Africa Study Tour pt1: Here, I am Alive.

Africa Study Tour

1: Here, I am Alive

 

Day 1: I’m going on an Adventure!

 

I didn’t sleep much last night. The epiphany hit me yesterday. My name is Matt Thomason, a 21 year old graduate who has been handed an opportunity that could shift my entire perception on so many things… I AM going to Africa. 

 

People see different things when I mention Africa, to many they see a country riddled with more cultural and political issues then you could shake a stick at. Whilst this can’t be denied I looked past all of that when it came to South Africa, yes it has its fair share of problems, even today, but it also has a vast history and culture along with being the home to some of the most inspiring landscapes and wildlife on the planet. That was my driving force, the inception, born from the seed first planted by African Insight who visited the college near enough 9 months ago. I jumped at this trip as soon as it was announced, not only was it an opportunity to fulfil the vast craving I have developed for wanting to explore, but it is the chance to also help in conservation work that is rewarding, and to get a taste of what actually working in the field of conservation is about. 

However, this trip was also providing me with something far more valuable. “A chance to escape, the constraints of a name”. I made the decision to go ghost for the trip. There would be no way anyone could contact me, apart from those on the trip of course. All anybody would know is that I am in South Africa, off the grid. This is something I have been wanting to do for a long timee, escape the rat race, and leave the troubles of life behind for a few weeks. 

The night before the trip was a nice relaxing one. There was me, Jaz & Kathryn, take-out, Ben & Jerry’s and a deck of cards. I couldn’t have asked for a more relaxing night before leaving. It was grand! By this time, I had said my goodbyes and only had my luggage with me. The morning after started early, after not getting much sleep I was up at about half 7 and immediately unpacked and repacked my bags about 3 times to ensure every little thing was precisely where it needed to be. Regardless, I got showered and dressed light for the long journey ahead of me. I was as awake as I could possibly be by about 10, I had my morning cup of tea with a little added, extra sugar punch just to give me a boost. 

Waiting in the airport is tedious

The weather was glorious for the fact we were leaving the country. It was nice, wet and raining. The weather couldn’t make us want to leave more if it wanted to. We left college a bit late but the beauty of prior planning meant we still arrived at the airport with many hours to spare, leaving us more than enough adequate time to go through all the required check in procedures and security checks before sitting down in departures. Whilst waiting for our flight which became delayed for about 40 minutes (just so we could get the proper aviation travel experience) we grabbed a beverage from a bar and sat down to catch our last glimpse of the football, Brazil’s game against Chile I think. Who’d have thought at that the next time I’d hear about the football it would be about Brazil again being blitzkrieg'd by Germany. The joys of hindsight. 

I had only flown once before in my life and I can surely say it wasn’t an amazing experience. It was at Coventry air show back in 2003 the same year the Spirit of St Louis tragically crashed, I went up in a Dakota DC3, which whilst looking back was cool, at the time it was just a little scary, especially when it banked to the side. So with this repressed memory firmly back in my mind I was all geared up ready to fly… 

I was getting a little anxious mostly the take-off, I’d heard so many people before say “ohh the take-off’s the worst bit” “ohh you won’t like the take-off” all I could think about was ‘why would I not like the take-off?!’ It was all nonsense though, I was classically building up my anxiety at the anticipation of an event, and something that I knew would be fine as soon as it was happening. We eventually boarded the plane later that evening and got ready for our 9 ½ hour overnight haul straight to Johannesburg. As expected I was a little uneasy during the take-off but as soon as the plane levelled out I was a happy chap and I realised something else. I was in a pressurised metal cabin 30’000 feet in the air flying at over 500mph… and that was AWESOME! 

As the flight dragged on though it became steadily more tedious, it was virtually impossibly uncomfortable to rest allowing only for brief power naps here and there, the screens weren’t much better either, they only had a handful of films and tv shows worth watching, I resorted to just listening to my iPod in the end so that my boredom didn’t start to annoy anyone around me. There was one particular highlight though, the screens had interactive maps of the flight path showing your journey in live time, which was pretty neat. It really caught the inquisitive side of my character. After a couple of okay airplane meals (including an ice lolly at 3am – odd but hey, free ice-cream) the sun began to pierce the plane once more as we neared our destination. A renewed sense of excitement began to filter through me, we are here. I have just flown half way around the world, I am going on an adventure!

Day 2: Awakening 

 

The plane screeched to a halt on the tarmac beneath our feet. We were on land once more, but no longer in England, we were actually in Africa. For someone who hasn’t been abroad this is as good as it gets. It was early morning when we exited the airport and went through customs in Johannesburg. Everything went well, although like back in Heathrow they have a knack of making you feel as if you’ve done something wrong, screening through fear, although that could just my slightly paranoid notions talking (thank you very much Malerone, paranoia is exactly what I need). Once through the gauntlet of customs and having collected our luggage we met our guides for the trip, Marc and Chase. 2 people we would get to know over the course of our adventure. We worked our way down to the buses, packed our luggage into trailers and got onto one of the buses. We all sat down when Chase got into the driver’s seat and introduced himself. First impressions were that he was young but not inexperienced, with a great attitude. His enthusiasm for the wildlife shone straight through, which was very welcome. He asked us if anyone had any particular interests and then the journey got underway. No rest for the wicked though, we had a long second day ahead of us all, by 9am we were back out on the road for a 8 hour drive from Johannesburg to Moholoholo Mountain View lodge. Overall, there was one main travel tip I picked up from this trip, if you are not a fan of long journeys pick your locations in Africa very carefully because the country is much bigger than it looks in an atlas. One bonus though was that we all managed to catch a few hours’ sleep here and there on our way to the lodge. Leaving the metropolitan of Johannesburg and with a blink of an eye entering the drab, poor shanty towns on the outskirt of the city was an instant eye opener at the stark contrast of living. Something that became clear from this start point is that there are rich and then there are poor. There is no middle ground, no middle class, you are one or the other, a sad resonance of the trouble that has plagued South Africa for centuries. 

The shanty towns soon disappeared and paved way for farmland and large open expanses of grassland which spread for as far as the eye could see. I picked up on something within these first few hours, once outside of the metropolitan areas, this country really is beautiful, everything was different but the colours and the contrast of the land against the cloudless sky was picturesque. We stopped off for lunch at a large mall that had been set up next to a man made water hole. There were some sights there including Eland, ostrich and a group of white rhino. It wasn’t long before we were back on the road though, a long way still to go before we reach our destination. The roads here are so straight, like arrows to their destinations, you could walk for 10 or 20 miles look around and it wouldn’t look as if you’d moved at all, everything is so vast!

We stopped off briefly at a large valley near the lodge in the mountains, it was a stunning sight, especially with the sun beginning to go down. I stood there briefly looked out and thought ‘this is it’. It was eye opening in every aspect. Home was placed firmly at the back of my mind. We even experienced a little bit of rain as we began to ascend through the mountains (apparently a sign of good luck if it rains at the beginning of a journey). 

I was about half 5 in the evening when we finally arrived at the Mountain View lodge. This place looks amazing, once inside the reserve we stopped at the lodge and shown to our shared chalets. The gates of the lodge are left open so animals from around the reserve are allowed to just wander through uninterrupted. I am loving Africa already! The sun went down very quickly leaving us at the mercy of the moonlight and clear night sky which was unbelievably clear, no light pollution at all. You could see every star, every constellation and even the gas and dust clouds that make up a branch of the Milky Way above us. If this isn’t a magical sight I don’t know what is. 

After dinner we were taken aside for a talk by Marc, more of an introduction to Africa and the study tour. The important bits of information, really struck a chord, why were we here? Really think about the purpose behind our visit, what we wanted to get out of it, summed up nicely be a quote which would end up resonating across the entire trip.

“Experience is what you get, when you didn’t get what you were expecting” 

Anyway, time to call it a night. Up early in the morning, 5am start, I cannot wait to see my first African sunrise. 

 

We made it!

Day 3: Moholoholo

 

Escorted into the rehab centre by a giraffe

 

It would seem I was much more tired than I thought… and my alarm doesn’t wake me up. Half 5 turned into quarter to 7 this morning, whoops! Not only did I miss the sunrise but I nearly missed breakfast as well, which would have been a catastrophic start. 

We journeyed out of the lodge on our way to Moholoholo rehabilitation centre at about 8am to arrive for 8:30am. On our way we got our first real glimpse of the African wildlife, saw some warthog, giraffe and yellow-billed hornbill, just from leaving the lodge. Once in the actual reserve nearing the centre I got my first look at wild white-backed and hooded vulture, which was fantastic. Where there are vultures there were also, predictably, marabou stork in numbers that rivalled the vultures. 

It was still surreal to think where I was and what I doing. The reality of it all hadn’t quite sunk in yet. Even more surreal was the fact that we were escorted into the rehabilitation centre by a giraffe who was walking in the road. I also learned my first lesson as well, the sun cream was indeed essential, during the day, that sun could be brutal, but it was also true what others I had spoken to had said. It is a different sort of heat, instead of humid and muggy, here is was a dry heat, warm but with no sweat, of course making it more vital to ensure you kept your fluids up. 

Yes, that's me standing up taking pics...

Once we had pared up, we entered the centre to receive a talk on the history of the centre, what they did to serve conservation. The talk itself was very well spoken, and the information was eye opening to say the least, to see how quickly Africa has begun to build and expand and how little room is actually left for wildlife is frankly worrying. The nature of the beast has truly hit every corner of the earth. What I really appreciated about the talk above everything else though was that it was not sugar coated in any way, the harsh reality of wildlife conservation, including the euthanizing of animals in cases and the fact that we are running out of space to put the animals in reserves, was not hidden from us. There was also a lot of emphasis placed upon the elephant issue that is causing serious problems in parks such as Kruger (An issue that I’ll discuss in a later blog entry, a very tricky topic). One last issue was explained to us in the talk, one which I didn’t expect was such a big part of national park management, trophy hunting. It turns out the hunting of old, non-breeding, thus non-contributing animals forms a vital part of some parks’ income. It may seem against the purpose of conservation but the reality is that these national parks are not state funded, they need an income besides normal tourism to keep afloat and that usually means trophy hunting which can generate thousands over a season. It’s an issue that you may not agree with (I don’t think I really do myself) but it is important to understand the finer economic strains of the region.

After the talk we went into the rehabilitation centre, this was to be a tour of the centre, a chance for us to question them about various aspects of their practises. Almost immediately we were in with an animal, a beautiful hand reared serval. There were some connotations behind this contact though, serval are not highly favoured by local people, they can be sometimes seen as a pest species, thus are persecuted and that is without mentioning the damaging and often illegal exotic pet trade that has affected some populations. Such beautiful cats though, gorgeous markings and a remarkable ecology. Next door to the serval was a caracal which was apparently very tame and was reported to the centre wandering around a local town. However, we were not allowed to go in with this cat, it had a chip on its shoulder. There is no denying though that they are 2 very beautiful cat species. 

Serval

Overall the centre was nicely laid out, it seemed to be a place heavily centred on education above anything else, whether it was educating groups like us, tourists or the local populace around the reserve it seemed to me that this enlightenment is what they strive for. There were also quite a large number of animals that were referred to as ‘ambassadors’. These were typically animals that had come into the centre and could not be released back into the wild for various different reasons, although on the surface it sounds flimsy, as a justification its appropriate for a facility that uses education as a primary tool, after all what better way to show people these animals then by letting them get close to the real thing?  Over the course of the day we managed to see a variety of amazing species including crowned eagle, bataleur eagle, brown + black-chested snake eagle, a variety of vulture species, immature martial eagle, honey badger, lion, cheetah, spotted hyena etc. The list could go on for a very long time.

There were a lot of great experiences to be had over the course of the day, Jaz managed to feed a young giraffe, Chris a young sable, we all got to hold the most adorable young honey badger for a little while (so cute) and were able to go in with and have a little play with another young honey badger called Guinness & got to get close and stroke a cheetah. On top of this we got to see a young rhino, who had been orphaned, being fed. Apparently the rhino had ‘milk fever’ and got a bit excited at the prospect of feeding time, something that in the form of a baby rhino can only be sweet. 

I stroked a cheetah... It was cool!

young honey badgers are adorable... Matt fun fact

However, the day defining moment came in the late afternoon. We went outside of the rehabilitation centre to feed the wild vultures at a feeding station. The meat was out and we were waiting for the vultures to come and swarm when out of nowhere a young giraffe walked over to the group. This was an animal that had minor human contact whilst growing up so always seemed to stay fairly close to the area. Out of nowhere the giraffe began to get excited and exhibited play behaviours that would usually be shown towards other giraffe, unfortunately when translated against people the situation can turn very sour and dangerous very quickly… and it did. The giraffe continuously followed the group and was kicking out with its legs, nearly catching some members of the group. As the severity increased we all reacted remarkably well, considering it was getting a little scary (I can say without shame that at the time, it was a terrifying experience). The guides did their best to move the animal’s attention onto them but the giraffe was fairly determined in its aims, we eventually all managed to get back into the centre where the animal followed us and stood in front of the toilet building where we had all taken shelter. This was not how we expected the day to end, being held hostage by a giraffe. It was certainly one of the last animals I thought we’d get attacked by that’s for sure. None the less, it was important for us to realise that there wasn’t really any malicious undertone, at the end of the day that is a warning on how unpredictable wild animals can be, regardless of human contact or not. The whole ordeal was bought to an end when we managed to get back to the buses without further exciting the giraffe. All good fun I suppose, the day ended with 2 buses of very relieved people. The only injuries were from someone falling in the ground, thank god.
Check out the video below, will give you some idea of how the giraffe was acting!

After a lovely dinner, we set out on our first night drive. We set out for about an hour and got to see our first wild rhino + calf, I should add! Along with a few nocturnal bird species (Thick-knees). Apart from that, there were our first signs that hippo were out and about along with other smaller antelope species. We also set up a camera trap by a young hippo carcass, which should hopefully give us some interesting footage the next day. The hour seemed to fly by out on the truck and it wasn’t long before we arrived back at the lodge to disembark. I can’t wait for more drives like that, day or night, I’m looking forward to the rest of this trip. 

We relaxed next to the fire pit for the next hour or so and managed to see wild porcupine, civit and genet all by the watering hole across from us, feeding on the scraps of food that are placed out for them, before calling it a night at around 10. It is weird how tired you are after a day’s activities, I’m not use to actually being voluntarily tired and wanting to sleep, odd but I’m not complaining.

Day 4: The Canyon

 

Selfie at Blyde river canyon

After realising the day before that the alarm on my watch will not wake me up, I got up on time today courtesy of Chris’s alarm. It was already our last day at Moholoholo. The weather was once again glorious as we went out for an early morning walk around the reserve. This was our first proper look around the area, seeing as a night drive offers, as expected, very limited visibility. As well as getting our first good luck at yellow-billed hornbill, grey go-away birds among others we saw wild giraffe making the most of the cool morning along with various signs that wildebeest had been active in the area. There were also a lot of signs hinting to an active population of termite around some of the trees also. Very cool to get a glimpse into the micro world as well as the larger fauna. We only had about an hour before breakfast so had to press on with the walk to reach the water’s edge to revisit the hippo carcass and retrieve the camera placed there on the night drive. This is where my day was made, I got my first look at wild hippo, sat in the body of water to our right, they stood in the water, nothing but two ears and eyes protruding from the water, carefully watching our every move as we neared the carcass on the shore. Hippos have always been a personal favourite, so I ended up with my attention diverted towards them for the majority of the time we were at the water’s edge. It almost seemed that as soon as we arrived we had to leave though, we were beginning to run a little late for breakfast so turned back and had more of a brisk walk back to the lodge.

Guardians of the lake

Hippo Carcass

Holding a royal python

Today was a bit more disjointed, we had a busy day ahead of us. First of all was Kinyonga Reptile Centre for a reptile orientation morning. When we arrived we were taken into a presentation room and given a presentation on the basics surrounding a variety of reptile species, particularly snakes. For anyone who didn’t know a lot about reptiles, it was nice and informative, good level of information and visual representation, but I could feel my eyes drooping a bit, unfortunately the vast majority of the talk was stuff I had prior knowledge on. Not a waste though, as I said before. It was a nice little park, some of the enclosures in my opinion could have done with some improvement but it’s difficult to compare between 2 very different countries. On the whole though the animals were in very good condition & it was clear that the staff had a passion for what they were doing. They had some really cool species around the park including black mamba and alligator snapping turtle. We got a nice feeding demonstration of a rat to a puff adder. However, much of our attention was unfortunately turned towards 2 very pretty but bad tempered free roaming macaw who honestly shouldn’t have been allowed to wander around. They were bad news waiting to happen for anyone who either didn’t like birds or wasn’t sure what to do if they got too close. After a little break we reconvened for the closing portion of the morning which was a demonstration with some of the snakes, up close. Got some really nice views of a puff adder and cobra. Managed to get some good pictures of these beautiful reptiles before a couple of members of our group got the privilege to pick them up (not with hands… obviously) and place them back into their carrying containers. 

Dwarf crocodile

Cobra

It was soon after this we left to keep up with our tight schedule. For lunch, the guides had planned something pretty cool, we were back on the road and went up through the mountains and went to Blyde River Canyon, the 3^rd largest canyon in the world; the view was spectacular, a place fashioned by nothing but time. Gorgeous mountainous rocks lay all around us, towering up into the sky above us. It was interesting to learn how the different rock layers had served different purposes for local populations, including some of the lower rock levels that for some reason had natural dips making them ideal for mixing different ingredients together. We had lunch at the canyon as well, and soaked up the glorious weather. We also saw plenty of baboon on the way up to the canyon as well as a black eagle flying way above us. As with a lot of things though we couldn’t stay for too long, onto the afternoon’s destination. On our way back from the canyon we stopped at the side of the road to check out a couple of baobab tree standing, monstrously over the surrounding landscape. Each tree would take about 40 people hand in hand to circle its circumference, pretty impressive. The bark of these trees was also surprisingly smooth, I felt as though someone had come and polished every inch of the bark whilst we were not looking. 

 

What you looking at?!

Later that afternoon we arrived at Hoedspruit Endangered Species centre. This was a prime example of a centre that had a lot of money injected into it, not only in its genesis but thereafter as well. Everything seemed much more polished. Although this is not a bad thing, if the money is there, use it. After all many things are about first impressions. The introductory video is what got to me though, it verged on the tacky in production with an 80’s style voice over and only really focused upon their work with cheetah only briefly mentioning the fact they have other species. Once out on the tour though we saw a lot of the species that they do house, including 2 male lion with joint deficiencies, serval, African wild cat and African wild dog, which they hope to increase and begin breeding with in the near future. It was good to see some work looking at the wild, after all it is the most endangered animal in Africa presently. However, the details that could be provided to us were sketchy, there seemed to be little thought into what would happen if the animals couldn’t be released (due to the carrying capacity of many national parks having been met already). We then got onto the cheetah at the park. It was clear from entry that their work with breeding cheetah was their flagship endeavour. Credit where credit is due, the animals looked in great condition and any help given to increase wild cheetah populations is well received and the less said about the king cheetah the better. However, our guide seemed a bit evasive when asked some of the finer details about the breeding process and genetic selection, along with questions relating to the apparent habituated nature of animals due to be released. Whether she just didn’t know the answers or was being deliberately evasive is unknown though, so it would be harsh to over criticise this, but it does make one wander. We moved on and saw some nice sable that are kept in the park along with 2 rhino that had come to the centre after having had their horns removed and left for dead by the poachers. We also saw some captive southern ground hornbill that were being kept at the centre, who had a daily visit of a wild ground hornbill where food exchanges would take place, either side of the fence. I managed to get a nice little video of it. It was nice to see some interesting social behaviours going on between them, showing that the behavioural barrier between captive animals and wild animals isn’t a big one. We went by some other aviaries which housed injured birds of prey, but we weren’t allowed to get too close, to avoid the birds flying into the bars in a panic. 

The Pit

After the tour our day was over. The sun was setting over the region once more. We made it back to the lodge as the sun was low in the sky. Some decided to head up to the pool for a bit to unwind. I thought otherwise, I grabbed my stuff and headed down to the watering hole, where I sat in peace on my own for a goof half hour just taking in the atmosphere. It was bliss, another of those euphoric moments, where I could just sit and observe. I felt at peace, nothing could bother me whilst I was here. 

I didn't know anything could be this beautiful.

Once the sun disappeared and dinner had been eaten we all settled by the fire pit once more to talk about our day and the plan for tomorrow. I couldn’t believe that this was the last day of Moholoholo already. We had gained a nice little insight into world of rehabilitation and the work that is done with local communities to help spread awareness and protect the vulnerable species that inhabit South Africa. This was not all the excitement for the night though, not only was there an adult white rhino in the lodge (which was awesome, it was eating right outside of one of the chalets!) we watched the gutting of a dead young warthog which was to be put out on the reserve. It sounds gruesome, but by doing this and placing a camera trap next to the carcass we could have an insight into the animals that are in the area. A simple but effective method for assessing basic population dynamics in a section of the reserve. Despite this, tomorrow was when the fun was really going to start. In less than 10 hours we would be heading to Kruger National Park for 3 full days game viewing. 

Bring it on.