throw something in (that is if you want to disturb a warthog!). Because they back into their burrows after they’ve shepherded their babies in, they come out at 30Km/hr with their tusks flashing from side to side and can slash right down to the bone of the predator.

Termite mounds made with spit and mud are very efficient compost heaps. The termites collect wood and debris and keep adding to the mound to keep it at the right temperature. If it gets too hot, they open ventilation holes on the windward side to cool it down.

The Blue Wildebeest or gnu is a very useful creature in that when ticks feed on their blood, it sterilises the ticks, so that stops the lifecycle of that particular nuisance. However, any domestic cattle need to kept at least 200k away from gnu, because the latter carry a disease which affects the lungs of a cattle for which there is no antidote so the only answer is a tracheotomy.

Rhinos are almost armour-plated with a skin of about 3cm thick and are very well house-trained – they create midden (toilet) areas, unlike elephants who just dump wherever they happen to feel the urge.

We hope to see the white rhino but there are none of the rarer black (more aggressive) rhino here as they are just too expensive to buy at !m SA Rand – about £80,000.

Their eyesight is poor – about 10m – but they have very good hearing and sense of smell. Their gestation is 16months and they live about 40 years.

They, despite their lumbering appearance, can run about 40K/hour, so you wouldn’t be able to outrun them to avoid contact with their horn of compressed hair. But they are not terribly aggressive – humans’ highest rate of death from animals is from the mosquito and then hippos.

There is a wealth of the deer species here – Kudu, Eland, Springbok, Impala. Nieke pointed to one particularly elegant impala (who can jump 13 metres from standing!) and said her name was Abi…………’another bloody impala’!

Giraffes give birth standing up, which is a bit of a shock for the baby when it hits the ground, but it needs that to get its heart going. Giraffes normally sleep standing up, but they do lie down here as they have less fear from predators.

Their heart weighs about 50kg – it obviously needs to be strong to pump blood up that long neck to its brain. When they put their head down to drink, a non-return valve stops the blood rushing to their head and spongy tissue in their brain absorbs any excess blood, but they can only drink for a maximum of 12/13 seconds before they need to lift their head and allow everything to settle down again.

Mostly they have 2 horns, but occasionally they have 3 which gives them a heavier head to fight with.

We saw a lovely herd quietly munching the incredibly thorny scrub and the dearest baby.

We picked up two more people who had been staying in a lodge in the grounds which was near a waterhole where there were 2 Nile crocodiles. They’re not too big, so they need to let their prey, in this case, a Blasebok ‘marinate’ to soften it up and make it easier to eat. They performed their snapping eating action very obligingly.

We saw a huge herd of zebra including babies. The stripes are all different, so a baby needs to learn quickly the pattern of its mum because if it gets lost, it makes a cry which is recognised by predators as meaning there will be an anxious mum who might be more vulnerable to being caught. So, if this is a threat, the male of the tribe will ‘sacrifice’ the baby rather than lose a valuable adult whose knowledge is essential for the herd.

Rather delightfully the baby eats its mother’s dung in order to build up the necessary enzymes to digest grass. They don’t have a very efficient digestive system so they waste of the grass they eat. The reserve had to get rid of 100 zebra because they were eating so much grass.

The stripes are in fact a cooling system – the black absorbs heat and the white reflects, so that process creates its own air cooling circulation round its body.

This use of white to reflect sunshine is also evident in the Blasebok which has a white forehead, which helps to keep its brain cool.

The Blasebok which is familiarly known as the Ja-bok (yes-bok) because it nods as it walks, does so to keep flies out of it nose. Otherwise a fly might get up its nose, lay eggs and then the grubs eat the animal’s brain away from the inside. It’s the ‘law of the jungle’ at its most poignant.

Then………we saw the lions.

They sleep for 18 hours a day, so they’re rather boring to watch, but they are just so majestic and looked quite cuddly really. A female and male, well camouflaged behind a thorn bush. Niekie advised us not to get out of the truck (did we really need telling!) or even stick a leg out, because the lion is familiar with the truck and see it and its ‘contents’ as a unit, but once a shape is detached from that unit, they become interested.   They can accelerate 0-60kph in 5 seconds (Jeremy Clarkson eat your heart out), so, as Niekie said, faced with that, you don’t have to be fast, just faster than the person next to you! But anyway his advice was not to run, but keep facing them and back away slowly to safety.

The warders do have a gun on the front of the truck, but it’s more for show. They don’t want to get it out of its casing, load and cock it and point it at the lions in a precautionary manner – this ‘aggressive’ body language would be picked up by the animals.

The females hunt and the males eat – up to 40Kg of food in one setting and then can happily last 4 or more days, but as I said earlier, 14 days without food and they’re desperate.

The male’s mane is protection against injury from claws of another male during fights.

Their night vision is very good – they see in black and white.

Most of the driving was along rutted narrow tracks, but suddenly we were on a flatter stretch with a wide straight band, which Niekie said was the take-off/landing strip for the ostriches! Of course we didn’t believe him (but sometimes we had to check whether he was saying ‘tongue in cheek) because we all know ostriches don’t fly. They do in fact have this mini landing strip for 4 or 5 planes that land a year – mostly bringing in new stock. I certainly don’t think I’d like to be on board – it would be a very rough landing.

We didn’t see any snakes, but Niekie told us the three most dangerous I S. Africa were Tree Snake Cape Cobra and Puff Adder. They take a day to make their venom, so don’t ‘give it up’ lightly as it then leaves them vulnerable to predators. They often just give a ‘dry’ bite to warn you off, so if you’re bitten it’s best to wait for any reaction to kick in before administering antidote, but of course, in the bush, that antidote is probably too far away to be of any good before you die!. Bit of a dilemma really, particularly because you could get bitten by a young snake which hasn’t learned to control himself and spurts all his venom as he injects you with a complete dose! They are certainly one animal I really fear because they are so well hidden.

 

We saw a herd of Red Haartebeest – according to Niekie (joke coming up) they can run at 70k/hour, they don’t like Addo Elephant Park because there’s a speed restriction of 20/hr!!

 

Our evening ended in a boma – a round thatched traditional building with an open centre where a delicious meal (gem squash filled with mixed veg, kudu strips, chicken leg, rice and mash) had been cooked ‘potjie’ style (in 3 legged cast iron pots over embers). Blazing open fires and some music made it an atmospheric end before the night drive back – with Nieke sweeping a very powerful spotlight from side to side so we could spot giraffes, impalas, zebra resting in their nighttime haunts.

 

A gentle drive back with John who drove carefully in the middle of the track watching for kudu who jump out unexpectedly attracted by the headlights and we did in fact stop for a couple. Then as we entered Hitgeheim, John slowed down so we could see the eland in the headlights.  A truly remarkable tour and a real privilege to see the wild beasts in their natural environment.

Cloudy skies again. Breakfast on terrace – usual fare – I had today’s special of scrambled egg and bacon on a croissant. Delicious.

8.30 start to go to Addo Elephant Park – with the US guests, driven by our guide Sorita who used to work at Addo, so is very knowledgeable and passionate about the Park, its inhabitants and preservation.

Today and tomorrow’s trips are the highlight of our visit – so prepare to sit down if you intend to share this David Attenborough epic with us – I took copious notes and loads of photos and videos!

The zebra we’d seen on the way in were ‘Birchell’s’ zebra –they have an extra stripe in between the black and white and they are the species mainly seen since the smaller Cape Mountain Zebra are very rare.

Although we didn’t see Big Five, it felt a real privilege to see loads of elephants of all ages, some warthogs, a couple of kudu, tortoises, dung beetle at work in their natural environment. Addo is a National Park and there is no intervention in the animals’ life. The only exception (and it doesn’t happen often) is if a warden sees an elephant lying down for more than 20 minutes during the day, they know this elephant has laid down to die and it can take about 6 hours to die, so they shorten the process with a shot.

There are 5 different biomes (major ecological community) in this area –

• Subtropical thicket (Valley bushveld) – which is what we will be travelling through in Addo Elephant Park – mainly spiky vegetation of prickly pears – which they love, and speckboem – the leaves of which humans can eat and it’s good for sore throats. The bushveld is fire resistant so there isn’t a problem with bush fires.
• Mountains (Zuuberg in this area)
• Forests
• Grassland – fynbos
• Karoo – this is exceptionally dry at the moment, but humans still don’t interfere by, for example, putting down Lucerne for the wildlife – it really about survival of the fittest.

The AEP was opened in 1931 and it is being increased in size to become the 3^rd largest game reserve after Kruger (near Johannesburg) and Kalahari (in Botswana. At the moment the park is run by different concessions, but the final vision is to incorporate all the concessions into one huge area possibly – this would include the ocean area – the only game park which includes ocean life. They are considering putting a railway underground that runs south of the park, so that a southern area of bushveld can be annexed. However, they always have to take into account the animals’ needs for further feeding grounds which might be in contrast to the tourists’ needs to be able to visit the park and be relatively sure of getting sightings within the huge area in a 2 or 3 hour visit. Only once has Sorita guided a tour that saw just one elephant – this is more likely to happen when it has rained and the elephants have no need to come to the watering holes.

A lot of research and conservation work goes on – they recently brought in 4 bull elephants from Kruger to avoid interbreeding. These bulls were quite aggressive at first – because they are anyway, but also because of the stress of their relocation, but they have now settled down – the natives of Addo have ‘taught them better manners’ as Sorita put it! They have longer legs than Addo elephants because the vegetation at Kruger is much taller. Apparently elephants adapt to their environment remarkably quickly, so in a generation or two, a change in their physiology can be detected.

The researchers are patrolling the park all the time and have radio contact with the tagged animals. But although they could inform guides that there is a pride of lions in a particular area, they may still not be visible from the road, so a tour could waste time searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack! Lions are on the menu for tomorrow’s tour at Schotia.

We saw a Leopard Tortoise (named because of its markings) with rather a damaged shell – probably an elephant had trod on it. Although elephants are very sensitive creatures they do have a blind spot under their trunk. The wardens used to pick up tortoises to show visitors the difference between male and female (male have a concave section on their belly to accommodate the female’s shell when mating) but apparently picking them up made the tortoises urinate and they became dehydrated.

Then we saw Paul, one of the Kruger bulls who is ‘in musth’ so needs to find a female in estrus. He certainly looked like a man on a mission! Later, Sorita pointed out a zig-zag pattern on the road, which was the trail left by Paul – apparently a bull elephant in musth can’t control his bladder (it’s a man thing!)

Saw a Hadeda ibis – they are apparently afraid of heights, so as they see the ground falling away from them after take-off they make an unattractive screeching noise (which you frequently hear as you pass through the countryside.) These Ibis are very different from the Egyptian (sacred) ibis which are much more elegant to watch in flight.

Then we saw a mum warthog with 1 toddler and 2 babies. Not the prettiest, but quite cute in a way how they scurry along with their tails held erect like a Japanese tourguide with umbrella! Mum tends her babies for 6 weeks underground before they emerge – obviously they are prey to quite a few large predators.

Rhinos – they tend to stay in the thicket and certainly don’t come out if the elephants are about.

Elephants are dominant here and lions tend to stay away from them whereas in Botswana a lion will leap onto an elephant from a tree and the rest of the pride will then attack it. Lions can go without food for 14 days but then become dogged (if you can say that about a lion!) in their search, so are a force to be reckoned with.

Elephants can smell water from quite a distance and will dig up borehole pipes. It is this sense of smell that helps to lead them to the water holes. They also sense change in atmospheric pressure and when they feel rain approaching, they change their habitual movements, which as I said before makes it difficult for guides then to find the herds.

Sorita pointed out a hartebeest skeleton (they are suffering with lack of vegetation at the moment, so are weak and vulnerable). The other animals who are osteophagic, will chew on bones – bit like we might chew on chewing gum – to get their calcium intake.

We just caught sight of a female kudu – they’re very skittish and have the hugest trumpet-like ears to ‘tune in’ to what’s happening around. She soon picked us up and hid. We did catch sight of a male with his splendid antlers later. Apparently among deer-like animals living in the bush, only the male has antlers, whereas those living in grasslands, both genders have antlers.

Then Sorita stopped beside a dung heap. Very interesting we thought. I’d noticed she was avoiding them on the road and thought it was just so as not get the tyres dirty. But she was being kind to dung beetles who are busy on new deposits, They work very industriously to make balls which they then take to their underground burrows. They use the softer buffalo dung to make their nests and then use the elephant dung balls to eat as their ‘honeymoon’ feast before the female lays her egg. Yummy!

They hibernate for 3 months of the year and because they constantly have their head in dung are known as ‘best breath-holders in the world’!

Elephants only digest 40% of their food, so dung is full of fibre which makes good paper. However, nothing leaves Addo park, so the dung is left for the dung beetles.

Then we saw an elephant with her 5 day old baby – aah. Baby was suckling and occasionally making loud complaints when mum decided to move out of range. Babies stay very close –touch is very important for both mum and baby – and female elephants are very sensitive to where baby is, so don’t tread on them. However males are less aware. Sorita told the story of when a teenage bull was pestering a new mum and in his excitement was likely to tread on baby. The rest of the herd encircled the baby and then mum (probably rather reluctantly) moved away and allowed the teenager to have his wicked way and satisfy his urge, so she could get back to her baby. They are a very caring species.

The learning stage for young elephants is long – the matriarch is ‘schoolteacher’ and teaches the migration routes etc.

Babies are suckled for 2 to 3 years, but even a 5 year old may still sneak up and take an extra snack if Mum is suckling a younger sibling.

They eat 5% of their body weight each day, which can amount to 200kg a day, so they graze for 18 hours a day to achieve this.

Elephants have a very efficient cooling system. They have huge veins in their ears, so they flap them to cool the blood down as it passes through. They can store water in their stomachs, so if they can’t get to water to cool down, they can draw on that reservoir to spurt water over their ears to keep cool.

They give themselves dry mud dust baths to disolodge parasites and also as sun protection – their skin is more delicate than the tough pachyderm appears.

They live up to around 60 years and a female reaches menopause about 45, having started at about 11. Not so different to humans. Apart from their gestation is 22 weeks – ouch! So they tend to have between 4 and 11 babies in their lifetime with 4 or 5 years gap between each.

It used to quite difficult to tell if an elephant is pregnant or how far gone, but now they can test her dung.

They have very delicate hearing – between 5 and 15 hertz – we hear about 35htz. So a male can hear the estrus call of a female 8K away! Plenty of time to get rid of any headache.!

Finally we stopped at a very well-appointed fenced in picnic area where a Vervet monkey and her baby were waiting. Obviously we weren’t to feed them because then they become aggressive towards future picnickers.

A faster trip home because the rest of the party needed to be back in time for their afternoon trip to Schotia (we’re doing it tomorrow). I didn’t mention the vehicle we went in – an open back jeep that had been adapted with tiered, elevated seating and a canopy so that you have really good views over the tops of the scrub to sight the animals. Driving to the AEP was exhilarating – like being in an open top car, with the warm, fairly blustery wind making Diane giggle furiously as she tried to cling onto her safari hat– I gave up and took mine off.

A lazy afternoon writing this epic then being rather frustrated as I carried the laptop around the complex trying to get a decent internet connection to upload to the blog – without success. John tried the outdoor shower – it was a bit draughty for me – I won’t be uploading

Met more new arrivals – Vivian (BBC worldwide) and Jean Phillippe (or JP as he suggests for ease – CNN), from Quebec/Montreal but have been living in London for last 7 years; and John and Carol from Beverley. England, also S.Africa ‘virgins’ but have travelled extensively. As always, we all swapped experiences and the places to eat, over the aperitifs and nibbles.

Dinner again excellent – pea and mint soup, baked fig wrapped in halloumi and ham (watch out for Dad’s version, Sarah!), berry sorbet, tender beef on a bed of onion marmalade, lyonnaise potatoes and mushrooms in cream sauce, lime cheesecake.

Diana Krall’s ‘The girl in the other room’ was great listening so I shall look that out on return home.

 

“Tell me a fact and I will learn, tell me the truth and I will believe, tell me a story and you will touch my heart forever!” – author unknown – in the foreword from a journal/book by Nicola Schwim on Addo Elephant Park. Hope you’re enjoying this ‘story’ which is a mixture of all 3.

Woke to cloudy skies again. But we’re moving onto Addo Elephant Park area which is quite a drive, so lack of sun is not a problem – it’s still warm – sorry folks back in snowy England.

Off on the Garden Route through Tsitsikamma Park again. Detour round roadworks – seems they’re doing huge road-widening.

Stopped on way to finish the picnic we started yesterday – watching children walking from school – in full uniform – woolly socks and jumper!

Arrived at Hitgeheim (meaning home of the Hitge family) Country Lodge after 150K of which the last 3K were up a dirt track. Were welcomed by zebra, wildebeest and eland but they scooted before I could get my camera out. This isolated Lodge consists of 8 thatched lodges and is situated on top of a ridge overlooking citrus groves with stupendous 270^o degree views. The lodges are spacious and superbly appointed with ostrich leather suites, wetroom indoor shower as well as an outdoor shower, and a terrace. In the main lodge there is are terraces, dining room, lounge, swim pool – well it’s just more luxurious than I could have imagined. Ronel showed us round, Donald helped us with our bags, Archie, the owner gave us a bone-breaking handshake! He’s just retired from 40 years of farming, having slowly built up the lodge, almost accidentally over the last few years, adding to it as more and more friends and friends-of-friends kept arriving.

He’s accompanied by his Jack Russell, Chilly – a podgy dog with a protruding bottom jaw and lop-sided gait to whom Archie took a dislike, but whom has slowly but surely become his loyal companion – apparently Chilly sulks and doesn’t move/eat if Archie leaves him behind!

Aperitifs and nibbles (olives, pappadums, pesto/sundried tomato dip, nuts) at 6 on the terrace to get to know the only other guests – Fritz and Nancy – émigrés from US who now live in Knysna, and Nancy’s sister and bro-in-law, Bob and Diane from Iowa (n summer) and Arizona (in winter where it is now minus 22^oC!! – so Southwell cut off by snow is not so bad?).

Nomsamo, quietly spoken but with the widest, whitest grin I’ve ever seen, served us our 6-course dinner – calamari (amuse-bouche!), beetroot soup, smoked trout salad, champagne sorbet, tender rack of lamb with rosemary mash and ratatouille, and a cinnamon sponge steamed pudding, decorated with a cinnamon stencil of Saartjie Baartman (if you’re squeamish – skip this bit! – a Khosian (first inhabitants of southern tip of Africa) woman whose defining attributes were her huge backside and elongated labia (a condition christened Hottentot apron) and who was examined by English doctors and paraded round London as part of a freak show!) – all accompanied by a Cabernet John picked from their walk-in wine cellar.

Apparently Marietjie, Archie’s wife and Martina his 23-year old daughter are the talented chefs with Marietjie doing the planning and creating – I’ve picked Martina’s brain this morning over a couple of the recipes.

A word about music – there’s been very little piped music wherever we’ve been, or it’s been very discreet. It was a bit of a shock therefore at ‘Whale of a View’ to have constant radio on, even piped down to the swimming pool. It was very much Zelda’s 60’s type taste of a world service ‘Smooth’ radio programme, so not offensive, but still rather unnecessary but a bit intrusive in the presenter’s chatty interludes. Conversely here at Hitgeheim, the music was soft lounge jazz – a female singer who Ronel informed me was Diana Krall. She showed me two CD sleeves – the one currently playing was in her younger days when she did a lot of cover songs (I think it was called ‘Love’s secrets’), but the other was majority of songs written by herself and Elvis Costello, so Ronel promised to play it tomorrow night.

 

We thought we’d have to move rooms today but Zelda rearranged her bookings so we could stay in the larger room. There are two frangipane trees in the garden and she’d put a vase of them in our room – an absolutely divine perfume.

Woke to cloudy skies – it did drizzle on our way back last night – and a breezy wind. Everyone trying to urge caution on the walk today and suggesting to stick to the shorter one (about 2 hours) in view of the wind. Apparently one guy died recently…. So if you don’t get anymore blog…. !!

 

Well I’m still alive and kicking having done the shorter walk – but still quite challenging particularly in face of an extremely strong wind.

Wind is quite a feature here and in Cape Town they call it ‘the Cape Doctor’ because it blows away the pollution. It certainly is a very clear, clean air here and I’m sure it would cure most cases of ‘Trent Valley rot’ sinusitis!

A lot of clambering over rocks with a sheer drop below. Saw seals from afar and some awesome views of the huge crashing waves against the rock. I joined up with another couple (Mark and Judy) from Guildford and I must admit I felt reassured to have them around as there were very few people and I could got spooked by the sheer drop and if I’d tripped….. They’re regular walkers and he had GPS so I felt in good hands.

John met me back at base, having spent a relaxing morning with beer and book.

Back to B & B where we decided that an ‘easy’ afternoon was needed so I popped to Woolworths for picnic ingredients. Now if our Woolworths was like the S. African Woolies, I’m sure it would still be in business. It’s much more like a Marks and Sparks. (by contrast the ‘Aldi’ equivalent over here is called ‘Pick ‘n Pay’) Woolworths has a good food section from which I chose smoked snoek (bony fish tasted a bit like mackerel), ham, chicken pate, pasta salad, raspberries and ripe peaches. A glass of wine accompanied it on our terrace followed by (in John’s case anyway) a snooze – I succumbed to a nap later!

Then on to The Med – a popular local restaurant run by husband (chef) and wife (cheery front of house) where a lot of locals appeared to be regulars. Devoured delicious mussels/tempura prawns and calamari, bouillabaisse and a warm seafood platter. Tested their crème brulee flavoured with star anise – not quite up to Lake District standards!