Two Bits: Wildlife is our treasure trove

Samuel Johnson said that if you’re tired of London, you’re tired of life. I think the same can be said of elephants.

It’s fascinating how much pleasure people get out of watching them walk, drink, play and spar. Especially the small ones, which is a sure fire way to get the women oohing and ag shaming.

We’re just got back from 10 days in Chobe game reserve in Botswana and Hwange reserve in Zimbabwe, which was a hugely rewarding trip. Even driving 5 000 km was pleasant, though I had to sharpen up my pothole dodging skills between Francistown and Martin’s Drift border post. The potholes around here, although annoying, are trifles compared with their Botswana sisters (of course they’re female!).

A trip along the Chobe River was an eye-opener. I spent three months on border duty in the Caprivi Strip back in the 70s, but still I was not prepared for the scale of animals and birds we saw from a boat on the river in the Kasane area, closer to the confluence with the Zambezi.

We watched a herd of elephants swimming across the Chobe to one of the midstream islands then gambolling in the mud, which was lovely to watch.

Of special interest was a tiny breeding colony of African Skimmer birds on a sandspit.

Apparently there are only a handful of Skimmers left there and in the Zambezi valley, although I’m told they used to breed at St Lucia.

Then we went on to Hwange reserve in Zimbabwe, which was interesting though a little sad. The roads were difficult – three hours to cover 100km – and the Zim parks board sites were suffering from neglect. We stayed in a wonderful private camp, so had nothing to complain about on that score. Game was not that abundant, while birdlife was amazing.

The only game that was out in numbers was elephant. We saw little ones, big ones, tuskers and very large ones. At one waterhole, we counted 73 elephants in view at one time! There was lots of oohing and aahing, as you can imagine!

All this wildlife was a huge treat for former Ballitoites Duncan and Lois McLagan, who haven’t seen anything much bigger than a kangaroo since they left for Perth in the 90s. Our party consisted of the Macs, her brother and wife and another couple from Pretoria. (The Macs send greetings to all their friends here.)

In fact, I wonder if even we locals appreciate how very lucky we are to have this abundance of wildlife on our doorstep.

We met visitors from all over the world who had made long journeys to soak up all that Botswana and Zim have to offer. For us it’s a long drive, but quite feasible – and if you don’t want to travel far, Umfolozi and Hluhluwe are a step and a skip away.

I must add that all the border crossings were absolutely pain free. If all your documents are in order, it’s a breeze. We got around the ban on transporting meat through Botswana by ordering ahead from a butcher in Panamatenga, up north in Botswana, and that worked a treat. And damned cheap, I must add.

No really, the issue here is that we have this incredible resource that the world is prepared to pay good money to come and see, and we need to do more to preserve it. It’s South Africa’s goose that lays the golden eggs and will keep on laying if we look after it.

The Ballito Pro used the #SaveTheWaves campaign to draw attention to the waste being dumped in the sea. There have been numerous media articles on the damage being done to fish and birds by plastics of every description. The current campaign to stop using plastic drinking straws may even seem a futile gesture towards saving the environment, but it is a theme that may well catch on. Why can’t they go back to making straws from paper? I seem to remember they worked just fine. Anyhow, we must hope that it could be the beginning of a groundswell against the uncontrolled dumping of plastics and other waste into our environment.

Sanparks and other nature conservationists are throwing millions into combatting poachers of rhino, elephant, wild cats and even donkeys, which find a ready market in the Far East.

We need this country’s leaders to state loudly and boldly that they are firmly committed to fighting poaching, uncontrolled dumping of toxic wastes, even bans on some products that use plastic unnecessarily.

The ban on plastic bags, for instance, has gone a long way to cleaning up the environment. A lot more can be done and should be.

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Devotee: Guru, how do I learn about my mistakes?

Guru: Identify one mistake in your wife and tell her to correct it. In response, she will help identify all your mistakes along with your family’s and your friends as well. It’s that easy.