Safari, so good! Take a walk on the wild side in Africa
Yvonne Moran finds South Africa has more to offer than just sunsets...
The old lion stood up, left the comfort of the shade, and despite a broken left jaw, began to roar. It was the first time this safari visitor had observed a lion roaring. Seeing one roaring in daylight was an added bonus.
‘It probably broke its jaw hunting a buffalo that kicked or gored it,’ said the guide from a nearby vehicle, about the carnivore’s six-month-old injury. The majestic male, noticeably thinner than his hunting companion, can now only feed on one side due to his misaligned jaw. ‘He might live till the end of the year,’ the guide added.
An elephant with two broken tusks (those probably occurred while pushing down trees to get to the younger, tastier leaves), was using the track as his personal route. It was no contest: our driver parked the vehicle to the side, and waited patiently for the pachyderm to move away.
Giraffes, oblivious to oxpecker birds dining on parasites on their skins, hung out with family members. The younger ones didn’t seem to be afflicted. Unusually, the giraffes in Madikwe Game Reserve like to sit down during the day, an activity usually reserved for night.
A skittish family of warthogs with small offspring bolted as we approached, their thin, aerial-like tails held comically high. They’d been hanging around their large hole home adjacent to the track. From a safe distance, they stopped and looked back at our group. Never stand in front of those holes, advised the guide. He recounted a story of how a guide’s legs were broken after a warthog charged out at full speed.
A herd of some 40 female impala stood almost motionless in the shade; two sun-lovers nibbled on leaves, nearby. An adult and two young jackals could just about be seen in the distance.
Madikwe Game Reserve offered lots of drama in four days of early morning and late afternoon safaris
South Africa’s fourth largest game reserve is home to elephants, rhinos, lions, leopards and buffalos – the big five – and hyenas and the endangered, beautiful, African wild dogs. The so-called painted dogs’ coloration looks like it has been daubed on them with an artist’s brush. The park’s vegetation includes scrub, savannah, grassland and riverine forest.
When the bigger animals didn’t oblige with sightings, there was still plenty to observe among the 300-plus species of birds.
The rainbow-coloured lilac breasted roller, with its lilac, olive, blue, brown and black colours, perched near the top of a tree – the better to see its next meal.
Hammerkops – called thus because their heads resemble a hammer – were observed near a small lake. They’re also fond of rivers and dams. The entrances to their massive domed structures of sticks are surprisingly small.
It was breeding season for the shaft-tailed whydah. The sparrow-like red-beaked male, with its yellow chest, black crown and upper body plumage, was showing off its four elongated black tail feathers with expanded tips midair. Breeding over, the male will shed its tail and grow olive brown, drab plumage similar to the dowdy female. A Southern pied babbler, an African fish eagle, and guinea fowl, called bush veld, were also sighted. The guinea fowl ‘tastes like chicken’, the non-vegetarian guide said.
Situated near Botswana’s Kalahari Desert in the North West Province, Madikwe is closer (a four-hour drive) to Johannesburg than Kruger National Park, its much more famous cousin. It’s also a lot less crowded, with 30 or so lodges in the 75,000 hectares. Many of the 1,500 lodge employees are locals who come from the arid, isolated region that suffers from very high unemployment.
The afternoon safaris ended with a cold beer or a gin and tonic in hand, listening to the sounds of nature, birds especially, noisily settling down for the night. The intermittent silences gradually grew longer. Yet another magnificent African sunset over a beautiful vista marked the waning of the day.
It was then time to return to the lodge, shower, and enjoy conversations recounting that day’s events over another delicious dinner. The two days were over too soon. However, it was time to return to Johannesburg. The Magaliesberg mountain range, an easy drive northwest of the country’s business capital, is half the earth’s age and almost 100 times older than Mount Everest. It was recently declared a World Biosphere Reserve.
This weekend playground for city residents has hot air ballooning, horse riding, quad trails and zip lining along 11 different steel ropes built high in the canopy. There are also country houses and lodges to relax after all that excitement! More than 500 hominid specimens and thousands of fossils have been discovered in the Sterkfontein Caves, in the Cradle of Humankind, nearby. The Unesco Heritage Site is one of the world’s richest sites for early hominids.
But it was the discovery in 1947 of ‘Mrs Ples’ (scientists are now unsure if it was, indeed, a female,) that got archaeologists really excited. The 2.15 million-yearold fossil strengthened the theory that humans evolved in Africa.
‘The fossil strengthened the theory that humans evolved in Africa’
The 47,000-hectare site has produced more than a third of early hominid fossils ever found prior to 2010. With two sisters married to two South Africans, little positive used to be reported back to this writer about the country’s dynamic hub – Johannesburg. But as Bob Dylan chimed ‘The times they are a-changin’ and it’s certainly true of Jozi, or Jo’berg, as the locals affectionately call it.
Buildings and garages have been transformed into design studios, as well as indoor /alfresco restaurants, at 44 Stanley (Avenue).
‘It’s the antithesis of consumer tack and a blueprint for future mall development,’ opines a Lonely Planet Guide writer.
Artisan purveyors tempt passersby with tasty nibbles in the heaving, Saturdays-only, centrally-located, Neighbourgoods Market. Locally made crafts, tempting food choices and drink vendors are also located on the second floor of the modernist building that’s a parking lot during the week. The Mandela and Tambo law offices – the country’s 1952-established, first black-owned law firm – and Market Theatre, which was converted from an old Indian fruit market, are within walking distance. The anti-apartheid arts venue became internationally renowned for showcasing the country’s best producers.
A different kind of art hides behind the attractive Newtown Junction shopping centre, a five-minute walk away. New graffiti painted every year (xenophobia was a recent theme,) brightens up the previously grey pylons that support the road overhead, while shipping containers have been converted into quirky apartments.
A visit to Soweto, where the population is between three and four million, is the city’s most popular attraction. Home to two Nobel Peace Prize winners – Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, who lived on the same street – Soweto’s tourist highlights stem from their historical connections.