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Teil 3 Safari in Hluhluwe and Isimangaliso
So hier bin ich wieder!
Herzlich willkommen zum letzen Teil meines Reiseberichts aus KwaZulu-Natal!
DAY 8 DRIVE TO HLUHLUWE
This was gonna be our longest driving day.
We began our day with the most delicious choice of home made jams at Karma backpackers in Kestell, then we started our drive to Durban.
In Durban we decided to have a quick stop to get some food and have a look at the City. The roads were full with people, trading fruit and all sorts of things. We walked to the Victoria street market and we were the only white people I could see on the streets. The market itself was not as interesting as we expected, so we went back and had Indian Roti and Curry in a small Indian Café in a shopping centre. Very hot, but nice!
We went on northwards on the N1 (that we first couldn’t find any more) and when we got to Hluhluwe it was already dark. We even took a wrong turn off, what took us another hour of delay. When we finally got to the backpackers, we were really tired and fell into our bed quickly.
DAY 9 HLUHLUWE NATIONAL PARK
Today it was finally the day! We were about to see the African animals in Hluhluwe National Park, one of the oldest and most beautiful National Parks in South Africa. It was established in 1897 and is famous for its rare black rhino (Spitzmaulnashorn).
The first animals we saw early in the morning just after entering the park in our own car were giraffes. We watched them eating and moving graciously for a while. They looked so calm and silent and when the move you think you are watching a video in slow motion. Later we saw a rhino feeding in the bushes and some elephants.
At noon we arrived at the Hilltop Camp, the main camp of the park and booking in for the night, then we had picknick at a nice spot where nyalas were walking around us in a small distance.
On our next loop we saw a big herd of elephants. They were feeding and some crossed the road right in front of us and they had offspring! They are huge, but they look so peaceful and calm. Our next elephant encounter was not so peaceful. We followed a Safari car with guide until he suddenly stopped his car and turned around. There was an elephant bull in must, he told us, and he can get quite naughty. So we rather followed them back. On our way to the camp we spotted another rhino.
After moving into our little Rondavel at Hilltop Camp, we met our guide for a sunset drive. You were not allowed to leave the gates of the camp with your own car after sunset, that’s why we took this opportunity and is was definitely worth it! Because you sit higher than in a normal car and you don’t have to concentrate on driving, you can see much more. It was a lovely evening atmosphere, when we saw a rhino mum with a baby. Unfortunately at this very moment my camera battery died! So less pictures and more enjoying. On the other side of the road was a herd of buffalo, they also had babies. The most special thing, we wanted to see, were Lions and right then a car came from the other side and they told us, they spotted five Lions at the park entrance. Of we went, but somehow the Lions didn’t wanna see us, so they were gone already when we got there. On the next Loop we saw a Hyena. What a freaky animal! It looked like it was drunk or high or something and it seriously reminded me of the stupid hyenas in Disney’s “Lion King”! 😀 We even saw three more hyenas later, they were tumbling right in front of our car on the road and one of them was highly pregnant. When it got dark, we used two halogen spotlights to lighten up the forests and grasslands around us and everyone was busy looking out for glooming eyes in the spotlight. We didn’t see much more, just a rabbit and some birds and it got cold, but it was still very exciting.
DAY 10 HLUHLUWE TO ISIMANGALISO
On our really early game drive today we saw another herd of buffalo. It got chased away be something we couldn’t make out in the bushes. Maybe a lion?
After having a big Sunday breakfast, we went on our last drive, getting tired of sitting in the car the whole time and we were also not so lucky any more. We saw some nyala antelopes, zebras and giraffes.
At around noon we left Hluhluwe and went on the our next destination: St Lucia and the Isimangaliso Wetland Park. When we arrived at the gates of this NP it was already about to get dark, but on our way to the campsite Cape Vidal, we still saw Zebras on the street, Buffalo and Antelopes in the most beautiful light of the sunset! When we got to the campsite it was already dark, we could hardly find the place. After building up our tiny tent in between all this family tent castles (it looked quite pathetic), we had supper in the moonlight at the beach.
DAY 11 CAPE VIDAL
Today we just let go a little and chilled on the beach. The water of the Indian Ocean is so invitingly warm, that we jumped in and out the whole time. The vegetation here is subtropical, so it was nice and warm. When I went to the car to fetch a towel, one of his naughty Samango monkey just hopped into the car and stole our bag of muesli!
In the Afternoon we went for a little drive in the nature reserve and we saw Gnus, really big waterbucks, nyalas, hippos (from a far distance) and a family of Kudu.
Back in the camp after a nice sunset swim, we just chilled at the beach, had food and went to the tent after it started raining and crabs were sitting all over us!
DAY 12 ISIMANGALISO WETLAND PARK
Our last day arrived.
6:15 alarm to pack away tent and put everything back into the car. Another monkey stole our apples and there was a little duiker ( a tiny antelope) on the campsite.
It was raining this day and when we got to St Lucia we heard, that the boat we wanted to go on only leaves in two hours. So we visited a crocodile centre, what was a really interesting museum and a sanctuary where you could see these ancient animals.
The ride on the St Lucia was great! We had our breakfast on the boat and drove past lots of animals. While the boat was gently going down the estuary we spotted a crocodile at the bank, two fish eagles sitting in the mangrove trees, a Goliath Heron waiting for fish, monkeys, a waterbuck and families of hippos! They were everywhere in the water, standing around in small family groups. The male hippos are territorial, but only in the water. Their typical yawning is a sign of strength to impress rivals. At night the hippos leave the lake to graze and at day, they enrich the water’s ecosystem with their excrements. They don’t really swim, but walk on the ground and on land they can run up to 40 km per hour. They can be very dangerous and are responsible for the most deathly injuries caused by animals in Africa!
After this nice special boat trip we drove to Durban, to get closer to the airport and we spent the last hours at Umloti (“Umschloti”). It took us long to find a restaurant, that was open already, but when we finally made it, we were super lucky. This fish there was divine! I would recommend it to everybody, I just can’t remember the name, but it was quite far at the left end of the beach. There was a little bit of time left for us to enjoy the beach and see the little kids jumping into the waves with their body boards, then it was time for us to go to the airport.
I really enjoyed this journey, it was awesome!
Cheers and thanks for reading,
Jasmin
Schmetterlingskunst. 
2. Juni 2014 at 19:00
Hey Jasmin,
da wird man ja glatt neidisch, wenn man diese Bilder sieht, wie aus einem Tiermagazin ;-)…Freut mich, dass du eine schöne Zeit dort hast, weiter so :-).
Liebe Grüße Josef