August 16-18: Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve

After leaving iSimangaliso Wetland Park, I headed for the purportedly oldest proclaimed nature reserve in all of Africa, the Hluhluwe–Imfolozi Park, located north of Durban in the heart of Zululand:

This Provincial Park consists of 370 square miles of hilly topography north of Durban and is considered the flagship park of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. It is proclaimed to be one of the oldest parks in Africa, originally created in the 1890s as a sanctuary for one last tiny population of southern white rhino. This is where the species was presumably saved from extinction. Thanks to conservation efforts, the Park now has one of the largest populations of white rhinos in the world, although this population remains severely threatened by the poaching of hundreds of rhinos every year in the park. Indeed, I confirmed this with the Rangers I spoke to. Moreover, I even witnessed a recently killed rhino to vividly confirm the reality of this conservation nightmare. Let’s remember who’s really to blame for this despicable business – the Chinese and Omani that create the demand for ivory.

I camped at Nyalazi campground – with only 7 sites – just outside main eastern gate for $10 USD per night, as opposed to staying at one of the lodges in the Park (no camping options) for a minimum of $110 USD per night and upwards (by an order of magnitude for the luxury lodges). I opted for the cheaper option. Note, this was still more expensive than a comparable campground in Mozambique and Malawi. Here’s my site and a sunset view of the Game Reserve from my site:

The Park was much like all the other South African Parks in that it has a paved road right down the middle the length of the Park and several good gravel loop roads off this main road, all manageable by any vehicle. There was only one 4×4 only drive in the Park – which I drove! The Park has several lodges as well. The entire Park is very hilly, with perhaps a thousand feet a relief and consists of extensive dry grasslands on the hills interspersed with brushfields and woodlands, in addition to riparian vegetation along the few major rivers and larger drainages. The hilly terrain made for some very scenic driving. Here are a few shots of the landscape:

I drove most of the accessible roads in the Park and spent a lot of time driving without seeing more than impala, warthogs, and nyala, but I did manage to see a few elephants and the occasional giraffe, zebra, buffalo, wildebeest, kudu, duiker, baboon, and vervet monkey – see the photo gallery below for a few of these. The prize, though, was seeing southern white rhino, which this Park is famous for, as I noted above. I found rhino on several occasions on my drives, including a group of 10 resting in the open next to a pan in the late afternoon – see the video for that footage. Most of my observations, however, were of amimals in the bush, where they like to be for foraging and cover, such as in this photo:

Here’s my composite video of some of my observations at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, mostly watching animals at a mud hole from a hide and watching white rhinos, with a couple of elephant encounters thrown in for good measure:

Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve composite (20 minutes)

I left Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park and headed west towards the Drakensburg Escarpment and ended up at an iOverlander random campground in an historical park called Blood River Heritage Park. This Park is a memorial to the roughly 500 white Voortreckers who battled some 15,000 Zulu warriers in 1838 on this site and killed some 3,000 Zulus before the demoralized Zulu army retreated. The Voortreckers were the Boers (i.e., original Dutch settlers in South Africa) that migrated north from their Cape Town settlement starting in 1836 to avoid living under the Brittish colonial rule. The migration was known as “The Great Trek”. The Voortreckers met with considerable resistance from some of the native tribes, especially the fierce Zulu Nation, who faught them on many occasions. The Zulu nation had the largest army in all of Africa at this time, built up by the famou king Shaka Zulu before the time of this battle. This Park is about what became known as the Battle of Blood River as told from the Boer’s perspective. Being here reminded me of the classic movie Zulu Dawn with a young Peter Otoole. I have vivid memories of the Zulu warriers rushing the barricades with spears and getting mowed down by riffle fire and ultimately admitting defeat and retreating after many thousands were slaughtered. The only difference is here they had a circle of 64 wagons – a “laager” – instead of a missionary fort with adobe walls. What is really interesting, and unique as far as I know, is that right next door to this historical Park is a Zulu run historical Park about the same battle, but told from the Zulu perspective. How interesting to see the history told from two contrasting perspectives. I wish I had time to visit both Parks and hear the contrasting stories, but the Drakensberg compels me. Here are a couple of photos of the wagon laager:

Photo gallery:

From the Wildside:

New Species:

1. Jackal buzzard
2. Golden-breasted bunting
3. Mocking cliff chat