THE famous sardine run is not the only regular migration experienced by us lucky people who are blessed to live on KwaZulu-Natal’s sunny shores.
Come the end of every school term, the N3 highway, linking our so-called ‘garden province’ with the hinterland, becomes a stream of up-country visitors surging south to spend their holidays by the sea. At Durban they might turn right and travel along the ribbon of little seaside resorts hugging the South Coast. Others might take a left to visit one of the pretty, sugar-cane surrounded North Coast coastal villages.
Few will deviate from these two options to discover that the gentle garden province has a really wild and woolly side. Continue north past the sugar cane belt, for instant and you will find yourself in a lush, green, wilderness where the fever trees grow, a place of forests and bushveld and swamps, a place that boasts some of South Africa’s oldest game reserves. You have probably heard of Hluhluwe Imfolozi but perhaps you don’t realise there are many other lesser known but equally impressive wild places in that region. Together with the more thorny, rugged, inland reserves they form a rich and multi-textured mosaic of wild places that make the province a world-class ecotourism destination.
It is just that not many people know about all this wealth of unspoilt nature. Talking to other people on our southern African travels, my husband, Bill, and I often find that foreign tourists are totally ignorant about our province. Even many fellow South Africans have never heard of most of our wonderful reserves.
Of course, from a selfish point of view, there is an up-side to all this. Bill and I have just completed a wonderful four-week camping trip reacquainting ourselves with the Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife parks we know and love. The parks and the camping areas were amazingly under-populated, most of the destinations offering us splendid semi-solitude. Except for one busy night at Cape Vidal none of the camping areas were even half full and we would often go for a long game drive with hardly seeing another car along the way.
We love the busier reserves like Addo and Kruger National Park and I am really not knocking them but they can get rather crowded. During the out of season periods, the lack of crowds in most of the Ezemvelo parks really adds to the wilderness experience.
Another bonus was the incredible diversity we enjoyed as we meandered through the wilder areas of our beautiful province. We first headed inland to thorn tree-studded Weenen Game Reserve, which has such an out-of-Africa feel, then trundled along to another of our favourite places, stunning Ithala. From there we headed to Maputoland, spending time in Ndumo and Tembe Elephant Game Reserves.
After visiting the ellies we sampled the delights of one of KwaZulu-Natal’s two Wold Heritage Sites, its magnificent iSimangaliso Wetland Park, staying at Mabibi, Mkhuze Game Reserve, St Lucia’s Sugarloaf Camp and Cape Vidal, all components of this wonderful swampy Eden. Then we folded up our tent and spent three relatively luxurious days at Mpila Camp in Imfolozi, staying in a chalet as the reserve has no camping facilities.
Our experiences along this varied and interesting route included three lion sightings, including a kill, close encounters will many elephants, phenomenal birding and plenty of excellent general game viewing. The different places also offered plenty of tree hugging and the chance to get to know all sorts of interesting vegetation zones.
On many occasions we were reminded that our KZN parks were the birthplace of rhino conservation and we were thankful to the pioneers who had worked to ensure that our generation would be able to enjoy the sight of these wonderful animals grazing peacefully in the wild. That is the last I will say about any rhino sightings as, sadly, I believe more details descriptions could endanger these poor creatures. Suffice to say, Bill and I always found ourselves fervently hoping that other rhino champions were following in the footsteps of the first, noble crusaders. I want my grandchildren to experience the same joy.
Perhaps more nature lovers visiting our parks will mean more eyes to help safeguard our rhinos in the places where rhino conservation began. Join me for the next few weeks on a virtual meander around our wonderful and lesser known Ezemvelo wild places, Hopefully it will tempt you to visit them physically as well.
