We met our ranger and companions at the jeep loop in the late afternoon for our first safari. Mark was to be our ranger and excursion guide for the week. Eight other people were our ‘assigned team’ – we would safari, dine and possibly even take off property day trips together for the week. Mark is a veteran of the South African bush, an experienced anti-poacher, self trained in the ways of wildlife rather than a formally educated naturalist. Our eight companions are a diverse group, Tony and Chris, a same sex couple from Connecticut, Kelly and Rob, family friends from Indiana, the ‘kids’, a young couple from California who spent more time ‘napping’ than safariing or eating, and our friends from back home who’d we coordinated our travel with. Most of our group had never been to Africa, so there was a palpable sense of anticipation as we climbed into the jeep for our first adventure. My fourth time on safari, I was camera ready and every bit as excited as my first time companions.
Zulu Nyala’s private game reserve is a short drive from the lodge, a quick couple miles on the paved public road, then a quarter mile on a private rutted track that dead ended into a fenced natural area. Mark unlocked and opened the gate and once through, folded down the vehicle’s windshield for the start of our game drive. Zulu Nyala was originally purchased in the 1980’s as a ‘gentleman’s camp’, the politically correct way of referring to what was once a reserve for big game trophy hunting. Today a private preserve for wildlife viewing, Zulu Nyala is small by game park standards, a mere 4500 acres. To put this in perspective, one of Africa’s smaller game parks, Hluhluwe-Umfolozi, which we planned to visit later in the week, is fifty times larger. Zulu Nyala’s compact size afforded some advantages – animal density is high and its small boundaries made it easy to spot wildlife. But its main disadvantage is that its acreage is was too small to sustain cats; a single pride of lions requires a minimum of 4500 acres of habitat, and there needs to be space for new prides to form. We would need to go elsewhere for a chance to see lion, leopard and cheetah. Nevertheless, although small, we soon came to appreciate the beauty of the preserve and the diversity of its landscape – flat scrub, yellow acacia forests interspersed with small lagoons, a grassy plain, lots of mud holes, a meandering river and rocky bluffs.
We followed a track leading through an acacia grove and soon spotted the long muzzles of giraffes, ripping leaves from top branches of the surrounding trees. As we approached, a large male raised its head, watching us as intently as we watched him, and then resumed his dinner. Given the the way this herd of giraffes was intently mouthing branches, stripping them of their leaves, you’d think these trees would die. However, we learned that acacia trees have a built in natural defense – as a giraffe continues to feed on a single tree, it secretes a bitter substance that fouls the taste of its leaves, causing the giraffe to move to another tree. In this way, the tree is not stripped bare to die, yet the giraffe has plenty of leaves to eat.
One of the advantages of visiting South Africa at the end of the rainy season was the abundance of water holes. Probably more accurately called mud holes, these oversized puddles left over from the prior months’ rains, were wildlife magnets, especially for cape buffalo and rhinoceros. Approaching our first water hole, we saw a herd of cape buffalo lolling in the mud, cooling themselves and protecting their hides from the pesky flies.
We frequently saw animals grazing, coated in mud. Despite the mud masque, this water buffalo still has parasites. Not deterred by a little mud, the oxpecker perched on the buffalo’s head, feasts on ticks, flies, lice and worms in the animal’s fur while also pecking at the wounds left by these parasites to feed directly on its host’s blood and tissue.
One of Zulu Nyala’s delightful surprises was the large number of rhinoceros in the preserve. When I was in Krueger in 2011, we saw one rhinoceros; we tracked it for an hour before finding it and our guide said we were very lucky to see a rhino, given how few remained due to poaching. We didn’t see rhinoceros in the Serengeti, again due to their scarcity as a result of poaching, Within the first half hour of our safari, we neared a large male white rhino contentedly grazing. Prehistoric in its appearance with its pointed horn, this magnificent animal looks fierce but spends most of its life with its heavy head and square jaw on the ground eating grass! Over the week, we saw herds of white rhino, grazing, soaking in the mud; we saw several mothers and babies and even spotted the more solitary and elusive black rhino. Mark told us that in the past ten years, South Africa has mounted an aggressive anti-poaching campaign to protect its rhino population and as a result, numbers have dramatically increased. Even a small reserve like Zulu Ngala is estimated to have over twenty five rhinoceros. That bodes well for the continued survival of the species.
Given its size, Zulu Nyala can sustain only three elephants. Unlike giraffes that strip leaves from trees but do not kill them, elephants use their trunks to rip off branches, denuding the trees so much that they die. Elephants are social, so when we sighted an elephant or two, we could typically find the third one someone near.
Driving to the far edge of the reserve, the landscape became hilly and forested. In addition to beautiful view, we spotted a variety of gazing animals; zebra, impala and nyala. Typically females and their immature offspring congregated in small herds while males were solo.
All too soon the sun dropped below the horizon. We watch the sky darken over the bush, tinged pink with the last vestiges of the setting sun. As the moon rose, we headed back to the Heritage Lodge for dinner and a Zulu dance show. Today’s wildlife viewing had been magical – can’t wait to see what nature has in store for us over the next several days!
