AFRICA

For the best value

the sun lowered and my urgency rose. I didn’t want to miss it. The road was a single-lane sinew now, climbing and twisting into the Drakensberg mountains, frustrating our progress. I kept on driving as the light slipped, the world flushed, the baboons looked on from the verge. Finally I arrived, grabbed a beer, flung open the chalet’s front door, ran straight through to its back and out onto the million-dollar terrace. Just in time.

The Amphitheatre filled the view, every inch of it. It was a gargantuan castle of basalt, and I was like a minion looking up at its master’s lair – part awed, part afraid. The sun was performing its last hurrah, softening the wrinkles of this immense rock wall before disappearing to leave a looming silhouette. I raised my bottle, lit the braai (barbecue) and remained on the patio, watching the stars prick the darkness one by one until they were legion; until the sky seemed more light than shade. Not bad for under £50 a night.

As one of the smallest provinces in South Africa, the south-easterly Kwazulu-natal (KZN) punches well above its weight. As well as being home to the country’s highest mountains, it has a long Indian Ocean coastline, Unesco-listed wetlands, swathes of bushveld, and is home to not just the Big Five but the Big Seven (including whales and turtles). I’d heard it was great value, too, with trips here cheaper than the better-known Kruger region and encompassing a wider variety of activities, so you get more for less. And with the launch of direct flights from London to Durban, KZN’S biggest city, in late 2018, it is now easier to access than ever. I was sold.

The sign – ‘Warning: hippos crossing for next 3km’ – was the first indication this wasn’t your average town. “It’s paradise,” said Alfredo as I ate fresh-caught fish at his restaurant in St Lucia. Paradise with a kick: hippos regularly wander the streets here after dark. I didn’t meet any as I walked by torchlight back to the guesthouse on our first night in South Africa, although the rounded lumps of black bin bags gave us a few frights.

St Lucia sits at the southern entrance to isimangaliso Wetland Park, which, in 2019, celebrates the 20th anniversary since it was listed by UNESCO, making it South Africa’s first World Heritage site. isimangaliso (‘miracle’ in Zulu) is vast, stretching 220km along the KZN coast, right to the Mozambique border, and protecting eight interlinked

⊳ with zebra stripes, butterfly flashes and the crimson ooze of weeping boer-bean.

“Elephants love these,” said Zephian, pointing to the boer-bean tree’s bent-double limbs. On foot, we could stop to see, scratch and sniff. It was less a safari than a hug.

We walked, slowly, all afternoon, watching buffalo wallow, seeing nyala and impala graze the woodland and baboons commuting along the riverbank to reach the cliffs – “They spend the night on the rocks, where the leopards can’t get them,” Zephian explained. Just before dusk, we reached camp, which was basic but comfortable: two-man tents, a bucket shower, a spade for the toilet. We dropped our bags and ventured out to collect firewood; we were just scouring the bushes when one of them started to crackle...

Zephian motioned us to halt, then corralled us behind a flimsy tree. White rhino, maybe five or six, were grazing just beyond. As we waited, pin-drop quiet, I was suddenly very aware of my skin; every pore strained to feel, smell, listen. Then, finally, one of the rhino stamped out from the trees, showing us his full, handsome heft mere metres away, before they all bolted off into the scrub.

I spent three days in Imfolozi, thrilled by creatures great and small, from the aposematic exuberance of an elegant grasshopper to the bone-chilling roar of lions in the night. It was no-frills but priceless, being truly humbled by nature. However, after I emerged from our splendid isolation, I opted to safari in a different style.

KZN has several private reserves that offer intimate game-viewing in bush-luxe lodges, but at generally lower prices than in South Africa’s better-known areas. One such is Manyoni Reserve, where Mavela Game Lodge offers a bit of bush chic with a reasonable price tag.

Manyoni was established in 2004 when adjacent landowners removed their fences to create a 23,000 hectare protected area for the World Wildlife Fund’s Black Rhino Range Expansion Project. Since then, other species, such as elephant, cheetah and wild dog, have been