We spent the morning in the iMfolozi half of the game reserve, generally lower Savannah land. Today was hot and dry and it reminded me of the interior of Spain or Majorca. There is lots of budding greenery after the recent rain which brings out the wildlife to graze. We saw far too much to write up, but the highlights were giraffe, right at the road side, towering above us and moving with a languid sashay. We got close to rhino, buffalo, impala and miscellaneous other small antelope varieties, monkeys, gibbon, warthogs, elephant, grouse, eagles, vultures - it reads like a punch-list and creates the impression of teeming hordes of life. It wasn't like that at all. If you looked out over the veldt at any given moment it would seem vast, empty and arid, covered variously with low scrub, grassland and trees struggling back into life. The river gullies are a riot of jungly growth, including tangled growths of palm. Usually you can spot solitary of groups of wildlife off in the distance, but it is difficult for these old eyes to spot.
In retrospect the strongest impression left on me was the breathtaking wide open spaces of rolling hills stretching as far as you can see. The air is wondrously clear and sweet to breathe in deeply. The silence is profound and pervasive and not much broken by birdsong. Sundown brings haze and shadows, the ranks of hills thrown into sharp relief out to the horizon. It is just magic and tragic when you see it surrounded by the march of big agriculture with it's huge timber and cane plantations and the spread of scruffy village sprawl with free roaming herds of cattle and goats. Wishing for the unenclosed African past is clearly futile and sentimental, but something precious and irreplaceable seems as good as lost to the march of progress.
Onward.
Most the day was taken up with a bum numbing 140 mile drive, stretched over eight hours, up to Dundee. We stopped for lunch at a cafe in Melmoth and continued on. Twenty miles out one of us remembered they had left their cameras at the café. As we pulled over and groaned the prospect of a forty mile detour, a pick up truck pulled front of us. Out jumped the café owner with cameras in hand, an impressive kindness and for me emblematic of the friendliness we have found everywhere in South Africa. We arrived in Dundee about an hour before sundown and checked into the Royal Hotel Country Inn. The hotel is a real throwback, established in 1886, it is filled with colonial war memorabilia from African, British and Dutch sources; all authentic we are assured. Our rooms are set around a small open courtyard filled with flowering plants dominated by the heavy scent of Jasmine. I'd defy anyone to resist having a gin and tonic there, while wondering when someone will show up to help remove your cavalry boots. The place is run by Motz Bezuidenhout, but you would swear she is Judy Dench's long lost twin sister.
For a rather good selection of wildlife pictures, take a look at Zeke's blog
https://zekethesailor.net/2016/09/21/wildlife/
Great writing, Liam. Enjoying every bit.
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