Hi all! We’ve been out of communication for the last few days because internet access hasn’t made it to bush yet!  But we’ve finally landed someplace that has internet access so now i have four days worth of events to tell you. Geeze… Where to begin??

Jenn and I left the coastal village of Umhlanga on Friday morning and drove north thruogh the mountains to  small town called Ladysmith where the Nambiti Game Conservancy is located.  It took us 6 crazy hours to drive this sometimes treacherous route through the mountains.   I say ‘crazy’ because that is what the South African drivers ARE… they are all crazy when they get behind the wheel. And I say ‘treacherous” because the mountain roads are somewhat cluttered with people and animals walking down the windy streets, all either heading off to do their daily chores or go to work, or just plain meandering.  So we spent most of the drive either avoiding giant potholes in our path  or people, goats, horses and cows. All this whiie sitting behind the wheel of a little Honda Jazz (which is like a Civic) and driving on the left hand side of the road (which was on purpose because that’s what they do here, drive on the left.)  But while it was bit treacherous, the drive was also kind of daring and fun!

We knew our six hours on the road was well worth the effort once we pulled into Nambita Game Conservancy. This game reserve is a gem in the rough. We were met inside the gate by our guide Steve,  who led us to our room in the Elephant Lodge (one of four lodges on the grounds). Our room turned out to be our vey own little thatched-roof zulu style hut with a huge bathtub and an outdoor shower.  Our eyes lit up when we saw the beautiful stone carved outdoor shower because we were weary and filthy and dying to take a shower.

There were four other people (South Africans) also staying at our lodge, each in their own little Zulu style huts.  All six of us went on each game drive together, which occured twice a day. Actually we spent mornings, noon and our evenings with our new Elephant Rock family.  We bonded with Andrea and Mark, a couple from a town close to Durban, and I want to give them a big shout out “hello” before I continue.  We also owe them a big thank you, as it was only with Mark’s help that we managed to drive ourselved out of the mountains and to our next destination, Zulu Nyala (it took about 5 hours. Thanks Mark! :)

For those two days we were at Nambiti, our guide Steve mamaged our lives.  He woke us up at 6:30am sharp each day to start our brisk morning game drive through the park.  Oh… and it was cold!!! But we hardly noticed when we saw our first few animals, a a pair of giraffes fighting!  Now watching a pair of giraffes fight is a lot like watching a cricket match… it can take hours and nothing seems to really happen. But these two giraffes were clearly near the end of their fight because only one of them kept swinging his head into the neck of the other giraffe and also into the belly of the poor guy.  We watched this for about 20 minutes, hoping the 2nd giraffe would pull some kind of slick ‘giraffe move” that would make the first one think twice about whacking him in the neck, but no such luck… the poor little guy had no moves and ended up walking away.

During those two days we saw hippos, giraffes, impala, nyala, cudu, rhinos, jackals, worthogs, zebras, lions and other animals i can’t think of right now - all beautiful, all in their own natural worlds.  It was amazing.  I’ve taken so much video of these animals that I could start my own National Georgraphic of South Africa, but I can’t help myself. Up close, these little (or big) creatures are so graceful and natural that you have to love them.

I am so glad we took our first game drive through a nature conservancy, a place dedicated to saving animals that would probably not have a chance of survival otherwise. The animals at Nambiti all have a history.  Some were rejected by their mothers. Others came from a ‘canned hunting facillity’ where they are raised to be tame, only to have some horrible hunter shoot them through a fence (so they can tell all their friends back in the states they killed the animal while on some big hunt).  These places are actually illegal and the people who use them should be shot! But it goes on anyway.  Other animals are at the reserve because their species is decreasing in numbers and Nambiti helps protect their population numbers.  We certainly have seen a lot, and learned even more on this trip.

Not only were the game drives amazing, but we were treated well to boot! Steve would stop in the middle of each drive and pull out drinks or coffee and muffins for us to snack on while we stretched our legs.  After each game drive, which lasted about three and a half hours, we’d pull up to the lodge and the zulu staff would be waiting for us with a hot towel and a small glass of cherry.  They also prepared our meals three times a day and kept us warm at night by building a beautiful bon fire. 

We’ve since left Nambiti and moved on to Zulu Nyala Game Lodge, but I think we will both carry fond memories of our first game reserve, and this particular conservation reserve, forever.

PS - I won’t be able to post video or pictures until i get home as the internet access here is awful! But I will as soon as i can.