Hello everyone, We last left you with our mountain experience. Our last week at Karongwe was spent doing visibility drives as well as regular game drives. The visibility drives are a part of prey count and it is used to help judge how well you can see the game from the road. Based on the information we gather, the park management put together a formula to derive how many prey animals there are in the reserve. It all sounds quite tedious but it was fun to get out of the truck and run into the bush with the tape measure. The way this works is one volunteer holds the tape while the other heads into the bush until they are not visible from the truck and a staff member accompanies you with a rifle in case something were to happen.
Most of the time it was uneventful but on our last day Anton and Ken went running into the bush and literally "ran" into a rhino. It was great to see this rhino so calm. After they crept back to the truck Anton took Kelly on foot to get a better look. After this rhino decided to head north so we all got back to the truck and followed him in hopes of a better view. We had to continue our work so we headed off to finish the survey and returned on he way home to seek another audience with "Lucky the rhino."
This was our last week spent on the reserve, we decided to leave a week early as we felt that we had more than enough of dorm life and wanted to see more of this part of South Africa. We rented a car and plan to drive the Blyde river canyon including its waterfall tour. The first set of pictures included a few of the views on this drive; new pictures have been added for this email update. It was so beautiful and we were so happy to be free, we definitely made the right choice. After this scenic drive we spent two nights in Nelspruit. There we visited the Lowveld National Botanical Garden which we enjoyed very much. It was winter so there were not a lot of flowers in bloom at the time. We have decided we are quite passionate about trees and there are so many here to admire.
One of my favorites is the Jackalberry tree, this thing defies nature in the way it grows. Its branches can grow in a curve like a snake or the “Y” of a sling shot; or the branches might spiral out from the trunk in all directions. Other favorites here so fare are the Marula, Knob Thorn and the Baobab. We found the Baobab to end all Baobabs and later found out from a South African familiar with this tree it is estimated to be over 4000 years old!!! There is another Baobab tree near Tzaneen, South Africa that contains a bar and is thought to be much older (we will have to go see this tree next time).
We enjoyed a few days drive in Kruger National Park where we were almost attacked by an elephant. This massive animal was only feet from our tiny car (a VW Chico) when it turned and lunged at the car. Needless to say we were both a bit shaken and put the VW peddle to the meddle to make our escape. Our drive through Kruger (which is the oldest national park in SA and is the size of Israel) gave us an appreciation for the intimate experiences we were able to enjoy with the wild life at Karongwe.
As our time in eastern South Africa ended we drove west to Johannesburg to set off on our next adventure Zambia. Zambia…….. Oh my goodness I do not know how more things could go wrong in one trip. The travel company that we had booked everything through messed up all of our plans. A) Our lodging B) our safari and C) our rafting. Needless to say we spent our first few days scrambling around trying to fix all the problems. By day three we had obtained new lodging, booked our rafting and a different safari. I am just glad we made it through because both of us were ready to bail on Zambia at any time and quite honestly the place is still very low on our list of countries to revisit.
Once we settled in and began enjoying the beauty of Victoria Falls we started to relax. The falls are absolutely breath taking; the sheer volume of water and expanse is amazing. The spray is so strong it is like being rained on when you are walking on the opposite escarpment to the falls. We took two separate walks around the falls, one was the dry version and another day we geared up for the soaking wet tour. We enjoyed a nice sunset cruise on the Zambezi just above the fall break. We did the infamous Zambezi white water rafting, it was fun but the trek in and out of the canyon was grueling. Unfortunately we were there during the high water season so we were only able to do 12 of the 23 rapids.
The greatest highlight of our trip up north was our safari into Botswana. This was a day trip that took us across the Zambezi river right at the meeting place of four countries; Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia. Once we crossed the river into Botswana, we started our tour of Chobe National Park with a river cruise on the Chobe River. This was the first park we went to that did not have fences and the wild animals truly roam free. We watched elephants cross the river from Botswana to Namibia. We also enjoyed the best birding so far.
This is another note of mention how much Don and I realized we are quite the “twitchers.” We were so fascinated with the bird life we had to purchase a most comprehensive southern Africa bird book which includes over 950 species. I could go into quite the diatribe about my theory about the birds of Africa vs. the birds of the Americas, but alas I will spare you all. Back to the safari; I really appreciated the different perspective we had seeing the wild life from the water. It was fun to see the game come down to take a drink, elephant’s splash and play. We were even so lucky as to see 4 giraffe come down to the water to drink, such a wonderful and funny sight.
In the end if all our plans had not gone wrong I don’t think we would have been as lucky as we were to experience what we did in Botswana. So even though the best laid plans may go astray it all works out for the best in the end. Not to be out done by others through all of our mishaps of Zambia, we messed up our departure day and we went to the airport one day early. Thankfully for a small fee and our mutual need to leave all went well and we headed to Cape Town on the 29th of June instead of the 30th as our extensive itinerary states.
As with our theme of the past few weeks one might be cautious to follow that itinerary as we are planning some other major changes as I write this email. Since we are back in civilization with electricity and internet access we’ve add a few new pictures for your enjoyment. Until our next update, we wish you all the best. Big hugs and Kisses to Emily, Hayden, William and Olivia!!!!! Kelly and Don
Showing posts with label South Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label South Africa. Show all posts
Monday, July 2, 2007
Thursday, June 21, 2007
South Africa Email 2
Week three brings new experiences and animals as we head off to the mountain camp to do research on small mammals. Kelly and I decide that 5 people and supplies in the back of the pickup truck (Bucky as it is called here) is a little much to for the drive so we rent a car for the trip. Also, we plan a diversion and sightseeing on the return trip. Our car arrives and we meet the remaining group along the way in the closest town – Houedspruit. We find a lovely café and spend a little time on the internet catching up on everything before meeting everyone else to follow the truck up to the cottage.
Our travel to the mountain takes an hour or so from Houedspruit and we travel some 2000 meters up on the local escarpment.
The local mountains are known as the Drakensberg’s. The Drakensberg’s hold one of the greatest river canyon’s in the world - Blyde River Canyon. Blyde is largest green canyon in the world (meaning it has vegetation up to the summit) and the 3rd largest canyon behind the Grand Canyon in the US and the Fish River Canyon in Namibia. The drive is beautiful as we slowly get a bird’s eye view of the flat top peaks that we have enjoyed every day since arriving at Karongwe. The escarpment face that we see from base camp is the northern boundary of Blyde River Canyon. As we make our way up the canyon we see cows and farmers along with logging trucks even a small saw mill.
Once we reach a small saddle between two of the main ridges we find the small but beautiful cottage which will be our base for the next 4 days. We unpack and immediately head to the garden to admire the view and take pictures. This place has a view to the south of Blyde Canyon and the Lowveld to the north (base camp). We take pictures of the views and the local flowers among which are 12 foot high poinsettia trees. I never knew they grew to such heights.
Soon after unpacking we load the truck with small mammal traps and are off to set them. We use the traps to seed three spots on the mountain that have been determined in conjunction with facility at South Africa University. GVI works with several renowned scientists to determine the best research protocols and locations on the mountain from which to gather data. We actually travel from the cottage into a part of the canyon that was formerly a military base - Mariepskop.
Because Mariepskop was restricted as a military base, the local ecosystem holds unique plant and animal life and some of the only remaining virgin forest in this part of South Africa. Because Mariepskop was off limits it was partially saved from farming and the non-indigenous eucalyptus and pine that cover most of the remainder of the mountain. With a few hour of work we set our traps and return to the cottage for dinner and a quite night in the heavens.
Over the next three days we record the contents of the small mammal traps each day. We log size (length, weight, etc), species, and gender contained in the 80 traps on the mountain. After our daily routine we help establish new trap lines by taking GPS readings and marking the locations with danger tape. Future expeditions will use the new trap lines to continue the study in other parts of the mountain. The weather was not as friendly to us as the prior group as we have uncustomary cloudy and rainy days for the remainder of the mountain trip. No problem, we curl up with a good book in the cabin and stoke the fire.
That’s all for this installment. Next we will finish up our work at Karongwe and rent a car to explore Blyde River Canyon area and Kruger Park. Pictures can be found here. Some of them are a little ahead of the text here but we figure better to upload while we have the ability. For those following at home our schedule is posted again here. Hope all is well and your lives are a blessed as ours. Love to all.
Don & Kelly's Great Adventure – 2007 Africa - Travel Plans
May 3 – Fly from Houston to Myrtle Beach, SC for Olivia’s birthday. Will be staying with Kelly’s brother Greg.
May 10 – Fly from Myrtle Beach to London for short layover on the way to South Africa.
May 14 – Fly from London to South Africa; Stay one night in Johannesburg.
May 16 – Travel via bus to the game preserve / park. Will spend 5 weeks in the park tracking animals and habitat.
Jun 20 – Return to Johannesburg via bus; overnight in Johannesburg.
Jun 21 – Fly to Livingstone to see Victoria Falls; raft Zambezi River; and 4 day safari.
Jun 30 – Fly from Livingstone to Cape Town for shark dive and sightseeing over 5 days.
Jul 6 – Travel north to time share in the wine country for a week of R&R.
Jul 13 – Return to Cape Town; fly to Johannesburg then on to London.
Jul 14 – Visit with friends in England for two weeks.
Jul 30 – Return to Houston on Jul 31th – (Maybe)!
The local mountains are known as the Drakensberg’s. The Drakensberg’s hold one of the greatest river canyon’s in the world - Blyde River Canyon. Blyde is largest green canyon in the world (meaning it has vegetation up to the summit) and the 3rd largest canyon behind the Grand Canyon in the US and the Fish River Canyon in Namibia. The drive is beautiful as we slowly get a bird’s eye view of the flat top peaks that we have enjoyed every day since arriving at Karongwe. The escarpment face that we see from base camp is the northern boundary of Blyde River Canyon. As we make our way up the canyon we see cows and farmers along with logging trucks even a small saw mill.
Once we reach a small saddle between two of the main ridges we find the small but beautiful cottage which will be our base for the next 4 days. We unpack and immediately head to the garden to admire the view and take pictures. This place has a view to the south of Blyde Canyon and the Lowveld to the north (base camp). We take pictures of the views and the local flowers among which are 12 foot high poinsettia trees. I never knew they grew to such heights.
Soon after unpacking we load the truck with small mammal traps and are off to set them. We use the traps to seed three spots on the mountain that have been determined in conjunction with facility at South Africa University. GVI works with several renowned scientists to determine the best research protocols and locations on the mountain from which to gather data. We actually travel from the cottage into a part of the canyon that was formerly a military base - Mariepskop.
Because Mariepskop was restricted as a military base, the local ecosystem holds unique plant and animal life and some of the only remaining virgin forest in this part of South Africa. Because Mariepskop was off limits it was partially saved from farming and the non-indigenous eucalyptus and pine that cover most of the remainder of the mountain. With a few hour of work we set our traps and return to the cottage for dinner and a quite night in the heavens.
Over the next three days we record the contents of the small mammal traps each day. We log size (length, weight, etc), species, and gender contained in the 80 traps on the mountain. After our daily routine we help establish new trap lines by taking GPS readings and marking the locations with danger tape. Future expeditions will use the new trap lines to continue the study in other parts of the mountain. The weather was not as friendly to us as the prior group as we have uncustomary cloudy and rainy days for the remainder of the mountain trip. No problem, we curl up with a good book in the cabin and stoke the fire.
That’s all for this installment. Next we will finish up our work at Karongwe and rent a car to explore Blyde River Canyon area and Kruger Park. Pictures can be found here. Some of them are a little ahead of the text here but we figure better to upload while we have the ability. For those following at home our schedule is posted again here. Hope all is well and your lives are a blessed as ours. Love to all.
Don & Kelly's Great Adventure – 2007 Africa - Travel Plans
May 3 – Fly from Houston to Myrtle Beach, SC for Olivia’s birthday. Will be staying with Kelly’s brother Greg.
May 10 – Fly from Myrtle Beach to London for short layover on the way to South Africa.
May 14 – Fly from London to South Africa; Stay one night in Johannesburg.
May 16 – Travel via bus to the game preserve / park. Will spend 5 weeks in the park tracking animals and habitat.
Jun 20 – Return to Johannesburg via bus; overnight in Johannesburg.
Jun 21 – Fly to Livingstone to see Victoria Falls; raft Zambezi River; and 4 day safari.
Jun 30 – Fly from Livingstone to Cape Town for shark dive and sightseeing over 5 days.
Jul 6 – Travel north to time share in the wine country for a week of R&R.
Jul 13 – Return to Cape Town; fly to Johannesburg then on to London.
Jul 14 – Visit with friends in England for two weeks.
Jul 30 – Return to Houston on Jul 31th – (Maybe)!
Saturday, June 9, 2007
South Africa Email 1
We arrived in Johannesburg on schedule and spent the night in a local Southern Sun Hotel. It was very nice for an airport hotel. That same day we arranged for a car to take us to the local mall and sporting goods outfitter to locate and purchase sleeping bags. We were successful and headed back to the hotel for a little R&R, dinner and then we were off to bed.
We had a wonderful buffet breakfast at the hotel before heading back to the airport to meet our expedition mates and the long drive to the Karongwe reserve.
The ride was advertised as a 5 hour drive but actually was more than 8. We were greeted by the staff and other volunteers from the prior 5 week expedition and had a cold beer around the camp fire before finishing up last minute paper work and heading off to bed about 10:30. No one slept more than a few hours and all were tired at the 6:30 wakeup call for our first day in camp. The first week in camp was filled with daily training on the local wildlife and our role in conservation for the Karongwe Wildlife Game Reserve.
Karongwe is an 8,000 hectare private reserve formed by landowners who banded together to restore a part of South Africa to its original “wild” state. Over the course of the past decade or so, the reserve has grown to a managed state of beauty. The major focus the research here is to monitor the large predators on the reserve (Cheetah, Lions, & Leopard) so that a natural balance is maintained. The GVI staff perform two research drives each day, one beginning at 5:30 am and the other at 3:00 pm. On our first pm drive we saw: Giraffe, Impala, Wart Hog, The Cheetah Boy’s (more on these guys later), Nayla, Vervet Monkey, Elephant, Bushbuck, Waterbuck, Kudu, Black Back Jackal, and a Scrub Hair.
Each drive is invariably focused on locating and monitoring the large predators. One or more of the species is fitted with radio telemetry (either an implant or a collar) that allow the staff to locate and gather data on their daily lives. GVI tracks their location in the park, daily kills, full rating (how much they’ve had to eat), and general health. Our first day we tracked down The Cheetah Boy’s – Shungu and Koba. We located them via Shungu’s T-Lem implant (radio becon) to within 20 meters of one of the roads in the park. Kelly actually spotted them lying under a tree in the bush. We then walked in on them and spent more than 45 minutes observing and following them from about 3 to 4 meters.
On our way back to base camp we encountered a small herd of elephants. We stopped and watched them graze till they decided it was time for us to leave. After watching for about 30 minutes a large female appeared from the bush to our right. She was soon joined by an equally large and bothered female from the left. The two came together and formed a barrier to protect their two young elephants and shoulder to shoulder they did a mock charge on the truck. That’s when we cranked it up and retreated for safer ground. There is nothing like 5 tons of living raging gray mass to motivate a quick exit.
We returned to base camp for dinner and sharing with staff and other volunteers. What a thrilling first day. We continued our daily training for the first week focused on the inevitable “exam.” This is a much dreaded affair mostly because we don’t know what to expect. We have been crammed so full of details and facts on the animals of South Africa and Karongwe that we are not sure what to study in preparation. Alas, all our time is up and the exam is presented. We are all happy it is over and eventually are informed that we all passed. Hurray, time to celebrate and get on with daily life of animal study and game drives in Karongwe.
The second week in the Bushveld (meaning savannah) brings daily am and pm research dives collecting data for the long term study already in place. We are but a small part of the larger picture that weaves together the 25+ people operating from base camp. Highlight sightings this week include a group of hippos including a very small baby that just wouldn’t move out of the road. The mother hippo had to come back out of the water to coax the little guy/gal into the lake. Also on one the way back to base on a night drive we saw two huge porcupines; these guys were more than 2 ½ foot tall and we have some large porcupine needles to prove how dangerous they can be.
Then there was the Pangolin; this is one of the rarest of African animals. It is a cross between a reptile (because it is covered in huge outer scales) and a mammal (pointed noise and short stubby feet. We stumbled onto the sighting after triangulating the lions near dusk. The whole pride had this thing cornered and were playing with it trying to open it up for an easy dinner. No such luck. This thing wraps itself in a very tight ball that even lionesses cannot penetrate. After the lions tired of the “game” we hung around to be sure it was OK. Some of the staff eventually got out of the truck and picked this thing up. It weighed more than 40 pounds and withstood attempts from two grown men in opening it up. Eventually we retreated and it slowly walked away. Even the staff was astounded at rare sighting of this mythical animal.
Another morning we were on elephant observation and located a large portion of the mating heard. We sat with them for over an hour and observed the babies playing and doing what Kelly calls “trunk skills.” They would try to pickup rocks and larger logs until successful. One juvenile made its way to the truck and eventually put its trunk near the driver window to give Anton (staff) a sniff. It then moved down the truck to smell the other people in the back. You could hear it sniff and see inside its mouth. It eventually touched one of the staff sitting on that side of the truck. Then moved away and returned to eating with the rest of the heard.
The one down side of it all is the dorm life. Both of us are accustomed to life to ourselves and find it difficult to cope with spending every minute of every day with at least 20 other people. The nights are especially difficult as we share a room of bunk beds with the rumblings, coughs, and snores of 12 other volunteers. To counter this closter-phobic feeling we took refuge at one of the 5 lodges located at Karongwe. At Edeni River Loge we enjoyed endless hot showers, electricity, and civilized dining for the first time in two weeks. This could be heaven! We will get something of a break from base camp as we travel to the Mountain camp next week with our small group of 5 volunteers. More to come soon.
The ride was advertised as a 5 hour drive but actually was more than 8. We were greeted by the staff and other volunteers from the prior 5 week expedition and had a cold beer around the camp fire before finishing up last minute paper work and heading off to bed about 10:30. No one slept more than a few hours and all were tired at the 6:30 wakeup call for our first day in camp. The first week in camp was filled with daily training on the local wildlife and our role in conservation for the Karongwe Wildlife Game Reserve.
Karongwe is an 8,000 hectare private reserve formed by landowners who banded together to restore a part of South Africa to its original “wild” state. Over the course of the past decade or so, the reserve has grown to a managed state of beauty. The major focus the research here is to monitor the large predators on the reserve (Cheetah, Lions, & Leopard) so that a natural balance is maintained. The GVI staff perform two research drives each day, one beginning at 5:30 am and the other at 3:00 pm. On our first pm drive we saw: Giraffe, Impala, Wart Hog, The Cheetah Boy’s (more on these guys later), Nayla, Vervet Monkey, Elephant, Bushbuck, Waterbuck, Kudu, Black Back Jackal, and a Scrub Hair.
Each drive is invariably focused on locating and monitoring the large predators. One or more of the species is fitted with radio telemetry (either an implant or a collar) that allow the staff to locate and gather data on their daily lives. GVI tracks their location in the park, daily kills, full rating (how much they’ve had to eat), and general health. Our first day we tracked down The Cheetah Boy’s – Shungu and Koba. We located them via Shungu’s T-Lem implant (radio becon) to within 20 meters of one of the roads in the park. Kelly actually spotted them lying under a tree in the bush. We then walked in on them and spent more than 45 minutes observing and following them from about 3 to 4 meters.
On our way back to base camp we encountered a small herd of elephants. We stopped and watched them graze till they decided it was time for us to leave. After watching for about 30 minutes a large female appeared from the bush to our right. She was soon joined by an equally large and bothered female from the left. The two came together and formed a barrier to protect their two young elephants and shoulder to shoulder they did a mock charge on the truck. That’s when we cranked it up and retreated for safer ground. There is nothing like 5 tons of living raging gray mass to motivate a quick exit.
We returned to base camp for dinner and sharing with staff and other volunteers. What a thrilling first day. We continued our daily training for the first week focused on the inevitable “exam.” This is a much dreaded affair mostly because we don’t know what to expect. We have been crammed so full of details and facts on the animals of South Africa and Karongwe that we are not sure what to study in preparation. Alas, all our time is up and the exam is presented. We are all happy it is over and eventually are informed that we all passed. Hurray, time to celebrate and get on with daily life of animal study and game drives in Karongwe.
The second week in the Bushveld (meaning savannah) brings daily am and pm research dives collecting data for the long term study already in place. We are but a small part of the larger picture that weaves together the 25+ people operating from base camp. Highlight sightings this week include a group of hippos including a very small baby that just wouldn’t move out of the road. The mother hippo had to come back out of the water to coax the little guy/gal into the lake. Also on one the way back to base on a night drive we saw two huge porcupines; these guys were more than 2 ½ foot tall and we have some large porcupine needles to prove how dangerous they can be.
Then there was the Pangolin; this is one of the rarest of African animals. It is a cross between a reptile (because it is covered in huge outer scales) and a mammal (pointed noise and short stubby feet. We stumbled onto the sighting after triangulating the lions near dusk. The whole pride had this thing cornered and were playing with it trying to open it up for an easy dinner. No such luck. This thing wraps itself in a very tight ball that even lionesses cannot penetrate. After the lions tired of the “game” we hung around to be sure it was OK. Some of the staff eventually got out of the truck and picked this thing up. It weighed more than 40 pounds and withstood attempts from two grown men in opening it up. Eventually we retreated and it slowly walked away. Even the staff was astounded at rare sighting of this mythical animal.
Another morning we were on elephant observation and located a large portion of the mating heard. We sat with them for over an hour and observed the babies playing and doing what Kelly calls “trunk skills.” They would try to pickup rocks and larger logs until successful. One juvenile made its way to the truck and eventually put its trunk near the driver window to give Anton (staff) a sniff. It then moved down the truck to smell the other people in the back. You could hear it sniff and see inside its mouth. It eventually touched one of the staff sitting on that side of the truck. Then moved away and returned to eating with the rest of the heard.
The one down side of it all is the dorm life. Both of us are accustomed to life to ourselves and find it difficult to cope with spending every minute of every day with at least 20 other people. The nights are especially difficult as we share a room of bunk beds with the rumblings, coughs, and snores of 12 other volunteers. To counter this closter-phobic feeling we took refuge at one of the 5 lodges located at Karongwe. At Edeni River Loge we enjoyed endless hot showers, electricity, and civilized dining for the first time in two weeks. This could be heaven! We will get something of a break from base camp as we travel to the Mountain camp next week with our small group of 5 volunteers. More to come soon.
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