After two and a half months we’re back on Wind Wanderer and doing all we can to get back in her good books. Sandy is even risking horrendous fumes to bring the bronze portholes from the usual verdigris to gold again. I think a pair of functioning lungs is worth more than gold portholes, but there is no stopping her once she’s set her mind to it.
We were quite anxious as we drove to the dock, not at all sure what we’d find. We had Rob, the local boatyard, sailor, broker guy hopping on board regularly to make sure everything was functioning as it should, and it was, apart from the shore power which had tripped out regularly. Fortunately our solar panels were more than able to cope.
The boat was musty and as expected there were bits of mould, but some air and much elbow grease has done wonders. Doves had made a nest in one of our outside vegie baskets so they got evicted and the basket pressure washed. We drove from Jo’burg and kept the hire car for a few extra days so we could provision again for the trip down to Cape Town. We certainly put it to good use.
Sandy has somehow found place for it all and we’ve topped up propane and diesel. Now we’re looking for a weather window to get to East London... feels like December all over again. A few times the forecast has looked promising 3 or 4 days out, but right now it’s looking like Sunday/Monday/Tuesday is our window.
When it comes to our time off the boat I hardly know where to start. We seem to have fitted a lifetime into a few short months. I know Sandy is probably writing her journal in time sequence www.getjealous.com/sandysjournal but I’m inclined to go with the freshest memories first.
We flew in from Australia via Hong Kong on February 18 at around 7am. It’s a long journey, but last time we left Australia it took us 3 months. We picked up a hire car and drove straight to John and Helen’s who once again gave us a roof over our heads and a comfortable bed for out time in Jo’burg.
We had a few days before they’d be taking us to their game lodge in the Pilanesberg, so we took the opportunity to cram in a few things. A trip out to see Keith and Bev, friends I haven’t seen for something like 4 decades. Their home is a very attractive ‘Out of Africa’ large, rambling place and it was interesting having coffee by the pool with a couple of ostriches for company. Funny how reassuring it is when you catch up with friends after so long and find the friendship is still intact, and so are we! The conversation inevitably includes old friends, ‘soldier who have fallen...’
On the way back we stopped to see the Voortrekker Monument. It’s a big impressive building on a kopje with a panoramic view. The Voortrekkers were the folk who left the Dutch settlement in the Cape and pushed into the hinterland, battling rugged terrain and native tribes, similar to America’s migration west but without the might of Hollywood for PR. I was dumb enough to climb to the top and had sore legs for days. The building is designed so that on the 16th December each year the sun shines through a hole in the domed roof and falls directly on the cenotaph below. That date was the victory of the Battle of Blood River when a small group of Voortrekker families survived the onslaught of thousands of Zulu warriors from within their circle of wagons. The day was kept as a religious holiday, supposedly forever, but with the changes to the country I’m not sure if that is still the case. One side’s victory is another side’s defeat.
We also took a day to visit Gold Reef City, a theme park showing the early days of discovering gold in South Africa. It really is a combination of rides and entertainment and museum. We were given hard hats and torches and taken down a mine. In its operational days the bottom shafts were 3 kilometres deep and it took the miners an hour and a half to get to the work area, and they were only paid from when they clocked on there! Each miner had a card they put in a box on arrival and picked up on leaving. If any cards were left at the end of a 12 hour shift, the search party began. It was a brutal life back then. Fortunately conditions are now very good, but there were little things that make you wonder, like having a steeply sloping lid on the dynamite boxes so miners couldn’t stand a candle on them. There has got to be a story there!
It took about half a day to get provisions for the trip to Buffalo Thorn Lodge and we left the next morning in time to get there for lunch.
John and Helen enjoy a fairly unique set up. Their lodge and a few others are in a private game park, Black Rhino Reserve, which is about 2000 hectares. It borders the much larger state run Pilanesberg game reserve of 60,000 hectares and because they operate to the same conservation standards, Pilanesberg dropped the fence so there is no demarcation line and the animals now roam through 62,000 hectares, and Buffalo Thorn Lodge is effectively in a 62,000 hectare game reserve. The lodge is a 5 star commercial venture with full time staff, including Jaques and his wife, who are both highly qualified, experienced game rangers and manage the day to day running of the lodge as well as take guests on game drives. Jaques’ hobby and passion is snakes and he has a few.
One evening we returned from a drive to find the lodge had been invaded by monkeys while we were out. They look like fun and are entertaining but they are thieving pests, destructive and can be vicious. This troop had broken a window to get in to one of the lodges, stolen much of our fruit, nuts and snacks, and when Jaques’ wife tried to chase them they became aggressive. They picked on the wrong gal! She went and got Jaques’ python and the monkeys took off in terror. We didn’t see them again for the rest of our stay, and the python was a better solution than the alternative of shooting them.
John and Helen had invited 3 other couples and we all got on extremely well. We each had our own huge thatch ‘cottage’ and we could look at a water hole from our front deck. It was flood lit at night and we saw a Giant Eagle Owl before sunrise one morning. It was huge. I had no idea owls came that big. We also saw a large Brown Hyena, warthogs, impala, kudu, bush rabbits and a rhino, virtually on our doorstep.
We really did maximize our game viewing and each morning staggered out before sunrise, downed a cup of coffee and climbed into the open backed Landcruiser. I’m sure you would have seen the type they customize for game spotting. We’d get back between 10 and 11 for brunch, having stopped halfway through the drive for coffee and a light snack, usually rusks, nuts, dried fruit, that kind of thing.
During the heat of the day we’d chat under the large thatch cabana, take a dip in the pool, or have 40 winks. At 3:45 we’d head out for another game spotting drive and stop somewhere for a sundowner, getting back after dark sometimes if we found something good to watch.
In the short time we were there we saw a lot. Each trip into the bush is a lucky dip and we were extremely lucky. The others all frequently visit game reserves and 3 sightings in particular were as good as they’d ever seen. We got to a lion kill within an hour of them bringing down a wildebeest. There were a couple of females, some juveniles close to adult size, and a large male. The rangers know him as ‘Scruffy’. When we stopped the male got up and dragged the wildebeest a little further into some better shade. They were still close and we could hear the noises of them eating, snapping and growling at each other and see the occasional swipe of a paw that is probably standard lion table manners.
We were the first vehicle there and after getting our best position Jaques radioed in the details. It’s a good system that enables others to get the most out of their viewing too, but with a maximum of 4 vehicles it’s never too crowded. As we were leaving we spotted a jackal sneaking in to grab some crumbs from the king’s table. We saw the same pride a second time, again close up.
Another special moment was when Jaques realized a herd of elephant we’d been watching was making its way to a water hole with a hide built at its edge. We got there as the herd arrived and spent the best part of an hour watching them drink and swim, always taking care of their tiniest new additions. One teenager swam out to a shallow sandbank in the middle and started rolling around; beating the water, submerging with its trunk as a snorkel, and it was only a matter of minutes before the rest of the teenagers swam out and joined in the fun.
We won’t mention another sighting when a big male came strolling down a bank, turned his head to face the Landcruiser, shook his head, ears flared while I had the Canon running hot.... only to find someone had left the card out when uploading pictures to her facebook page. I think she was more upset than I was. Ce’st la vie...
There are a lot of rhino in the reserve and we sure got a lot of ‘bum shots’, but one morning Jaques beat them to a water hole and we were parked silently as two large monsters came out of the bush, surveyed the scene, and then came down for a drink about 25 meters away. They also rolled in the water and again we got some great photos. On another occasion we came across a male that had been in a fight, and not only was he bloody, but he was still angry and would not let us go past. He trotted ahead of us well to one side, but as soon as we came close to overtake him, he’d trot into the middle of the road. It happened repeatedly until we came to a clump of bush. Whichever side he chose gave us the chance to shoot past on the other, which we did.
Of course we saw plenty of impala, kudu, zebra, wildebeest, bush rabbits, a wildcat being chased by a jackal, but I think we ruined his chase and the wildcat got to live another day, giraffe, one with a kinked neck and old scars that show a lucky survival from a dinner date earlier in its life. We also saw springbok, tiny steenbuck, crocks and hippos, and of course plenty of bird life including majestic fish eagles. While there are leopard we didn’t see any, and the same goes for buffalo. It’s a big reserve and there are large sections where roads don’t penetrate, which is probably what keeps sightings special.
Helen had worked out a roster so each couple was responsible for one meal for everybody. It worked well because we’d been told well ahead. The result was that we dined in style, everyone making a real effort with their moment in the spotlight.
All too soon it was over, but what a wonderful introduction Sandy has had to South African game reserves. It would be remiss of me not to give Buffalo Thorn Lodge a very well deserved plug. I’m sure it will come up if you Google, but there are 5 thatched African ‘lodges’, apart from the central kitchen/dining/lounge/pool/barbeque areas. Split the cost between 5 and it’s less expensive than many hotels and resorts. www.buffalothornlodge.co.za
Until next time...