Hi Sabine and all at Epic Enabled,
On Monday 14th of January, Michael’s safari
trip, the dream he had wished to realise, finally
began to come to fruition. After months of preparation
and trying to imagine the reality, Michael, my
colleague and myself, found ourselves at the holiday
Inn at Norwich where we had booked rooms in readiness
for our very early flight the next day.
One of our biggest worries was how Michael
would cope with such a long plane journey, involving
a stop in Amsterdam to change planes for South
Africa. In the event, he rose to the occasion
with his usual calmness and ability to go with
the flow. Having been delayed in Amsterdam for
two hours, we eventually arrived in Johannesburg
where we were subjected to another delay caused
by the agonising slowness of the customs process
and what appeared to be a chronic shortage of
staff.
Michael however remained patient throughout
and our tour guide, Alfie Smith, was there to
meet us and had a taxi waiting to take us to
our first port of call, the Willow Park Hotel,
which was about fifteen minutes from the airport.
Once at the hotel, Alfie helped us to find our
rooms, and as we were to stay at the hotel for
the next day and night, he said he would meet
up with us and the rest of the group in the
bar of the hotel “pub” at six o
clock the following evening.
The next day, after breakfast, Michael, myself
and my colleague, relaxed at the hotel and spent
quite a lot of time bird-watching in the grounds
and around the lake area of the complex. We
weren’t sure what Michael’s perception
was, and whether he realised that he had travelled
all the way to South Africa, but he seemed to
revel in the social experience of the hotel’s
life and had a lot of opportunity to chat to
the staff and to other residents, as well as
people attending conferences in the complex.
That evening when we gathered in the pub, Michael
was able to meet the people who would be our
fellow travellers for the safari trip. There
were eleven of us in total, three of whom were
wheelchair-users, accompanied by their spouses.
One of the couples came from Holland and another
from Hungary, but all spoke very good English,
and the group as a whole displayed a great sense
of humour and fun, as well as being welcoming
and inclusive towards Michael, my colleague
and myself.
Alfie proceeded to explain the itinerary to
us and warned us that the weather was likely
to be much hotter than Johannesburg (around
40 degrees centigrade), but that the mosquitoes
were probably not going to be as bad as we expected
and that mosquito nets weren’t usually
necessary.
He explained that our first destination, Tshukudu
Game Reserve, was about 350 kilometres from
Johannesburg and we therefore arranged an early
start the next day.
When we rendezvoused at reception the following
morning, we were introduced to Alfie’s
safari vehicle, a huge converted Mercedes truck,
with a chair lift and sides which opened up
in a roller-blind fashion, to allow us to get
an unimpeded view of the wildlife when we were
out on game drives. There were rows of comfortable
seats in the vehicle, and it was thereafter
affectionately referred to as “Impi”
(Zulu name for a group of warriors). It became
our mobile home for the rest of the trip.
We travelled off to Tshukudu the next day,
passing through a lot of farmland and mountainous
country before getting into the bush and reaching
our destination. The bush camp consisted of
a cluster of small thatched cottages and once
we had all been allotted a residence we unpacked,
and then met for supper at tables set around
a campfire. Alfie and his assistant, Jerry made
all the food throughout the trip and on our
first night we had spaghetti bolognaise.
That night we got our first taste of the bush
when we all heard lions growling. They sounded
as if they were just outside the window and
we learnt the next day that they had been prowling
around the camp’s perimeter. Alfie told
us that lions can be heard growling five kilometres
awaySS.
To start our first full day of the safari we
were taken for a game drive by Jakes, one of
the rangers in Tshukudu. We set off at about
six o’clock in the morning and this was
to be the norm throughout the trip.
We had brunch back at the camp and then went
off to see Jessica, the baby hippo who had been
orphaned by the floods and then adopted by a
farmer. When we arrived we were taken down to
the jetty in the river. Jessica was there. We
were given corn cobs to feed her by hand and
Michael did this more than once, smiling all
over his face! However he did balk at kissing
Jessica and suggested that my colleague do this
instead, which she then did. This was all part
of the Jessica experience and other members
of the group took the opportunity to give her
a little kiss. She would even massage your toes
and one of the ladies in the group sat on the
jetty with her toes in Jessica’s mouth.
The farmer told us that Jessica even watched
television with them. There were several dogs
on the farm who all apparently played with Jessica.
Michael asked the farmer how old the dogs were,
and he replied that they were all three or four
years old, and that they didn’t tend to
live much longer than this because they were
taken by the crocodiles when playing down by
the river with Jessica.
The next morning Alfie along with Jakes and
another ranger called Kim, took us to walk with
the lion cub, Chobe (quite big, about two years
old). Kim’s dog, was also there and played
with Chobe throughout. They were firm friends
as they had grown up together. Michael seemed
a bit wary of Chobe and didn’t want to
stroke her, but he did agree to have his photo
taken with her.
After this we had brunch, then Alfie took us
to Hoedspruit Endangered Animal sanctuary. Among
other things, we saw an orphaned baby rhino,
which was being raised by an adult sheep which
was acting as a surrogate mother. Michael was
very taken with this and kept asking us how
old the sheep was, as it was much smaller than
the rhino! There were several cheetahs in the
reserve and there was a big breeding programme
underway there. Once the animals had finished
with the meat carcasses they were thrown in
an area called the “Vulture Restaurant”
where they were finished off by the vultures.
There were several vultures there when we stopped
by and the Guide explained to us that different
types of vultures had different jobs when tackling
carcasses. He explained that this was why vultures
circled, namely to let the other necessary vultures
know that there was a carcass below so that
each species could do its part of the job.
After this visit we went for another game drive,
and came across a small herd of elephants in
the road, who were familiar with Jakes, the
ranger. There was one very playful baby elephant
that kept trying to get onto the vehicle. Jakes
was able to shoo it away. He said it particularly
wanted to play because it had lost its sibling.
Apparently the other baby elephant had been
gored and killed by a rhino, when it wandered
into the rhino’s space at one of the waterholes.
This was a particularly eventful game drive
and Michael was very animated throughout. As
well as the elephants we saw, a fish eagle,
giraffes and hippos, along with numerous colourful
native birds.
The following day we were up early again, and
this time went walking with a tame cheetah named
Savannah. Michael seemed much more relaxed with
Savannah than he had with Chobe and seemed quite
happy to stroke her. He looked very happy when
Savannah purred in response to his stroking
and when he tickled her ears Alfie told us that
cheetahs are the only big cats that purr! Alfie
warned the wheelchair users not to get too close
to Savannah as she was nervous of wheelchairs.
This message was brought home even more strongly
when we went to another part of the reserve
to see a semi-tame king cheetah. The cheetah’s
hackles went up and it started to advance on
the wheelchair which was at the front of the
group. Kim, the ranger chased it back, while
Jakes, the other ranger, stood in front of the
wheelchair with his rifle at the ready. After
this the rangers thought it best if we left,
and sure enough as soon as we began to retreat
towards the gate, the cheetah started to circle
the group quite menacingly. This necessitated
Kim to chase it back again while Jakes ushered
us all towards the gate. Once we were all safely
outside, Kim explained that cheetahs regard
anything smaller than themselves as prey and
because the wheelchairs were fairly low on the
ground compared to those of us who were standing,
the cheetah probably picked them out of the
group as potential prey.
Later in the evening, Jakes, the ranger, took
us to the lion rehabilitation centre in Tshukudu.
We saw a group of about ten lions, which were
lying beside the road under the trees. We were
ten feet or so away from them. Jakes was familiar
with the lions individually and he said he could
get one of them to roar to order by revving
the engine of the vehicle. He then proceeded
to do this, and the lion roared, much to Michael’s
amusement.
On our final day at Tshukudu we rose at five-thirty,
had a coffee and went off on an early game drive.
After this we had breakfast, packed up our gear,
and headed off to Kruger Park. On the way, we
visited a tribal village, which is now an educational
centre for local school children and tourists.
Our host, who was the chief’s son, met
us and explained everything in advance. We were
treated to a song of welcome and a tribal dance
by some of the children, and we then visited
the huts which all had a different function
in the life of the tribe. We were shown how
to make grass mats and how to grind maize into
flour.
The highlight of the visit was a tribal meal
which we ate in the “wives’ hut”
and which we ate with our hands. Michael declined
to have any of this and in fact seemed overawed
by the visit. He was completely silent throughout,
which was unusual and seemed excited about our
meeting with the chief of the tribe and his
wife who joined us for lunch and answered our
questions. Despite his silence during the visit,
Michael obviously took a lot in and talked about
it on many occasions afterwards. He was particularly
taken with the chief whom he mentioned a lot
throughout the remainder of the trip.
After the visit, we carried on to Kruger where
we were to spend one night in tented accommodation
on the side of a dried-up river bed. The tents
were very elaborate, standing on wooden bases,
with a small staircase up to a patio. Across
the riverbed from the tent which Michael occupied
that night was a huge tree in which a large
group of baboons were beginning to roost for
the night. They were making a lot of noise,
squabbling, fighting over perches, and in some
cases, knocking each other out of the tree.
Alfie, our tour guide, had warned us to keep
the wooden doors of our tents tightly shut,
as baboons had been known to get inside and
trash people’s tents, looking for food.
Indeed, this had happened to him on a previous
visit. Luckily, this didn’t happen to
us, but the next morning we were woken by Vervet
monkeys jumping from tree to tree and using
the roof of the tent as a trampoline in transit
from one tree to another on either side of the
tent.
After our one-night stop here, we headed for
our final destination, Skukuza, which was a
big accommodation complex in Kruger Park and
as well as having quite luxurious housing for
visitors, also had shops, restaurants and swimming
pools. We arrived in late afternoon and still
had time to go out for a game drive before supper.
On this occasion, we saw what is known as the”
Big Five”. This refers to lion, leopard,
elephant, buffalo and rhino, and it is quite
a coup to see them all in the space of one drive.
The next day we were up again at six o’clock
to have an early breakfast, before an all-day
trip. In the early part of the trip we were
stopped in our tracks by a couple of lions who
were lying in the road, and who eventually caused
a traffic jam as all the visitors were trying
to capture them on film. They eventually moved
and we headed off to the crocodile bridge area
where we saw crocodiles and hippos, as well
as groups of baboons who were on the bridge
in big numbers and would jump on any cars which
stopped for any length of time.
Eventually we went up to a mountain area where
there was a look-out post, giving a panoramic
view of the bush as it stretched away into the
distance, Alfie our guide, told us at this point,
that the Kruger Park was huge, roughly about
the size of Holland, and that fences were now
being taken down on the borders to allow the
animals to go into the park areas of other countries.
Michael, my colleague and I stood in the hide
and tried to see what we could spot. Michael
proved very good at this, which was no mean
feat, as the animals were well camouflaged and
the greenery was at its most profuse, being
the wet season. We had our final supper that
night out on the grass between the houses we
were occupying, and we started to get our gear
packed afterwards. Michael, my colleague and
I had managed to get to the site shop after
the game drive and Michael chose himself a couple
of lovely books about Kruger, as well as some
clothes, and one or two other things which took
his fancy.
The next day we set off early to go back to
Willow Park in Johannesburg for one more night
before flying home the next day. Before leaving
Kruger we saw some hyena cubs lying under a
bush at the side of the road. We hadn’t
seen any hyenas up until that point. We also
passed some zebra and wildebeest grazing together,
and our guide told us that they did this for
protection.
Once we were at Willow Park, we relaxed in
readiness to leave the next day. In the process
of this we also said goodbye to our fellow travelling
companions who had been such good company throughout
the trip. We spent the next day at Willow Park
resting up, and got our flight back home late
that evening.
Michael managed to get some sleep on the flight,
and we all arrived back in Norwich at lunchtime
on January 26th, having had a great safari and
with a feeling that Michael had truly realised
his dream.
Bob Hanna – February 2008
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Hi Sabine and all at Epic Enabled,