Durban Botanic Gardens: Afternoon Delight

Posted on January 27, 2015 by Janet

It’s the afternoon of Day 5 of our South Africa garden tour, and we are ready to head into the Durban Botanic Gardens. Established in 1849 as a trial garden for agricultural crops, the DBG is the oldest surviving botanic garden on the African continent, and the oldest public institution in Durban. What a pretty entrance water garden.

I can’t help but be impressed by the ingenuity of this little bird, gathering nest material in the form of string algae from the pond. Yes, it did have to wait for another bird to weigh down the papyrus stem sufficiently to hit the water surface!

And I pause for a moment to snap a honey bee on one of South Africa’s many succulent plants that go by the name “ice plant”, the pretty orange Lampranthus aureus.

Since it’s lunchtime, we head to the Tea Garden cafe immediately and place our orders. For our amusement, a vervet monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) hangs out on a nearby tree branch, then sneaks down to abscond with a diner’s scone bun, knocking the china plate off the table and shattering it. We snicker a little over the monkey’s robin’s egg-blue scrotum….. and, because we’re mature adults, we rename it the blue-balls monkey.

After glimpsing their suspended nests from the jacaranda trees en route from the Kruger area, it’s fun to see the yellow weaver birds flitting about in the trees near the cafe.

The garden covers 15 hectares (37 acres) and features trees and plants that thrive in Durban’s subtropical climate.

Although there are many native trees, like this beautiful flat-crown albizia (A. adianthifolia)……

….. there is also an impressive roster of trees from similar climates in other countries. Here is the kauri tree (Agathis australis) from Australia, a conifer from the same family (Araucariaceae) as the monkey-puzzle tree.

And then there is the cannonball tree (Couroupita guianensis) from Central and South America with its beautiful orange flowers…..

….. and its armory of lethal weapons, aka cannonball fruit.

Our lovely guide Christine greets us, while apologizing that she’s a last-minute replacement for the garden’s director, who was unable to be here. (She needn’t have worried; her knowledge was deep.)

We begin our tour at the Living Beehive, surrounded by native plants, but still bare at this time of the season of the vines that will cover it later in summer. The interpretive sign proclaims biodiversity to be South Africa’s edge. “Grasslands, such as those typical of the rolling hills of KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, provide important benefits to people such as grazing for livestock, medicinal plants, preventing soil erosion, and supplying clean water to SA’s major urban centres and the millions of people in them. Grasslands also store about 35% of global land based carbon. By investing in our natural resources, we can create thousands of jobs. Over 500,000 work opportunities have been created in environmental rehabilitation programs since 1995 and it is estimated that biodiversity already supports economic activities worth R27.2 billion ($2.37Billion US) in South Africa. The Living Beehive brings together people, engineering and biodiversity to show the type of innovative design and thinking that will help make this happen. Look at the plants on the outside of the Living Beehive and you will see grasses, forbs and bulbs typical of the grasslands biome.”

Blue daisy bush (Felicia amelloides) is one of the grassland forbs in flower now (October, or South African springtime) in this garden.

It feels right this week to have some Nguni cows eye us as we walk past, even if they are wrought from iron.

We visit the permaculture food garden, established in 2008 to educate the local community in food-growing while addressing ecological literacy and biodiversity loss. I can’t help but notice the barbed wire at the top of the fence — a fact of life in Durban and other cities we visit in South Africa.

A papaya tree in this garden (Carica papaya) is heavy with fruit.

We walk on and Christine points out the South American lipstick tree (Bixa orellana), whose red fruits inside these spiny husks produce the pigment annatto, used to colour foods and drinks. It got its common name from its use by South American Indians to make a body paint or hair colourant.

I am particularly interested to see the lagoon hibiscus (H. tiliaceus), because a few years ago, I visited a mask workshop in Indonesia…

…… and saw the most beautiful masks carved from a greenish wood they called “grey hibiscus”. I had no idea there was a hibiscus with sufficient wood to create such a carving. And now I’ve seen it in the flesh!

The quaint little Currie Memorial Fountain has an interesting background. It was erected in 1889 as a thank-you to the former Durban Mayor H.W. Currie, who relieved an 1878 drought by drilling an artesian well at the foot of the Botanic Gardens. The well, which was called Currie’s Fountain, produced 50,000 gallons of water for Durban each day. In time, there was a sporting field at Currie’s Fountain that became a gathering place for anti-apartheid demonstrations.

Coming to the garden’s little lake, we see a pair of African spoonbills (Platalea alba) drinking gracefully at the water’s edge.

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And a grey heron (Ardea cinerea) fishes stealthily in the shallows..

Further along, a hadada ibis (Bostrychia hagedash) scurries away from us.

There are numerous figs in the garden, but this big, old Indian banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis) is especially impressive.

Parts of the garden are devoted to economic botany. Here we find a cinnamon tree (Cinnamomum sp.)……

…… and coffee bushes (Coffea arabica) that recall the 19^th century agricultural heritage of the garden.

A pretty sunken garden contains a formal pool and rectangular flower beds.

In this garden, we see our first clumps of the African iris, beautiful Dietes grandiflora.

We pass through an interesting sculpture garden.

Then we come to a small collection of native trees. Christine tells us about the buffalo thorn (Ziziphus mucronata) looming above us, a tree that was here when the garden opened in 1849. In Shona/Zulu culture, she says, when someone dies far away from home, the next-of-kin paints their face white and travels to the place where the relative died, maintaining silence all the way. Then they use a bough of the buffalo thorn tree to “sweep up the spirit” of the deceased, before returning home.

Another native we’ve seen this week (it was the tree browsed by elephants at Kapama) is the marula (Sclerocarya birrea), whose fruit is used for a famous liqueur.

Next is the fern dell, which includes a number of lacy tree ferns.

There’s a sweet little herb garden, too.

Finally, we come to the garden’s pièce de resistance. the (at least) 150-year old cycad that was brought to the garden by long-time curator John Medley Wood (1882-1913), and bears his name: Encephalartos woodii. He found it at the edge of the Ngoye forest in Zululand – a male tree; no females were ever found. Today, every E. woodii in the world is a descendant of this specimen. Medley Wood, who was considered the greatest of South Africa’s plant collectors, published his Handbook of the Floral of Natal in 1907. In his last year at the garden, at age 86, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Cape Town.

It’s getting close to our departure time, so we walk across the garden, past the huge pod mahogany tree (Afzelia quanzensis) ……

…..that is striving to outlive its nickname, the “bouncing tree”.

This fever tree (Vachellia xanthophloea) has also seen its share of disrespectful visitors. Seems young people no longer believe (as visitors to Africa once did) that the tree, which clearly loves growing near water, is the cause of malaria, rather than the mosquitoes which also enjoy bodies of water.

We don’t have much time to explore the beautiful bromeliad collection……

….or the canna beds……

….but we spend several minutes enjoying the rich orchid collection in the Ernest Thorp Orchid House, named after another of the garden’s long-time curators (1950-1975).

And finally, we come to the end of a long day that began in the Kapama Game Reserve watching wild animals from a safari vehicle. It is time for a drink, and dinner! Tomorrow is another big garden day in Durban.

Touring Durban

Posted on January 23, 2015 by Janet

Having flown from the Kruger Park area yesterday, we are now on Day 5 of our Garden Tour and here for a 2-day stay in Durban, the largest city in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province and the third largest city (2.786 million pop.) in South Africa, after Johannesburg (7.861 M) and Cape Town (3.431 M).

When we arrived yesterday, we drove into the Golden Mile Beach area over the mouth of the Umgeni River which starts 232 kilometres from here in the KZN midlands and flows out to the sea.

We also passed the Moses Mabhida Stadium, one of the stadiums built to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It occurs to me that it would be unlikely in North America to have a stadium named after a former Secretary-General of the Communist Party. He also had a long career with the ANC.

This morning, we open the curtains of the window here at the Southern Sun Elangeni & Maharani Hotel to look out on the spectacular beachfront that makes Durban a popular tourist destination. At one time, crime was an issue on the beaches but they are now regularly patrolled and reported to be safe, though the current is strong for swimming here. And you likely won’t be bothered by great white sharks, since nets are used to keep them at bay. It was Vasco de Gama, sailing off what is now Durban in 1497, who gave a name to the region. Because it was Christmastime, he called it Natal, which means Christmas in Portugese. That name stuck for the region, which was merged in 1994 with the neighbouring province KwaZulu to become KZN.

And there are certainly no sharks in the hotel’s lovely swimming pool……

But we have no time for beach-strolling or swimming, since we are off on a morning city tour beginning with the Durban Natural Science Museum. Founded in 1887, it is located at one side of City Hall, and features a lifesize model of Tyrannosaurus rex.

Though we’ve seen our share of live giraffes for the week, I do like this arresting display at the doorway to the museum.

We will see a number of these birds in the next few days.

I love this colourful display of South African butterflies.

And these leopards are amazing.

Given our face-to-face time with white rhinoceroses at Kapama Game Reserve, I am shocked at this display on rhinoceros poaching. The numbers have risen exponentially since 2008, when 83 rhinos were killed for their horns, which make their way to men in Vietnam. In 2013, 1,004 white rhinoceros were slaughtered in the name of primitive and superstitious medicine.

We make a short stop in the Durban Art Museum, also housed in City Hall. I am struck by the contrast in artistic interpretations of the “old” South Africa of the Boer War days, like this 1901 painting titled The Victoria Cross, by British war artist William Barnes Wollen.

…. and the painful birth of modern South Africa in the post-apartheid era, like this 1994 painting Inscribed by Rhetoric, by Lola Frost. In her artist’s statement, she writes: “My work is influenced by the socio-political landscape of South Africa. It questions the notion of liberation and freedom of expression. I looked at current issues that we face within society and also the governance of our country. The two figures represent the two sides of human kind; feminine and the masculine. The materials used represent the state of mind. A bandage may cover a wound, but there is always a mark left behind as reminder. The newspaper is a medium which informs and updates society on current issues that we’re faced with. If censored, the control of speech and other forms of human expression are affected and therefore it takes away from the notion of “progress and democracy”.

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We walk to the front of City Hall to appreciate its architecture. It was designed and built in 1910 by Stanley J. Hudson, who was inspired by Belfast’s City Hall. At the time, it was considered “bold and progressive”.

Across the square is the general post office with its beautiful clock tower.

And, of course, there’s the obligatory statue of Queen Victoria, who gives her name to two intersecting streets here. I’m sure you can guess their names – but don’t try finding them on a Durban map because most European names have been changed, post-apartheid, to African names.

Though the area was inhabited by hunter-gatherers for at least 100,000 years, the town of Durban was established in 1824 by a small regiment of British soldiers, who arrived from the Cape Colony in the south. Accompanying the soldiers was an adventurer named Henry Fynn who befriended the Zulu King Shaka by helping him recover from a battle stab wound. To show Fynn his appreciation, Shaka gave him a “30-mile strip of coast a hundred miles in depth”. It was during an 1835 meeting of European residents in Fynn’s territory that the decision was made to build a capital and name it d’Urban after the governor of the Cape Colony. (Info from Wiki)

We pay a visit to the Victoria Street Market, also called the Indian Market, as many of the stall owners are of Indian descent. The market is known for its spices, and I buy saffron from a shop not unlike this one.

And I buy four traditional Zulu baskets, one for each of my children, from the lovely young woman at this shop.

Tobacco leaves are for sale here, too.

Outside, we cross over to the muti shop, and though our guide Deon has cautioned us not to take photos, the proprietor says it’s fine to do so. In fact, her customer, who appears to have a disfiguring eye affliction, quickly dons his sunglasses and gives me a sweet Hollywood smile.

The shop is crammed with every manner of herbs and grasses that would be used by traditional South African healers called sangomas. While it might sound like the old witch doctors of colonialist literature, sangomas are very much a modern notion as well. A grass like this one, says Deon, might be used to settle conflicts or even point the finger at a criminal. How does it work? Well, if it’s burned around a fire and the wind blows at you – yes you! – it could be very bad news. Strange but true…..

And then we take a walk through the food market. This is definitely not for the faint of heart, or vegetarians ……

And if you like tripe, you’re in luck!

Remember those “smileys” I talked about in my blog on William Kentridge’s garden and the sculpture of the woman with the brazier on her head made for Johannesburg during the World Cup? Well, here are the smileys along with assorted other lamp and sheep body parts. And you understand how they got that nickname, right?

Finally, it’s time to load our parcels into the bus and head out to the Durban Botanic Garden for lunch and a tour. Next blog.

A Kapama Safari – Part Three

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Janet

It’s the afternoon of our second day at Kapama Private Game Reserve in Limpopo (Day 4 of our South Africa garden tour). The calendar says October 12^th and the temperature is very hot, in the mid-30s or 90F+ with humidity. It is the first and only time our bathing suits will emerge from our suitcases, as we take the opportunity to cool off in the swimming pool at River Lodge. Leaving our room for our third game drive (I also blogged about our first and second game drives at Kapama) I come upon a few nyalas browsing in the brush adjacent to our suite. Shy by nature, they have nevertheless learned to be calm in this safe environment. As we head into the bushveld in our vehicle, we slow to watch their lookalike cousins, the greater kudus. But the word on the radios is that a leopard has been sighted in the vicinity so Willis and another tracker head off into the bush on foot. Clearly, they know their job, but um……

Part of the fun of being on an animal safari is the occasional insight you gain into the plants that grow in the bushveld. The shrub below is the magic guarri bush (Euclea divinorum) and Dino points out that the leaves are so rich in bitter tannins that it is not browsed by wild animals. Those tannins also provide a dye for traditional basket-making (in Durban a few days from now, I’ll buy four beautiful Zulu baskets for my children). Parts of the tree are also used by the traditional sangomas in “divining” problems (thus the botanical name) with the body or mind; the bark is used to fabricate ropes; and a decoction of the fruit is used in making an alcoholic beverage. It has many other uses as described on the plantzafrica site, including treatment of coughs, diarrhea and stomach problems.

After a lot of driving and radio communication, we finally come upon the leopard (Panthera pardus) resting in the bush; alas, well camouflaged by shrubs and grasses. Some people are bothered by the collar around its neck, thinking this somehow makes it “tame” and not a valid part of a “wild animal safari”. In fact, Kapama is a conservation oasis for cheetahs and leopards that have been rescued, often in dire circumstances, either trapped in a farmer’s snare in the wild or in locations where they have been caged to amuse their owners. This leopard was likely rescued and collared as part of Fred Berrangé’s Leopard Conservation Project which has saved more than 150 leopards since its inception in 2000. But catching them and bringing them to animal reserves is not the project’s main goal; it is educating farmers in how to deal with leopards as predators of their domestic animals, rather than removing them from the ecosystem in which they play a vital and natural role.

It’s a quiet game drive after that, and we head to the clearing where Dino transforms himself from expert game ranger to cocktail waiter. Cheers!

And as we stand chatting and sipping our “sundowners”, the sun appropriately goes down and the sky over the Drakensberg range is suffused with colour.

Then it’s time for our second night drive. Willis’s flashlight sweeps the bush on both sides of the road.

And somehow he sees them: a pair of female lions sleeping on the far side of the waterhole. Dino turns the vehicle and we drive the 4×4 down the slope to the water’s edge. Gulp. But these cats are fast asleep and we are able to study them quietly for a few moments.

The lion sighting, after seeing the leopard, puts us in a great mood as we drive back to the lodge under the stars for dinner.

4^th and Final Game Drive Day 5 of our garden tour “dawns” early and we get a start on packing our bags, since we’re heading to the local airport right after lunch to fly to Durban. Soon we’re climbing into the vehicle for our final three-hour game drive. As often happens, our tracker sees tracks! Dino and Willis get out and study the footprints by the side of the road. Fresh lion tracks is their conclusion.

And a few minutes later, Dino gets out to follow a drag mark in the dirt: a hyena has dragged home dinner through the bush. Dino points out the white-backed vulture (Gyps africanus) waiting in a tree for the thermal winds that will aid in its airborne search for food.

And then we find her, a female lion down by the watering hole – likely one from last night now looking wide awake but not in the least concerned about us watching her.

We drive on, and Dino gets out and tells us a little about the silver-clusterleaf tree (Terminalia sericea), a common bushveld species. According to Plantzafrica, “The leaves and roots are boiled in water and the infusion is taken orally for the treatment of coughs, diarrhea and stomach aches. the leaves can be used as an antibiotic for wounds. In case of bleeding, a paste can be made by cooking the leaves in water and placing them on the wounds. The wood is used as a source of energy for cooking and boiling water, for construction huts, for fencing material and for solid structures. Leaves are food for caterpillars during the rainy season.”

Driving on a bit, we come upon a female white rhino (Ceratotherium simum) and her calfforaging in the grasses. Here is a little flavour of the atmosphere in the bush (and the sound of ranger’s radio communications) as the rhinos feed.

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And our last mid-morning coffee break at Kapama, with Dino and Willis sharing the pouring honours.

Caffeine and biscuit under my belt, I’m now wide awake and in focus…..

Our last lovely sighting of our South African safari features two male giraffes “necking” at a water hole. Giraffes move in loose herds, the females sticking together and the calves playing in groups. At around 3 years of age, the males leave their mothers and become part of “bachelor herds”, often standing side-by-side and using their necks like boxers’ arms and their heads like fists to show dominance. This pair is just sparring, says Dino, while assuring us that the real thing is much more vicious.

And then it’s time to leave Kapama. What a wonderful two days we’ve had here, but it’s time to get back to garden touring. We leave Limpopo province and re-enter Mpumalanga. Here are houses in the small town of Bushbackridge, so named in 1880 for the number of antelopes that roamed the slope.

We pass a typical fruit vendor’s stand selling bananas, oranges, onions and tomatoes.

And this fabulous jacaranda tree spangled with weaver nests.

And farm pickers working beneath the Drakensberg foothills.

Then it’s time for a short shopping stop at a smart little mall in White River where I find this lovely “made in South Africa” beadwork necklace. (Yes, I do like gaudy costume jewelry, now that you ask!)

Finally, we’re at the airport for our 1-hour flight to Durban. Stay tuned for more on this city, including the lovely Durban Botanic Garden.

A Kapama Safari – Part Two

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Janet

It’s Day 4 of our South Africa Garden tour. After our first game drive yesterday at Kapama Private Game Reserve outside Kruger National Park in Limpopo, we’re raring to go for our second (full) day here and two 3-hour game drives. Following a 5 am wakeup call and a fast slurp of juice and a bite of biscuit (breakfast comes later), we’re in the jeep for our morning game drive. Sadly, we’re a half-hour late for sunrise over the bushveld, so no photos of that event, but the animals are already active and feeding. We pass zebras and giraffes…..

…..before coming upon a young male kudu browsing while observing us.

A few minutes later, while searching for tracks, Willis notices an animal skull in the bush. He examines it with another tracker, before proclaiming it a wildebeest.

Before long, we come upon an elephant noisily breaking small branches to eat. Its long, prominent eyelashes help deter blowing sand (and its own frequent dirt showers) from entering its eyes.

Soon we come upon the herd, all spread out in a field eating small brush. Then we see an elephant calf nursing, with other young elephants nearby.

Just 6 weeks after our stay at Kapama, an elephant birth would be described in loving detail by one of the rangers here.

Willis takes a moment to film a nearby elephant. Those rangers and trackers who wish to do so can contribute anecdotes or their photos to the company blog.

I have managed to find the video settings on both my cameras, and although I’m still very much a beginner, I’ve put together a small musical video of the elephants at Kapama with a soundtrack (Iph’indlela) by my favourite South African artist, the late Miriam Makeba.

After the elephants, it’s time to take a short break for our morning “coffee in the bush”. Dino and Willis unpack the thermoses and pour, while we enjoy a view of the Drakensberg mountains to the north. I could get used to this life!

In the vehicle again, we are thrilled to come upon a male lion (Panthera leo) sleeping under a thorn tree, its stomach bulging with last night’s prey. Dino tells us a lion needs to rest for 18 hours after eating a warthog.

Just inches from its nose is a small piece of dung that looks rather like a fanciful chocolate cruller. I’m not able to find a positive identification of the depositer later, but it makes me wonder if it was the warthog’s last hurrah….

Because Dino is closest, he offers to take photos of the lion for some of the passengers. He tells us that Kapama has 29 lions in total, with 2 dominant males, father and son. This is the son, and while his father is still the alpha male, that dynamic will change in time and the son will control the females in the pride.

All at once, our lion awakens and immediately looks up to the sky, where buzzards are circling. In a lion’s world, that might mean a fresh kill that needs to be investigated. Lion awakens-Kapama

His dark mane is an evolutionary advantage – and not one that every adult male lion shares. Turns out that black fur is eye-catching for females in estrus who might not have been chosen to be “guarded” by Sir Leo, who can only watch one female at a time. The other females have their pick of the males for mating and it has been theorized that those lions whose manes contain more black – therefore express more testosterone – are considered a better bet for fathering their young.

He seems completely oblivious to the acacia thorns piercing his hide.

And his golden eyes are beautiful.

But finally, he stands and we all take an involuntary shift backward in our seats. Though we are not far away and it would be an easy leap into our jeep, the animals here have grown accustomed to the safari vehicles. Still, we are cautioned to wear neutral clothing, to be quiet and not to stand up or otherwise draw attention to ourselves. Respect for these animals and their environment is paramount.

He saunters away past the beautifully-decorated culvert wall. Culverts, of course, are important during the rainy season in order to keep the roads passable.

And down the road, heading for the buzzards or maybe just a quieter spot to snooze.

As I have two cameras, I’ve been videotaping our lion encounter with one, and have set my video to a popular song recorded by one of my favourite groups. (More on this song after the video).

A short detour here into music history. My little lion video features The Lion Sleeps Tonight by Toronto’s wonderful a cappella group The Nylons, as they sounded in 1982 before losing their brilliant, soaring-voiced tenor Marc Connors to AIDS in 1991. There’s a fascinating back story about this song. Long before the Tokens recorded their best-selling 1961 version (which the Nylons channel here), it was sung by folksinger Pete Seeger as Wimoweh based on what he heard when listening to Solomon Linda and his Evening Birds sing it on a 1939 recording. What Linda was singing was actually the word “Mbube”, pronounced (approximately) mee-boo-beh and was based on a traditional Zulu song. The long, tortuous story of what happened to that song, from Solomon Linda to The Lion King has appeared in many forms, but the most thorough and fascinating is Rian Malan’s exhaustive profile in Rolling Stone magazine in May 2000.

As a postscript to this song’s history, after my 2007 safari to Kenya and Tanzania, I made up a YouTube video of the parks we visited and put it to music with Miriam Makeba singing ‘Mbube’, in a fancified version of Solomon Linda’s original Zulu song.

Feeling content after our lion sighting, we are delighted to see a herd of Cape or African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) at a watering hole on the way back to the lodge. Dino tells us that when they’re not grazing, they like to lie in the mud or be in the water all day.

And we notice the red-billed oxpeckers (Buphagus erythrorhynchus) crawling over the buffaloes. Insect-eating birds, they’re looking for blood-engorged ticks on their host’s body.

Now it’s time to head back to the lodge for our own breakfast. The temperature has warmed and a swim in the pool is in order for later. Driving through the bushveld at Kapama is so much fun, I compile a little video giving a flavour of the ride — and of course it has to have music, again by South Africa’s “Mama Africa”, Miriam Makeba. (It doesn’t really correspond to our drive here in South Arica, since Hapo Zamani is Swahili, the language of Kenya and starts out “Once upon a time….” But never mind.)

A Kapama Safari – Part One

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Janet

Although our South Africa trip is essentially a garden tour, happily for us Donna Dawson has included a 2-night safari stay at Kapama River Lodge a 20-room eco-resort set in the 32,000-acre Kapama Private Game Reserve outside Kruger National Park. (There are three smaller lodgings on the property as well.) There are many private game reserves near Kruger

Since we arrive in the early afternoon of the day we tour the Blyde River Canyon Reserve area nearby, that gives us four game drives (this afternoon-tomorrow morning-tomorrow afternoon-following morning) before our flight to Durban from the local airport servicing Kruger.

Arriving at the lodge, we have a quick buffet lunch and head to our rooms for a rest before our first game drive, scheduled for 4-7 pm. The landscape here is natural savannah with a few added indigenous plants, like the beautiful Euphorbia ingens and the aloe.

It’s a lovely room — spacious and close to the spa, if that’s your fancy. I look through the bathroom window and browsing in the bushveld just outside is a female nyala What a treat to be so close to the antelopes! (No worries: lions and leopards are not allowed in this area.)

Our little balcony allows us to sit and get a closer look at the nyala, quietly browsing the vegetation. I have been on one other safari in Kenya and Tanzania (2007), and it is by far my favourite kind of vacation: to be in an entirely natural place in the midst of wild animals and plants, where we are the ones in a kind of zoo, and the animals are watching us. (It’s not too off the mark to say it’s like Disneyland for grownups.)

Shortly before 4 pm, we walk out into the parking area and (knowing our assigned vehicle is the one we’ll have for our stay) I ask the first guide I see a rather leading question. “Whose vehicle should we choose?” With a wry smile, he points to the one he’s standing beside: “This one.” We have now met our wonderful tracker, Willis, who sits on a jump-seat mounted on the front of the vehicle. Soon we also meet our ranger and driver, Dino, a 26-year old ball-of-energy who’s been at Kapama for just 9 months and is an enthusiastic font of wild animal knowledge and dry humour.

Before long, our open-topped vehicle is driving out into the bushveld. That’s the name for the savannah landscape in this part of South Africa, where scattered trees and shrubs stud dry grasslands. It’s not all flat, since it also includes part of the Drakensburg escarpment in the north. Though we are here in African spring (October), the summer rains (December is peak rainy season in the Kruger region) have not yet started so the landscape is mostly brown and parched looking.

Dino draws our attention to a marula tree (Sclerocarya birrea) whose bark has been browsed away by elephants. He tells us they often find the marula berries in elephant dung, which helps to spread the trees. Paradoxically, female marula trees (marulas are dioecious and fruit forms only on the females) are often destroyed by elephants, which puzzles evolutionary biologists.

Our first game drive animal sighting is a female impala browsing on a tree.

Then we see a female giraffe in the road ahead. Mature adult giraffes stand 5-6 metres tall (16-20 feet), making them the tallest animals in the world. I love these graceful animals.

Throughout Africa, there are nine subspecies of the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), each with its own spot pattern and other differences, such as the median lumps of the males. Linnaeus assigned the specific epithet because of the similarity of the animals to camels with leopard coats. The South African sub-species, native also to southern Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique) is G. camelopardalis giraffa, with an estimated wild population of 12,000 and 45 more in zoos. New DNA evidence suggests that at least six of these sub-species may actually be species, with genetic drift resulting in reproductive isolation (inability to interbreed).

This giraffe below is nibbling on a knobthorn acacia (Senegalia nigrescens), her rough tongue carefully negotiating the succulent foliage around the thorns.

Kapama features more than 350 bird species. Here is a red-billed hornbill (Tockus sp.) in the grass by the road.

And some helmeted guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) peck about for seeds.

A pregnant plains zebra (Equus quagga quagga) is browsing in the grasses.

Dino knew from the time he was a young boy on safari trips with his parents that he wanted to be a ranger, so he worked in the mining industry long enough to earn a nest egg that allowed him to switch to this less remunerative but (for him) more rewarding profession. Here he is explaining the symbiotic relationship of some of the acacia species, aka African thorn trees (Vachellia sp.) with stinging ants that nest in galls in the thorns and can repel the animals that attempt to browse them by emerging to sting them. He breaks off a thorned twig so I can inspect it, but after I stab my hand with it for a second time, I toss it out of our vehicle.

Then we see a small group of female greater kudus. To the untrained eye, the nyala can be easily mistaken for a kudu – not surprising, since both are South African antelopes. But the males are easily identified, since kudus have twisted horns and nyala horns have just one angular bend. Dino points out the large ears of the kudu, noting that their acute hearing is a sensory compensation for poor eyesight.

Dino points up into a tree and we see a Verreaux’s eagle owl (Bubo lacteus) fledgling peeking over the edge of its nest. This is the largest African owl.

Our next sighting is a very thrilling one, and begins with a “hands-on” lesson from Dino. He has spotted a pile of fresh rhinoceros dung and some small antelope droppings. So we know that the rhinos are in the area.

We drive on, past a tall termite mound.

Trackers are always alert to animal tracks, and Willis and Dino follow some fresh ones for a few minutes. The direction helps them decide which way to drive.

It’s not long before Willis signals quietly for Dino to stop the vehicle, pointing to the left. There in the brush is a mother and juvenile white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum).

Dino carefully manoeuvres our vehicle in order to improve our view. South Africa has a strong conservation initiative to protect rhinos from the horrendous poaching crisis that has decimated their population in Africa, but no jurisdiction is immune from the unspeakable and vicious hunting of these animals for their horns. In fact, a few days from now, we’ll visit the Natural History Museum in Durban where we see a big display on rhino poaching and what is being done to curb it.

We stop in the bushfeld for sundowner cocktails as the sun sets. And before long, we’re wending our way back in the dark, with Willis’s flashlight scanning back and forth across the road for cat’s eyes.. Nothing tonight, alas. Dinner (the tame kind at a delicious buffet) awaits back at the lodge, followed by an early bedtime, for tomorrow’s first game drive means a 5 am wakeup call.

Janet Davis Explores Colour

In the garden & the world

Monthly Archives: January 2015

Durban Botanic Gardens: Afternoon Delight

Touring Durban

A Kapama Safari – Part Three

A Kapama Safari – Part Two

A Kapama Safari – Part One

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