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For this vacation to Africa, we wanted to do something a bit different. We wanted to get more involved with the animals as opposed to just watching them. So we found an Earthwatch project that needed volunteers to help conduct a census of the animals in the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park (HUP) in South Africa. This seemed to fit the bill to get us more up-close and personal with the park's residents than our usual trips to Africa. And, since we were "in the area," we also decided that after the Earthwatch project we would check out the South Luangwa Valley Park in Zambia. |
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This HUP staff needs to take a census every two years of 20 of the park's herbvavores. So the Earthwatch organization finds the volunteers to do the work under the supervision of the HUP staff. There was a total of 8 volunteers for this session. Two had cancelled at the last minute. So 3 volunteers were in the North camp and 5 were in the South camp. We all received a day and a half of training. We learned to use a compass and a range finder and how to fill out their survey sheet. We also were given Zulu lessons. This was essential because the Park Rangers who would accompany each one of us spoke only a little English. So we learned that 'Sawubona' was 'Good Morning'; 'Yima' was 'Stop'; 'Asihambe' was 'Lets Go'; 'Gibela Emthini' was 'Climb the Tree', and 'Mana Ngifuna Ukuchama' was 'I gotta pee'. There was more but these were the essential points of the lesson. We found out that we would walk 'line' transects and 'point' transects. A line transect was a pretty much straight compass bearing that we would walk to do the census. We would walk the transect and stop when we would see an animal or herd that was to be recorded. We would record the compass bearing of the transect line we were on, the compass bearing to the center of the herd of animals, the number of animals in the herd, and use a range finder to determine the number of meters from the transect line to the herd. All of this data was later fed into a statistical program that would do magical interpolations to determine the density of the animals in the park. A 'point' transect was a bit different than a 'line' transect. As I said before, a line transect was basically a straight hike through the bush. It may be over a mountain, and through a valley, and cross rivers, but it was pretty straight. On a point transect, only the park ranger who accompanied you really knew where you were going. The reason for this is that the point transects were performed in the Wilderness Area where no cut paths or markings are allowed. It is untouched bush. It is were Shaka Zulu had his own private hunting area. So the volunteer would follow the park ranger until he said "point 1", etc. It was as if you were just beamed down to that point and you would look around and record the animals you saw, then continue to the next point. Our typical day started by getting up at 4:30 am in the dark. We'd grab a quick bite and coffee and then pile into a pick-up type truck which would leave about 5:30 am. We would then pick up the our Park Rangers and be driven to the various drop-off points. We would be dropped off within 15 minutes to over an hour later, depending upon which transect you were walking that day. |
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We'd then be dropped off around 6:30 am when the sun was just coming up. We had to be sure we had our census-taking equipment, a radio, a waterbottle, a snack and our Park Ranger, who had a rifle for our protection. Then we would start the hike. Some transects were shorter or longer than others. The short ones took about 3 hours; the long ones took over 6 hours. Sometimes you would be finished in 3 hours but have to wait at the pick-up point for another 3 hours in the hot sun. Sometimes, you would have to walk an hour or more just to find the beginning of the transect line. Sometimes, your Park Ranger could not find the beginning of the transect so you were sort of lost for a while. So each day was an new adventure. And each day really was an adventure. You never knew what you would see or encounter. The animals that were on our list to be counted were: impala; nyala; kudu; wilderbeste; giraffe; red dikker; grey dikker; blue dikker; white rhino; black rhino; zebra; wart hogs; cape buffalo; and ?????????. But that didn't mean that you would not meet up with lions, leopards, elephants, baboons, monitor lizards, snakes, etc. My first encounter with the rhinos was memorable. On this transect, I must have passed by over two dozen white rhinos in small groups of twos or threes. Each meeting was tense and unscripted. White rhinos generally are not as fiesty as the black rhinos. The white rhinos would usually, but not always, let you pass in peace. Black rhinos have a different reputation. Well, I came across my first pair of black rhinos. The heart rate went up and we tried to sneak past them without being noticed. We got noticed. We could hear the pounding hooves and the constant snorts coming closer and closer. It is amazing how everything else in the world is of no importance when the ground shakes and you are not sure where the 'locomotive' is coming from. We dashed behind some thick bushes, held or breath and waited for the dust to clear and continued our census. On another transect, my Park Ranger was trying to count the number of Nyalas we spotted while I was busy taking compass and distance readings. He moved to my left, then to my right to get a better angle at the herd. Then we heard this incredible hissing-growling type of noise. We froze and looked down at our feet where the sound emminated. There was a very angry five-foot monitor lizard doing his best to scare the wits out of us. His long forked purple tongue helped a good bit. In a matter of seconds, he climbed a tree and disappeared. On a couple of the transects, I got the opportunity to cross the Black and the White Umfolozi Rivers. In fact, on one transect, I got to cross the White Umfolozi River twice in one day! This is an occasion because you are usually pretty hot and tired and wading across the river was a nice relief. We tried to cross in the shallow parts where the crocs were not sleeping and had to shoo away the cape buffalo that were hidding in the tall grass at either side. This reminds me of our caution about cape buffalo. They are one of the most dangerous animals. The will charge you with the purpose of killing you and then come back to finish the job. Another animal that the Park Rangers were not a fan of was the elephant. Some younger elephants from Mozambique had been introduced into the park to help to increase the gene pool. However, these your elephants did not have adult elephants to teach them how to behave. So they were unruly and unpredictable. On one of the transects we came across an elephant which I thought was the neatest thing. My Park Ranger had other thoughts and we had to do our best to evade the elephant's attention. It was a beautiful moment to hear the crunching of leaves and branches so close to us. We snuck by him and I got a few photos of him once we were at a safer distance. Speaking of elephants, on our second night at the camp, we were visited by a couple of very large elephants. Our small camp area was surrounded by an electric fence to help make it safer. These two big guys were tip-toeing around the very edges of the camp, munching on whatever they found. The park staff that was with us had no idea what would happen if the elephants got zapped by the electric fence. We turned off all the light so as not to attract them and make a provisional escape plan to dive under the little wooden kitchen structure if the elephants came our way. But they walked within inches of the fence with no problem. |
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Now back to the rhinos. One of the volunteers, Tom, and his Park Ranger, had a too-close encounter with one of the supposidly calmer white rhinos. Tom and his Park Ranger had just come up from the side of a hill when they realize that a few meters aways from them was a sleeping white rhino. They froze. The Ranger then told Tom to stand behind this little sort of a tree thing--the closest thing between him and the rhino. The Ranger tossed a stone to gently wake the rhino. Well, this rhino thought that was rather rude and proceeded to spring to all fours and charged the Ranger. The Ranger could only turn and run but his first step met with a rock and he did a face-plant. Tom thought for sure he would be all by himself at this point. The rhino barreled right by the Ranger and disappeard into the bush. Tom said that after he and the Ranger figured they were both still alive, they laughed for a good ten minutes. The Ranger said "I thought I saw God." A few days later, I walked the same transect with the same Park Ranger and he recounted the story bit-by bit at the very spot. |
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We were very fortunate to be able to participate in this project. The Park staff was very gracious and helpful with all the volunteers. They were very informative and took the time to answer all of our questions and to have great discussions with us. We really felt involved in their work. It was a very physical project and we were looking forward to spending our last vacation week in Zambia to "relax." The back of my legs were black and blue from riding around in the back of the pick-up trucks. Getting up at 4:30 am was getting old. And we had run out of vegetarian baloney. But we were very glad we could participate in the research project and have so many fantastic experiences. |
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We flew out of Richards Bay and spent the night with our friends in Johannesburg. It was great to see them and get cleaned up after such a long time in the bush. The next morning, we flew from Joburg to Lusaka; and then to the Mfuwe International Airport. Our guide from the Wilderness Camp was there to meet us and drive us to the camp. He made it a nice slow drive so we could soak in the countryside. It was mostly thatched huts in small villages. Lots of people walking on the roads; some carrying firewood; some going to work; some were selling goods by the road. It took about an hour and we were taken to our chalet. It was a bit apart from the main area. In fact, it was the last chalet. This means we were at the edge of the bush. It was nicely quiet and you really felt that something was out there watching you. The chalet was a thatched hut with bamboo sticks as its walls. It did have screened windows but anything that wanted to crawl through the hut could have, and probably did. We did meet Mr. Lizzard, Ms. Lizzet and Mozzie the Frog visit us on a regular basis. Had three single beds with mosquito nets, and a flush toliet and towles/shower with hot water. We were warned though NOT to walk to the main camp area after dark or in the morning. Things were out there. On our first morning, we were entertained by at least 300 baboons trooping through our front yard. They would stop to eat in the trees and steal some water from the sprinkler system. Babies were being carried; adult males were causing a little havoc. We waited for the stream of baboons to thin out before we left the safety of our hut to join the early morning game walk. Yes, after doing all that hiking in the HUP, we were drawn again to beating the bush for more encounters with the wildlife. We actually took two early morning game walks and they were great. Each time we had a different guide and offered a different walk. This is when you really learn about the interaction between nature, the animals and the park. We came across a large heard of cape buffalo. The really eyed us for a while. It is safer to have a large herd of buffalo as opposed to a small one. A small herd of 4 or 5 would have a more likelyhood of a single one coming at you. And these guys are really big. One of the sad bits of info we got was that there are basically no rhinos in Zambia due to poaching. They used to have all black rhinos but no more. It is hard to imagine an animal magificent as a rhino being wipe-out of an entire country. But is is happening country-by-country unless the attitudes of people change. Fortunately, there are attempts to educate the local people and change their attitudes that these animals are not just food or pests. It can be a hard job when the elephants crush your vegetable crop or your house. Or you need food for your 10 children. It may take generations but we saw attempts like the Childrens Camp in the HUP. They take children from the local area and bring them there to try to change their attitudes and give them an appreciation of the wildlife of their country. I understand that Zambia, too, is trying these types of programs. On another morning, we have to get to the main camp to join up for a game walk. We were delayed by two elephants having their morning meal just in front of our chalet. Quite devine. We peered at them through the screened window, then ventured out on the porch for an unobstructed view. How gentle they can be. We had to sneak off for our game walk and we let them eat in peace. But we were reminded of the delecate balance there is between wild animals and humans. The week before we arrived in Zambia, a single tourist was taking a morning game walk with his park guide and a park ranger. They accidentally happened to surprise a group of elephants. The elephants were so startled they began to run. The park ranger fired his rifle in the air to scare the elephants away from them. But it didn't work. The park guide was trampled to death by three elephants. One of the reasons we came to the South Luangwa Park was the hope to see a leopard. This is the place with the greatest number of sightings. We've seen just about all of the animals except for this elusive cat. On the evening we arrive, we just missed that night's game drive because our plane was a bit late. A Swedish gentleman recounted at dinner his sighting of his first leopard that he saw that very night. Just our luck. We visited a neighboring camp, the Kafunta Lodge. Talked to a guest who had just spent one night and he, too, described his experience seeing his first leopard. Just our luck. Also, a few days before we arrived at the Wilderness Camp, there was a troop of baboons close to the open dining area. A young tourist boy was watching the baboons. Out flashed a leopard trying to get a baboon for a meal. They say the boy was very lucky to have just been missed by the leopard. We were lucky to see cape buffalo, zebra, baboons, impala, puku, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, barn owls, eagles, crested cranes, the magnificent lilac breasted rollers and carmine bee eaters, baboons, vervit monkeys, and more. We saw a mother lion and here three baby cubs. We were so close we could hear the babies crying to their mother.... But we did not see the leopard. But that is the unpredictability of the bush. That is what brings us back. The animals have no adjenda. They just get up in the morning to live or die. To eat or be eaten. That a leopard did not show up to entertain us is OK. That makes it all the more special that we were allowed the opportunity to see what we did see and experience what we did experience. The people, too, of S. Africa and Zambia were wonderful and friendly. We can not forget the Zulu school we visited in S. Africa. They happened to be having their annual beauty contest. In most other countries, the building would have been boarded up as unfit for habitation. But the teacher greeting us was proud that they were about to get running water and was very happy that they finally go some shelving that would allow them to get their inventory of books off the ground. They let us in to watch their contest. They student audience was all dressed in their school uniforms. We came in while they were singing and dancing with great exhurberance. I sat down a thick layer of red clay that covered the concrete floor. After a few minutes, I felt a slight tug on my sleeve from one of the young student boys next to me. He openned his thin school notebook and slid it under my butt, saying "please sit on this." The beauty contest
But we also took night and day game drives. The roads are really rough and you get pretty much beaten up. We
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