iMfolozi - an anniversary adventure

Have you ever heard the term: stop the world I want to get off? Well it's only January and this last week has been nuts. We had a big deadline for this Monday, boring finance stuff to do with budgets and month-end packs, and so the pressure was on. Regardless, Nicky and I took last Monday off to celebrate our 2nd anniversary in the bush over a long weekend. Mid January is NOT an ideal time for an anniversary, but the way I see it this just means you have to really want to make the effort to celebrate right? It was wonderful. I can't believe we've never been to the reserve before, it's about a 3 hour drive away and is run by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife (so basically subsidised by the government and thus not hideously expensive). It used to be two separate reserves, but is now 960 square km called Hluhluwe-iMofolozi Game Reserve. On advice from a work colleague we stayed in one of the safari tents at Mpila - the non-fenced of the two camps in the reserve. The other, Hilltop, didn't look too fenced to me though (does a diagonal electric fence one meter from the ground protect you from leaping lion or rampaging rhino? I doubt it). Here are some pictures from our wonderful weekend.

Our safari tent. The kitchen area is in a separate tent to the right of this picture. I thought that weird at first, but when you see how mischievous and clever the local vervet monkeys are, you understand immediately. There are locks with chains on everything to keep the little blighters out. They still managed to snatch an empty chip packet when we left it unattended for about 5 seconds.

This cute sign was up in the toilets at the main entrance gate (at first, I thought good GRIEF what are they on about):

This is a Water Dikkop or Thick-knee (which doesn't translate, Dikkop means Thick HEAD). They are nocturnal so we were lucky to spot one before it got dark.

We were very lucky to see the reserve's only pack of rare Wild Dog. There must have been about 15 of them trotting down one of the gravel roads at dusk. I was amazed at their skinny legs and funny white fluffy tails. Not to mention those wing nut ears. I love how they are called Painted Dogs, that's exactly what they look like.

This arrogant giraffe (normally innocent, placid animals...not this time) had a lady and a baby and so decided to chase Nic and I back down the gravel road. Thank goodness we were in Nic's bakkie, I was freaking out as the male picked up speed. They can RUN. He proceeded to stand there in the middle of the road for upwards of 15 minutes, all the while Nic determined to simply run the bakkie at him. Nic even googled the weight of his bakkie to see if he could match the giraffe ton for ton. Come ON. Eventually sanity prevailed and I opened my window, clapped and shouted at the giraffe and he beetled off into the bush. Cheeky bugger.

The sunsets were insane. I love South Africa.

We saw the ever-present impala, there are apparently over 30,000 in the reserve so lots of food for cheetah and leopard. As our guide said, they might be a small afternoon snack for a lion, they prefer bigger buck like Nyala or Kudu. There were also many herds of buffalo, all trying desperately to get as muddy as possible.

                             

Our biggest Must See was ellies. As I am officially known as The Lion Repeller - I have seen ONE lion in the wild in 13 years of game viewing - we knew there was no chance of seeing big cats, and ellies are so wonderful to watch in their herds, knocking over thorn trees like they are twigs and flinging mud over themselves. We saw this herd on the way home from a night drive with one of the Ezemvelo guides and I actually spotted them, you won't believe such a huge animal can be so quiet! As it was a breeding herd, they had quite a few babies, my absolute favourite.

Then we spotted this big guy scraping bark off with his enormous tusks and eating it. As one does when one is a huge bull elephant.

The reserve is a manageable size and you can see most of it over a few days. While the tents and chalets are not 5 star luxury they are clean and well-maintained, and nothing beats not being able to sleep because the HYENA are crunching around outside and howling all night. January is swelteringly hot, and as they turn off the power at 10pm every night, it can make for some sweaty nights. If you aren't a Natal local and used to the humidity, I would go in autumn or winter. They shout and scream about malaria, but we never take the medication as it masks the symptoms rather than preventing them. Plus, there were less mozzies than at home in Durbs.

Happy second anniversary *only a week late* my darling xxx