Emily Grace: November 2012

Early in the morning we left Richards bay in our rental car. Our destination: Zululand game parks and African animals where we would go in search of the big five.

The phrase Big Five Game was coined by big game hunters and refers to the five most difficult animals in Africa to hunt on foot. Subsequently the term was adopted by Safari tour operators for marketing purposes. The term is still used in most tourist and wildlife guides that discuss African wildlife safaris. The collection consists of the lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard, and rhinoceros. The members of the Big Five were chosen for the difficulty in hunting them and the degree of danger involved, rather than their size.

Isimangaliso Wetland Park, the first park we were going to visit, is situated on the southeastern part of the African coast line, in St Lucia. The warm waters are home to many species of fish and aquatic animals and it keeps the park comfortably warm. The dunes that mark the beach are the huge nesting grounds of the leatherback turtle. The grasslands are dotted with waterholes, rivers, and the world’s deepest peat swamp. Lake St Lucia houses thousands of fish and crocodiles, but it is the hippos that do the most for the ecosystem. They make masses of droppings that fertilize the water making an important fish and prawn nursery ground. The last part of the park is what I think of when I think of Africa, the Savannah, which is the typical Big Five ecosystem.

After a long drive we arrived at Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park where we drove on a bumpy road. Mom was very busy shifting the standard car and dodging potholes. We saw numerous Nyala and bushbuck through the bushes and we got a few glimpses of the shy red duiker. I liked the Nyala best with their stripes, dots, and horns.

We saw three warthogs, and they were humorous characters! When they ran their slender pencil thin tails went straight up!

A couple of big, awkward water buffalo watched us moving by in the car. They were the first of the big five that we saw.

We saw a herd of zebra drinking at a waterhole along with a mama and her baby. I always thought of zebra being just black and white, but there was a little brown mixed in with the white on some of them.

After that, mom and dad went in a ferry down the St. Lucia Estuary to see a bloat of hippos. They saw plenty of hippos as well as one Nile crocodile while I stayed at our hotel room, for I was a bit sick. I found it interesting to hear that the mangroves sense the tide going out and drop their seeds. During the short time the tide’s out, the seed sprout roots and are anchored by the time the tide comes back in.

They reached the St. Lucia Wetlands Reserve in time for the 2-hour estuary boat tour. As they waited for the boat to leave they watched yellow weaver birds building their unique round nests.

The guide brought the shallow draft barge very close to the feeding hippopotamus and was familiar enough with the families as to be able to recognize individuals and explain their behavior. A “yawn” is actually meant to be a sign of aggression and is used when the animal feels threatened. These animals don’t actually swim but, rather, walk along the river floor and bob to the surface for air. While they may appear ponderous and slow, they can easily outrun a human so, if you find yourself being chased by an enraged hippopotamus, you must climb the nearest tree and wait for it to go away.

That was the end of day one and mom and dad came back to the hotel room which was like Shangri-La compared to the one in Ankarana Park.

The next day we traveled through Imfolozi (pronounced oom-fa-low-zee) game reserve. This reserve is situated north of Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and is situated in the southern section of the Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park. The Hluhluwe Game Park (pronounced shu-shlu-wee) has been connected with the iMfolozi Game Park. This KwaZulu-Natal park is the oldest game reserve in South Africa. It was established in 1895. Today, the Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park is world renowned for its White Rhino conservation. We drove through the park by ourselves, partially on smooth paved roads, partially on reasonable dirt roads.

Herds of impala lifted their horns to greet us, and wildebeest cantered on the hills.

The second of the big five turned out to be a white rhino leisurely chewing his grass. I still don’t know what defines a white rhino from a black except for its wrinkles.

The third of the big five nearly scared us out of our wits when he appeared on the road. It was an elephant. He was twice as big as our car with huge tusks and he was leisurely crossing the road to get the leaves on the other side. When he got in trunk range he didn’t bother to move his rear, but stood half in, half out of the road grabbing leaves in his nose and shoveling them in by the bucketful. We cautiously edged past him, coming within six feet of his tail. That was our closest encounter with an elephant. We also saw two hyenas that walked by our car.

Just when we were starting to think we wouldn’t see any more animals, a spotted one on stilts walked across the road. It was a giraffe.

One of nature’s most pretty mistakes must be the kudu. I wonder how he can keep his head up with those magnificent curly horns on his head. They are twice as high as his head! I think he was the prettiest antelope we saw with his horns, stripes, and the dainty way he walks.

We saw a lot of birds too. We saw an African fish eagle many times, looking over the land like he owned it.

We saw a water thick knee and a woolly necked stork, but the African hoopoe and the white-fronted bee-eater were the most beautiful. We stopped the car to watch a dung beetle roll its prize across the road and found an enormous land snail sliming his way along.