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Ralph & Angela's travels
Umfolozi Bush Camp
The loud, repetitive sound that woke me managed to penetrate the 5 blankets I had vainly hoped would keep off the cold of winter camping in the bush. It made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. It was not the whoop whoop noise of a hyena, nor the deep grunting of the male lion heard earlier in the night. This was more chilling and much closer....yep, Angela was snoring again!
Three days walking in the wilderness section of Hluhluwe-Umfolozi (easily pronounced after a couple of glasses of Drostdy Hof Premier Cru, a wine to be laid down ......and avoided) was a breathtaking re-introduction to African wildlife. There is nothing like walking in a sandy river bed with 3 white rhinos grazing 100ft away on the left river bank, only to realise that there is a grumpy old male buffalo browsing the reeds on the right bank. Your eyes, ears, nostrils and certainly that other orifice are wide open as you realise there are no trees to run behind, but fortunately the animals are more interested in eating. Nearly topping that experience was seeing the huge colourful fireball of a shooting star breaking up in the starlit night sky later that evening as we sat around the campfire.
Many thanks to our fellow guests Neil "City Slicker", Anna (sorry about the Sweden Germany result) and the US visitors Nancy, Tom, Norah and Amy (more degrees between them than a compass) for making it a very sociable 3 days. Special thanks to Jabu and his colleagues for the spectacular walks, for carrying those guns around all day and for showing us tracks 100 feet from our tent and advising that Angela's snoring was actually the sound of a large male leopard!
Before the wilderness safari we were very lucky to have joined our SA hosts, Pat & Roger De La Harpe (see Africaimagery.com for an awesome photo library) on a visit to a wild dog den in an area of the park closed to visitors. Thadaugh Baggallay, a researcher for the Wild Dog Conservation Project, led us down to the White Umfolozi river as he tracked the radio collar on the alpha male dog. We walked and waded up the river until we were opposite the den site, though we couldn't see it from our vantage point. We then had the spine tingling privilege of being barked at by a wild dog, which rightly decided we were near enough. The good news is that wild dogs are thriving in this park, sadly their future in the rest of Africa is far less certain.
We are currently getting our off road trailer ready.
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