Death by safari

31/07/10

The only good thing to take a picture of at Nature's Way

Five weeks to go and counting... We have been away too long and miss having a home. The camping is getting harder and the lodges and backpackers more uncomfortable. Having traveled north from Durban, extending the car because the thought of public transport and our 70 kilos of luggage has become too scary to contemplate, we went to Nature's Way in Mtunzi. This backpackers and campsite was somewhere we thought would be perfect place to kill time and catch up with all the important stuff, namely washing our mound of stinky clothes and taking the time to enjoy the surroundings. We chose Nature's Way because it backed onto a natyre reserve, was 'chilled' and had 2 'tame' zebras that hang out around the camp fire each night. We arrived to find the camping area was in an empty field with falling down lights, broken showers, sinks full of trash and leaves, and no water. The main area had a filthy kitchen and blasted eighties hits at full volume. We went out for dinner and left the next morning.

From there we found ourselves with extra days, and we made a bonus trip to Hluhluwe/Imfolozi, the oldest game park in South Africa. We stayed at Insinkwe Backpackers where we were charged $30 a night for a piece of grass to put our tent on. For that price we then had to try 3 showers before finding hot water, hunt for a toilet with toilet paper, and our coffees from the machine were full of ants. It was raining, they were very few dry places to sit and it was quite a miserable first night. $30, what were they thinking??

One of the eighteen rhinos

We got up at 5.15 to make it to the park gates for opening at 6 am. Within 15 minutes we'd seen four hyenas, zebra, baby giraffes and two rhinos with calves. It gave us high expectations for the day. Unlike Nick, who can drive all day, I have a 3-4 hour limit on my game drive attention span. My eyes are no good for spotting. First I get frustrated from all the unproductive staring, then I get queezy, then slightly hypnotized from watching the landscape blur and I fall asleep. Nick is happy to look for stuff all day. I'm willing to compromise on about 7-8 hours to keep him happy. We spent nearly 12 hours in that park. It was painful. However, I do appreciate that it was our longevity that helped us to see 18 rhinos along with all the more common stuff. The other thing that kept me from completely losing it was that for the first time in four years I got to drive a car again. It's a miracle I managed this without mishap as the day before I'd been truly blond and forgotten which the clutch and break were.