KwaZulu-Natal Tour Days 5 and 6

Museum at site where Mandela was captured before being sent to prison

Interesting sculpture - individual vertical rods that show Mandelas' face when viewed at the right angle

Installing a thatched roof

Our accommodation at Giant's Castle resort

View of the resort from the trail leading to the Bushman Caves

Bushman cave drqwings

Incredible scenery

Ardmore Ceramics Gallery - plates showing gallery artists who have died of HIV/A|ids - 30% of the black South African population has HIV/Aids

Examples of Ardmore ceramic art

Howick Falls - 95 metres high

Heritage Day costumes

KwaZulu-Natal Tour  Days 5 and 6

Sept 25, 2016

Friday morning we drove to the site where Nelson Mandela was captured along the side of the road. People wanted to build a large monument there, but Mandela would only allow a simple memorial. Across the street there is a museum documenting his life, work, and much of the apartheid history with lots of photos. It is very moving. Like Gandhi, he grew as a person through his tough years. I'd like to read his autobiography now. They are in the process of building a larger museum on the site.

In the afternoon we continued driving higher into the mountains. We slept our last night at a lodge in another game park. This one is a world heritage site. The reason is a collection of old rock paintings in open caves. We hiked into the site in the morning and a guide introduced us to the art and its possible meanings. They have been done by the original natives called the San or Bushmen. Their skin is more yellow with slightly oriental eyes. There are not many of them left in Africa now, unfortunately. Scientists think that the first homo sapiens originated in this area.

The temperature dropped again to around freezing overnight. It was a beautiful, quiet location with many alpine plants and birds. And the staff fed us well despite no towns in the vicinity. Other guests were there to do extensive hiking.

On the drive back to Durban we stopped at Ardmore Ceramics, a well known company making ceramics using local artists. We were allowed to watch them at work and take photos. There are figures of African animals on most pieces.  The work was beautiful, unique, and expensive. We stopped for a late lunch at a waterfall in Howick that is as high as Victoria Falls but much less water. It was a national holiday, Heritage Day. We got a chance to see some people dressed up for the occasion.

Arrived back in Durban Sat evening. Today, Sunday, we are unpacking, doing laundry and repairs. The inside of the boat was draped in wet and salty clothes as it never stopped raining last weekend. Now we are waiting for good weather to sail to Cape Town. Ideally we would like it nice for a week and go straight there. Otherwise we will start travelling and stop at the few possible places for shelter. This next section is called "The Wild Coast".

KwaZulu-Natal Tour - Days 3 and 4

Former hospital site where the British held off the Zulus in the Battle of Rorke's Drift

Vast valleys of Northern Zululand

Impressive landscapes

KwaZulu-Natal Tour - Days 3 and 4

Sept 21 and 22, 2016

Got started at 7:30 this morning. Drove out of Hluhluwe Game Park into Imfolozi Game Park. This park has mostly wilderness areas. You can visit on a 4 day hike with a guide and donkeys to carry your supplies and food.  It took us longer to get through than we planned as we saw African cape buffalo, giraffes, rhinos, elephants, impalas, nyalas, and even a turtle. What an amazing array of animals, and what a way to see them - in their own environment rather than in a zoo!

 After that it was a full days' drive to Dundee, a town in the coal mining area. In this northern part of the province, many of the major battles between the British, the Zulus, and the Boers for control of SA in the 19th century took place. We stayed in the Royal Country Inn which is filled with war and history memorabilia. The area is called "Battlefields". The scenery reminded us of western Alberta, with dry, rolling hills. The locals in their shacks and shanty towns have only a subsistence living, doing migrant farm work or working in the mines. Coal and other minerals are the main products.

Thursday morning we headed out to one of the battle sites, Rorke's Drift. In the early 1800's, King Shaka, a great Zulu warrior, conquered many of the neighbouring tribes to create a very large powerful nation. They were better trained warriors than many other African tribes. They surprised both the Boers and the British troops with defeats with much loss of life. The British would have been content to have a port at the Cape until diamonds were discovered. Then they wanted more control. The battle at Rorke's Drift was in 1879. 100 British troops held off 4000 Zulus. The 11 survivors received Victorian Crosses. There is now a museum there. Greg, our guide, knows a wealth of information about all this history. The movie, Zulu, is about this particular battle. The Boer War, in 1899, was essentially for control of newly discovered gold. If interested, there has been a lot written about this period.

We spent the afternoon driving further towards the Drakensberg Mountains. We stayed at a beautiful resort in the "midlands", called Rawdons. The temperature kept dropping and the fog was rolling in. It was 13C when we arrived. There was a microbrewery on site, so we enjoyed trying their samples. The only one not drinkable for me was "cappuccino" flavoured beer. With more moisture, this area was favoured by colonists for agriculture and cattle. It seems very British and much more prosperous.

KwaZulu N\atal Tour - Day 2

Our accommodation at Hilltop Camp

Amazaing views of the park

Hilltop Camp Reception

African Fish Eagle

White backed vultures

Baboons

Rob with Cheetah

Ugundi cow - prized for its hide

Warthog

KwaZulu N\atal Tour - Day 2

September 20, 2016

We were up early for a 8:30am departure to the Endomini Cheetah Centre which was located outside the game park. On the 15 km trip to the park gate we saw white backed vultures partaking in what must have been a kill the during the night, a lion, buffalo, zebras, baboons, impalas, warthogs, and white rhinos as well as a brown snake eagle.

As there are only a few leopards in the game park we are unlikely to see one, and the cheetah is rather elusive there as well. The Cheetah Centre takes care of Cheetahs who were injured and abandoned by owners who had them as pets. They are careful to keep the cheetahs wild and not try to domesticate them. It was surprising to see the difference in size from the smallest strain which looked like a large house cat, to the larger, more powerful, strain that one sees on TV. The cheetah  eats mainly small animals so is not a major predator for big game. It  is itself hunted by other large cats such as the lion and leopard. We found it interesting that the cheetahs can be kept in a quite low fenced area as they don't have the muscle strength to pull themselves up the fence to the top. At the same time they can run at a speed ot 120 kms/hr and can go from 0 to 60 mph in 3 seconds! We were able to enter the cages of some of the cheetah and pet then carefully, under the watchful eyes of two rangers.

In the afternoon we went back to the park and took another three hour tour with our guide, Welcome. We were pleased to see giraffes as well as an elephant up close. Again we saw many buffalo, rhinos, impalas, nyalas and warthogs.

We had another great buffet dinner at the Hilltop Camp and called it a night early as we have an early start in the morning.

KwaZulu Natal Tour - Day 1

Getting ready to board the boat for our tour

Hippo walking on the bottom

Crocodile sunning himself

Hippos don't swim but walk on the bottom

On a cool day the hippos like to be on land

A new family of hippos

Carol holding a hippo tooth

Zebras

Warthog

Lions resting during the day

View of the sweeping mountains and valleys of the park

Female Nyala

Elephant herd at dusk

Rhino

Lion at dusk

Goliath Heron

African Cape Buffalo

KwaZulu Natal Tour - Day 1

September 19, 2016

We left Durban 8:00am Monday with our guide, Greg Garson, in his nine passenger van for a two and one-half hour drive north along the coast to the Saint Lucia Estuary, an inland wetlands park that was once open to the ocean but which, since 2007 has been closed off, due to climate change. The water part is home to around eight hundred hippos and one thousand Nile crocodiles, as well as much other bird, and animal, life. Once there we took a two hour boat ride on the shallow lake. We saw many families of hippos along the way - a family consisting of one male and very many females and offspring. Hippos don't swim, but walk on the lake or stand on their hind legs, and it was fun to watch them appearing and disappearing in the water. As sit was a rather cool day, many were also on land trying to soak up whatever sun there was. We managed to spot a couple of crocodiles sunning themselves as well, but mostly they were hidden in the water. In addition to the hippos and crocs we saw African Fish Eagle, Goliath Heron and Egyptian geese,  Weaver birds, and some antelope on shore. Since the time the wetlands area was closed to the ocean the salinity of the water has reduced and the number of species residing there has decrease by half. The boat captain was extremely well informed regarding the wetlands and the animals and we enjoyed her narrative along the way.

Mid afternoon  we continued to the Hluhluwe (pronounced Shoeslouie) Game Reserve, a 964 square kim park established in part to help preserve the rhino.It is owned by the people of South Africa and run by the South African Conservation Authority. It is the oldest proclaimed game park in the country. In just the short 15 km drive from the park entrance to Hilltop Camp, where we would be staying for two days, we say rhinos, buffalo, and lions, three of the "big five! It was awesome to see these animals in their own environment. Our guide, Greg, was very knowledgeable and we learned a fair bit about their habits, and what else we could expect to see.

After checking in to Hilltop Camp and moving our gear to our rooms, a nice chalet with all the comforts of home, at five pm we took a three hour tour in an open ten seater jeep through the park with a local guide, Welcome. Before it got dark we had seen elephants, our fourth of the "big five', as well as more rhino, waterbucks, nyalas, zebras duiker and lions. As it grew dark we used two spotlights, one shining out each side of the vehicle, to spot game. We were able to see bushbucks, impalas, bush pigs, more nyalas, baboons and buffalo before heading back to the Camp for a large buffet dinner.

The parkland is spectacular, with vast valleys and long sloping hills.The mountains here are like very large sweeping hills, however they are the remnants of the oldest mountains in the world and have been worn down over many millions of years.  Being the dry season there isn't a lot of high grass growing so the animals are easier to see. We were fortunate that the rain that we suffered through in Durban on the weekend turned the vegetation up here green and the animals were loving it.