Overland Travel With KMcGee

After leaving Lesotho, I headed southeast back towards the coast to begin my journey along the eastern Cape back to Cape Town. I had a random one-night stopover en route to my next destination, Dwesa Nature Reserve on the coast:

Dwesa Nature Reserve is administratively combined with the adjacent Cwebe Nature Reserve in the Eastern Cape Province. Parts of the Reserve were established in 1927 and later expanded in 1975, covering an area of 21 square miles, and it is combined with the Dwesa-Cwebe Marine Protected Area, established in 1989 and covering an area of 74 square miles. On one side, the reserve is surrounded by the Indian Ocean, and on the other by rugged coastal , scarp forest, coastal scrub (i.e., dense tangle of short trees, shrubs and vines that is almost impenetrable) and coastal grasslands. The Reserve is split into two parts (Dwesa and Cwebe) by the Mbashe River. I only visited the Dwesa part of the Reserve as it is the only part with public camping. I spent two wonderful nights in the Reserve and on my full day I took a six-hour hike through the Reserve to one of the rocky headlands, as shown in these photos:

I camped at the Dwesa public campsite. Interestingly, when I arrived at the gate after driving two hours on gravel road from the main highway, they told me that there were no accommodations because everything was undergoing renovation, including the campground. Consequently, the place was empty except for a few staff at the gate and reception. After a few lost heart beats, thinking I would have to retrace my path and find another place to stay, I talked them into letting me camp because I am totally self-contained; i.e., I have my own water and don’t really need a flush toilet. So, I had the entire Reserve, including the campground to myself. And what a delightful campsite it was, situated in an opening within the coastal scrub along a small stream a short distance from the beach. However, if all the designated sites had been occupied it would have been a zoo, as the sites are packed together with barely enough room for a vehicle and tent. I parked the Green Dragon under a large flowering tree that was buzzing all day with sunbirds and weavers -glorious. Here’s my campsite:

Although this Reserve protects important indigenous coastal ecosystems (i.e., scarp forest and coastal scrub and grassland), I was surpised and disappointed at how run down the infrastructure was: roads mostly overgrown and impassable, signs non-existant or grow over, structures old and falling apart, foot bridges falling apart, etc.. I was quite surprised, because South African Parks are generally extremely well maintained. They claimed they were renovating the facilities, which were supposed to be done in June, but I saw almost no evidence of renovation except one new building that I think is going to be an ablution for the campground. What a shame. This Park at one time must have had top-notch infrastructure and accommodations, but clearly they abandoned all maintenance years ago and everything is deteriorating. The supposed renovation hasn’t even scratched the surface. The hired workers are mowing the grass while the buildings and bridges and roads are falling apart – go figure. Sorry, I digress, but it’s just because this is so atypical of South African Parks.

Ok, sadly, I am off to my last wildlife park and safari, Addo Elephant National Park. See you there.

New Species:

1. Green twinspot
2. Greater double-collared sunbird
3. Southern boubou
4. Kysna woodpecker
5. Olive woodpecker
6. Cape ganet
7. Blue-collared crested flycatcher

This post covers my five-day tour of Lesotho. Unfortunately, I don’t have an easy means of drawing on the image above to show my route, but basically, I entered via Sani Pass, a rugged 4×4 route up the escarpment in the Drakensberg, which you can find on the map above on the east-central edge of the country. I then made my way to the village of Thaba-Tseka west of Sani, almost to the middle of the country. Then, I turned south and eventually made my way to Maletsunyane Falls, which is shown the map. Then I headed southwest to near Quthing, which you will also see on the map. Finally, I exited out of the country south of Quthing at a small border post called Telle Bridge, which is not shown on the map.

For this post, I decided to do a video slideshow of the countryside as I toured in the Green Dragon, but here are a few comments about the country to go with the video, without repeating what I already said about the country in my previous “Welcome to Lesotho” post. Even though the country is elevated high up on a geological plateau of sorts, there is nothing flat about this country. Indeed, everything is mountainous, with never-ending steep up and down slopes. I am not exaggerating when I say that I drove in second gear probably 75% of the time, either struggling to go up steep grades that were easily 20% at times – the damn Chinese and their road engineers – or trying not to use my brakes going down those same grades. I even had to go down to first gear at times. Rarely did I get into third gear, and I believe I got to forth gear maybe twice towards the end of the tour. The video just doesn’t do justice to the steepness of the country. And the roads don’t contour along the major drainages; rather, they go up and over the mountains at all times. Up-down, up-down, over and over. I must have driven over a dozen high passes along my route, and numorous minor ones. Fortunately, there were very few other vehicle on the roads, so I had the roads mostly to myself most of the time.

Next, there is hardly a tree to be found in the entire country. Well, that’s not quite true, but it felt like it. Most of the high elevation country, which is most of the country, has no trees at all; rather, it is all montain grassland and heathland as far as the eye can see covering all the mountain slopes, ridgetops and valley bottoms. Grass, grass, and more grass. You have never seen so much grass in mountain country, as opposed to grasslands on the flat prairies. The main occupation and land use is sheep and goat herding, with a few cattle thrown in occasionally. Also, keep in mind that it is winter and the dry season in these photos, so the vegetation is dry and brown mostly – but note the cherry blossoms on the few scattered planted trees.

Nest, geologically, most of the country is comprised of that igneous rock cap, mostly basalt, that I discussed previously in my Drakensberg video. If you pay attention in the video, you will notice the striking difference between the higher elevation igneous country with darker soils and rugged mountains covered with grass and heath, and without strong horizontal banding of the rocks. When I descend into a few of the lower elevation valleys, note the difference in the rock formations and soils. The rock formations are strongly bedded horizontally and the soils are reddish. These are obviously places where erosion has removed the basalt cap and eroded canyons out of the sedimentary rocks. This lower country looks a lot like places in northern Arizona and Utah.

If you want to take a drive through Lesotho, at least the part that I drove through, check out the following video slideshow. Note, the slideshow is in chronological order as I entered up through Sani Pass into Lesotho and the subsequent four days of driving cross country, sometimes on gravel (occasionally 4×4) and sometimes on nice paved roads – thanks to the Chinese I am told:

Lesotho video slideshow (11 minutes)

For the birders that might be following – you know who you are – there’s a not-so-great photo of a bird in flight. See if you can guess what this bird is. Hint, it is endemic to the Drakensberg and Endangered, and with the angle of the photo you can’t make out the tail, but it’s there. Don’t let the lack of a visible tail mislead you. Gold star if you guess the species.

New Species:

1. Bearded vulture
2. Cape rock thrush
3. Southern bald ibis

I am entering the country of Lesotho for the first time on my African overland journey, so it is worth sharing a few factoids about this country to put things in better context and to educate myself (and you, if needed) a little about this corner of the world. Here is what I learned from my research.

• As you can see in the map above, Lesotho is a land-locked country embedded entirely within South Africa, located between the latitudes 28-29 degrees south, which in terms of distance from the equator is the southern hemisphere equivalent to the U.S.-Mexican border in the northern hemisphere.
• It is the largest enclaved (i.e., something embedded within another) country in the world. There are only 3 enclaved countries in the world, can you guess the others?
• At almost 12,000 square miles, it is a little bit smaller than the state of Maryland.
• Roughly 2 million people, compared to ~332 million in the U.S..
• Sesotho and English are the official languages, the former being spoken by most Basotho (the people of Lesotho) but the latter is used for government business.
• Government is described as a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy, The Prime Minister is the head of government and has executive authority. There is a King, but he is largely ceremonial and has no real political power. The parliament has a lower house of elected representatives and an upper house, or Senate, composed of principal tribal chiefs whose membership is hereditary and appointees of the king. There is an independent judicial system, but there is no trial by jury – yikes; rather, judges make rulings alone or, in the case of criminal trials, with two other judges as observers.
• Currency is both the Lesotho Loti and the South African Rand.
• Major exports include diamonds and water, along with manufactured goods (garments, electronics, and footwear) and other crude materials (wool and mohair – the hair from goats).
• Like most of the region, it was occupied by humans for probably 10,000 years, perhaps even much longer by the San people,who were the original indigenous people of the region, until it was “colonized” by the Bantu people in the 5th century from west Africa. The San were largely exterminated, displaced or assimilated in the region of Lesotho. The Besotho people comprised various tribes of Bantu and occupied a much larger region of South Africa than Lesotho. However, they were largely displaced from areas outside of Lesotho by the Dutch Boer settlers and the Zulu people. In part due to its geographic isolation from the lower-lying surrounding country and in part due to the efforts of the first King to consolodate the existing Basotho triies, Lesotho was eventually formed as a nation in 1824 by King Moshoeshoe I. However, continuous encroachments by Dutch settlers (Boers) made the King enter into an agreement with the British Empire to become a protectorate in 1868 and, in 1884, a crown colony. It achieved independence in 1966 around the same time most other Africa countries achieved independence, and was subsequently ruled by the Basotho National Party (BNP) for two decades. Its constitutional government was restored in 1993 after seven years of military rule. King Moshoeshoe II was exiled in 1990 but returned in 1992 and was reinstated in 1995. One year later, Moshoeshoe II died and his son Letsie III took the throne, which he still holds. It is unclear how much the slave trade impacted the Besotho people, but I suspect they suffered from the Portuguese slavers until the British colonized the area, like most of the rest of east and south Africa.
• Lesotho has one of the highest rates of literacy in Africa, estimated to be >80%.
• The country’s HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is the second-highest in the world at roughly 25% – yikes!
• Lesotho has the highest pub in Africa at 9,429 ft, the Sani Mountain Lodge in the Sani Pass.
• Lesotho has the highest lowest elevation (~4,600 ft) of any country in the world; hence, its nickname “Kingdom of the Sky”. Indeed, it is the only country lying entirely above 3,280 ft (1,000 m).
• Lesotho is one of only a few places in Africa where you can ski, at a place called Afriski located in the Maluti Moutnains with a peak elevation of 10,571 ft).
• Has <~1% of its total land area devoted to national parks, reserves and wildlife management areas. This is a tragedy given the spectacular landscape, but not terribly surprising given the undeveloped and poor state of the country. Nevertheless, other equally poor African countries have done a much better job of protecting their natural heritage.

After leaving the Blood River Heritage Park, I headed to the Drakensberg Mountains, first to Royal Natal National Park in the northern portion and then to the Cobham section of Maloti-Drakensberg Park in the southern portion.

My first three days were spent in the northern portion of the Drakensberg in Royal Natal National Park. This Park is 31 square miles located in KwaZulu-Natal Province at the northern end of the Drakensberg and forms part of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site as well as the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation Area Peace Park along with protected lands in the abutting country of Lesotho.

Like most of South Africa, the Drakensberg Mountains were once the hunting ground of the San people (bushmen) – remember them from the movie “The Gods Must be Crazy”. The San were largely nomadic, hunter-gatherers and though the San no longer live in the area, they recorded their exploits in the form of remarkable rock paintings, and the Park is notable for its concentration of recorded sites. On my first hike, I came upon a small bit of San rock art in the form of a couple of pictographs dated to be about 8,000 years old. The San inhabited the region for at least 40,000 years and perhaps even longer. Can you imagine a culture lasting that length of time, given that our Euro-American culture is only 400 years old?

The flagship natural feature of the park is the Drakensberg Amphitheater, a rock wall 3.1 miles long by up to 3,900 feet high. Tugela Falls cascades down from the head of the Amphitheater and is purported to be the world’s highest waterfall at 983 meters or 3,900 feet. Unfortunately, there has been no rain in this region since May and thus everything is dry and most of the streams aren’t even running, except for a trickle. The stream source for Tugela is a watershed in Lesotho up on top of the plateau and escarpment, and there is no water in it, as I confirmed on both of my hikes. So, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see the actual waterfall in action. Approaching the Park by car and seeing the Amphitheater from a distance is quite striking, as shown here:

Note the tall block-shaped peak anchoring the right side of the Amphitheater; that’s Sentinel Peak which figures prominantly in my second full day hike in the composite video below.

Also, this Park, like most in Africa, burns the vegetation frequently, and I have talked a lot about this in my blog to date. On my hikes, there were some great examples of before and after showing what burning does to the dry grasslands, does, so I thought I would show that here:

Note, in the photo above, clearly it has been some weeks since the area was burned, hence the abundant green shoots of grass coming up – despite the lack of precipitation. The contrast between before and weeks after burning is quite striking.

I did a short hike to a small waterfall and a viewpoint on the day I arrived, and then a long hike each of the next two full days. The first hike was from the bottom, hiking up Tugela canyon to a slot canyon close to the base of Tugela Falls, and looking up at the Amphitheater.

The next day I drove up high and hiked up to and around the base of Sentinel Peak to the top of Tugela Falls – albeit without water – and looking down from the top of the Amphitheater.

I took a lot of video footage of all three of my hikes, to create virtual hikes for those of you that like that, and I talked a lot about the geology of the area on one of the hikes, so I am not going to repeat it here. Sorry, you’ll just have to watch the video if you want a very simplified version of the geological processes that created this amazing landscape.

Here’s the link to my composite video from Royal Natal National Park. Note, this video is entirely a set of three virtual hikes, with regular footage and commentary along the trail. So, it’s very long, in part because of my geology overview on one of the hikes, but also because I compressed 15 hours of hiking into 45 minutes; also, it’s a great way to go on the hikes without actually doing the work – I know, I can hear some of you right now saying, but what’s the fun in that? However, most of you will never get here and do these hikes, so this is your only chance to hike here, even if it is only virtual. Lastly, I am dedicating this video to Yaroon, who commented that my Mount Mulanje trek video was his favorite of all time, so that has inspired me to do this virtual hike video:

Hiking Royal Natal National Park composite (45 minutes)

At Royal Natal National Park,I camped in the public campsite called Mahai. It was essentially a big field with scattered trees – nothing to rave about – but the view up at the escarpment was stunning and the ablutions were first rate. Here’s a photo of my site the first night, but I switch to one with a shade tree for the next two nights, but both had the same stunning backdrop:

After three days in Royal Natal NP, I headed to the southern section of the Drakensberg to the Cobham section of Maloti-Drakensberg Park. This area has the same basic geology as Royal Natal and the same cultural history, as it too is renowned for its preserved sites with San rock paintings. Apparently, there are over 500 recorded rock cave shelters used by the San 8,000 plus years ago with over 30,000 recorded individual pictographs or paintings. I took two full day hikes in this section, the first up to a high point called the Pinnacles and the second up a major canyon to a series of San rock cave shelters that are now used as destination wilderness campsites. The country was stunning and reminded my alot of places Nancy and I have hiked in the western U.S. Predominantly canyons, big and small, cut through the sedimentary formations with the slopes, ridges and valley bottoms covered with grasslands, except for the occasional patch of forest in a protected drainage or cove. Here’s a few photos from my hikes:

As with my visit to Royal Natal, this Park was about stretching my legs in some beautiful country, and thus my composite video below is another set of virtual hikes. So, again, if you enjoy going on virtual hikes, watch this video:

Hiking Maloti-Drakensberg Park composite (25 minutes)

My campsite at Cobham was quite nice, situated under some big cedar trees with a view of the surrounding canyon and nice ablutions. The picture shows lots of tents, but these were for a student group that was in the back country, so I had the campground to myself until the third night when another family showed up.

Ok, I’m off to Lesotho entering via the famed Sani Pass. See you there! But, may not have internet service for the next several days while in Lesotho, so don’t hold your breath for my next post.

New Species:

1. Olive thrush
2. Yellow-throated bush sparrow
3. Cape wagtail

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

I crossed into South Africa immediately after leaving Ponta do Ouro. If you want to recall some interesting factoids about this country, take a look at the “Welcome to South Africa” post from last year, as I won’t repeat them here. However, it is worth noting here that as soon as I crossed the border I entered the comparatively developed world with a noticeably higher standard (and cost) of living. Roads (including all primary, secondary and even many tertiary) are all paved, and if they are not, then they are solid gravel. There are even some roads with paved sidewalks and I even saw a couple of road crews picking up trash along the highway. And the housing, in general, is way, way better for most people. Most of the towns of any size have genuine supermarkets (sometimes several), banks with ATMs, and even shopping malls in some places. In Mozambique and Malawi, and even Kenya and Tanzania, these things only existed in the big cities. Everything cost 3-4 times more than in the previous countries, including, especially food and lodging. Now, don’t allow these observations to make you think I entered the fully developed western world. Nope, there’s still trash everywhere, recall from last year that not ALL roads are in great condition (some pothole hell here as well), and there are still slums in other parts of the country (e.g., Joburg), and not everyone has a decent house, but what a difference.

Driving through this corner of the country also took me past thousands of acres of pineapple farms (of course I stopped at a roadside stand and purchased a couple) and perhaps hundreds of thousands of acres of industrial tree farms, almost exclusively Eucalyptus trees with perhaps 1% some kind of sand pine. I felt like I could have been driving through Weyerhauser Company lands in Washington state, if I substituted Douglas fir for Eucalyptus.

My first destination in South Africa was Isimangaliso Wetland Park, previously known as the Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park. This Park is situated on the northeast coast in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa about 146 miles north of Durban by road.

Isimangaliso is South Africa’s third-largest protected area, spanning 170 miles of coastline, from the Mozambican border in the north to Mapelane south of the Lake St. Lucia estuary, and encompasses 810,000 acres of natural ecosystems managed by the iSimangaliso Authority.

What is this so-called Authority? I learned from talking to Park staff that this Authority is a joint venture between the government and a private corporation, and it really shows. The Park is clearly being run as a for-profit business based on the prices charged for entry and overnight camping. For example, I paid $45 USD per day just for entry, plus $75 USD per night for camping. Note, that is roughly 10 times what I had been paying for campsites in Mozambique and Malawi, and, as it turns out, the campsites in the former two countries were much more to my liking. Not only that, but they have divided the Park into something like 10 sections, and each section is administered separately, so you have to pay separately to enter each section. I wanted to stop en route to my second night destination campsite at a couple different places to look for wildlife, but at each gate they wanted me to pay another $45 to enter just for a hour or so. Highway robbery! Extortion! I got the sense that the government sold a half share of the Park to this corporation to make some big bucks. Oh ya, did I say that they are also capturing animals here, including zebra and waterbuck for sure, and selling them to buyers such as private I game farms and Parks in places like Malawi and Mozambique that are trying to rebuild their native fauna. I ran into a team and their game transport trucks heading out to capture zebra and waterbuck. I don’t like the philosophy behind this Park! Selling off animals might be reasonable if the habitats were at carrying capacity, but from what I saw, they are far from it. Indeed, I saw very few animals for the size of the Park and the quality of the habitat. I’m guessing that this is at least partly due to them selling off animals to make a buck.

The park was proclaimed a world heritage site in 1999 because of the rich biodiversity, unique ecosystems and natural beauty occurring in a relatively small area. The reason for the huge diversity in fauna and flora is the great variety of different ecosystems in the park, ranging from coral reefs, sandy beaches and rocky shoreline, subtropical dune forests (or thickets), grassland savannahs, and a variety of estuarine and freshwater wetlands and lakes. In fact, it is recognized as one of the outstanding natural wetland and coastal sites of Africa. Here’s some photos of the different ecosystems I observed:

For my first night, I camped in the northern third of the Park at a campsite called Sodwana Bay. I had high hopes for this site, but in turned out that this is a major destination for tourists wanting to recreate on the beaches and for scuba diving on some of the offshore reefs. Get this, the campground had over 1,000 sites; yes, that’s right, 1,000! It was a maze of roads with sites in every direction and packed together. AND, during the high season it gets fully booked! Can you imagine? It would be a total zoo. Fortunately for me, there was no one else in the entire campground that I saw except for the game capture folks. There were also 2 or 3 private lodges within the Park next to the campground that were full with people, mostly scuba divers I believe. I was partly excited about camping here because they had a 5 km hiking trail in the interior to the grasslands and wetlands that was suppose to be great birding, since they have no roads to drive. Well, the trail was closed because of lack of maintenance and because they claim there had been some “muggings”. With all the money this corporation is raking in – remember, 1,000 fully booked during the high season at crazy high prices – it’s reasonable to expect them to maintain the only trail in the Park and do a little law enforcement for tourist safety. I was very bummed, since the only thing left to do is hang out on the beach! Here’s a shot of my campsite and I couple of the visitors I had:

I left Sodwana and headed south to Cape Vidal in the southern third (and different section) of the Park and one that I had read about and heard from some fellow overlanders was a really, really nice spot and campground. Cape Vidal is about 30 km out on a penninsula and the furthest point you can drive on the pennisula. I expected to drive out on a sand track to a remote, little used, beautiful setting with perhaps a few other people. Wrong! The road was paved, there were lots of tourists, and the campground was abysmal. If you have ever camped at most state park campgrounds in the U.S. you might be able to picture this campground. At least 50 sites, each small and right next to each other. No privacy, packed with campers, many retired but some with loud kids, most with the classic South African set up; i.e., a huge compound with multiple trailers, chairs, tables, security lights on stands, kitchen tents, and all sorts of stuff to keep them supplied and entertained for days. So, no surprise, I decided not to stay a second night. Here’s a shot of my campsite – the farthest from the ablutions as possible and with a couple vacant sites either side of me as a result – before even more people arrived, for what its worth, and I am not going to show the beach because it looked almost exactly like the last few beaches I visited:

Perhaps the only positive thing about this site, other than the hot showers, is that I did have a couple of welcome campsite visitors:

This section of the Park only has one drive open to the public, which sucks given the size of the area, and I saw very little wildlife on this drive other than a few zebra and a dozen or so buffalo, except for this beautiful girl:

Note, given Rick’s comment on my last past, I felt obliged to show my mistress – as apparently I have one!

But I did encounter several greater Kudo driving in and out of the Park, which are always a delight to see, especially the bulls with their huge spiral horns (see video for that):

Here’s a quiz bird for Phil (and anyone else that fancies themself a birder; e.g. Stephen, Steve, Brenda, …):

Here’s a composite video of my visit to iSimangaliso Wetland Park, but keep your expectations low:

iSimangaliso Wetland Park composite (17 minutes)

I’m off to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, supposedly the oldest proclaimed nature reserve in all of Africa, where they supposedly have lots of white rhinos. We’ll see about that.

I finally made it to my last destination Park in Mozambique, Maputo National Park, which covers 400 square miles on the southeastern coast of Mozambique bordering South Africa and Eswatini.

The Park was originally established as a hunting concession in 1932, and then in 1960 is was proclaimed a Reserve to protect a small population of coastal elephants resident in the area, and then in 2009 the Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve was declared to help protect a variety of marine species, including dugongs and sea turtles, and then finally in 2021 the two Reserves were combined into Maputo National Park.

In 2000, it also became part of a huge Transfrontier Conservation Area encompassing well over two million acres that includes national parks from all three bordering countries. Note, don’t picture this Transfrontier Park as a single contiguous protected Park, but rather as a set of Parks connected together by a matrix of lands in which there are concerted conservation efforts to protect wildlife, but these are mostly inhabited lands that are quite heavily used by humans. So, some of this is really just lines on a map and a way to attract international funding for projects, rather than truly protected lands, but I suppose it’s better than the alternative of completely unconstrained human land use in the matrix.

Maputo National Park is a “forest meets the sea” Park, similar to Saadani National Park in Tanzania, if you recall. However, Maputo is unique in that it is entirely comprised of ancient sand dunes and is surprisingly diverse given the rather homogenous soils; it includes several large freshwater lakes, extensive freshwater wetlands, dry and wet grasslands, grassland savannah, sand thicket and forest (or dune scrub forest), swamp forests, mangrove forests along the coastline, and extensive beach and tidal mudflats. Truly, this Park has an amazing diversity of environments for existing entirely on ancient sand dunes. The entire Park and all the varied environments listed above occur on ancient dunes created from millions of years of sea level rise and fall. Thus, the landscape is a series of rolling hills (former dunes) formed of deep sand and covered with dry grassland, savannah or dense forest thickets, with large inter-dunal basins between that either support lakes, marsh embedded within wet grasslands and the occasional swamp, and this extends 25-30 km inland from the coast. I haven’t visited any Park like it. Here are a few shots of the landscape:

Maputo has had the nearly identical history of all the Parks and Reserves throughout Mozambique and Malawi. All of the wildlife was wiped out during the civil war and afterwards from poaching, except for a few animals and a small remnant elephant population. Unfortunately, the white rhino population was wiped out in the 1980’s along with most other species. In 2010, the Reserve started reintroducing the large mammal fauna and by 2021 had reintroduced over 5,000 animals encompassing over a dozen species, including several antelope species as well as some of the big cats, such as cheetah, leopard, and serval. The elephant population has grown to 400 and it is now even being used a source of animals for relocation to other Parks and Reserves. Along with the recovery of the large mammal fauna, the Park has revitalized tourism in the Park, including updating several facilities. The Park returns 20% of the tourism revenue to the local communities as compensation and to encourage their engagement in and endorsement of the Park. Based on what I saw, the Park is doing a great job. The roads are signed well and the campgrounds have first rate facilities. There are animals to be seen, albeit with some difficulty, and a decent number of tourists. Overall, I rate this Park as a great one to visit, not only because of the unique and diverse environments and fauna, but also because of the top-notch facilities. I think in another 10-20 years the wildlife populations will be large enough that wildlife drives will be very productive as well.

For my first night, I drove about 25 km on sand track, much of it soft and deep, through the middle of the Park out to the beach to a lodge and campground called Ponta Membene. The Green Dragon proved its worth, not only for getting me easily through all the deep sand, but also for rescuing a local vehicle that got stuck. They slowed down in the sand and stalled and couldn’t start the engine. Apparently, this engine problem was well known to the driver and his 4 or 5 accompanying friends. Anyways, I had to put the Green Dragon in low 4×4 and push the truck through the soft sand for 20 m or so to jump start his truck. I wasn’t sure Green Dragon would be able to push his smaller truck in the deep sand, but it did it with flying colors. Hooray for the Green Dragon! Here’s a few shots of the main sand track through the ancient dunes:

The beach at Ponta Mebmene was very similar to the one at Coconut Bay (if you recall; see the previous picture), with high frontal dunes and white sandy beach as far as you could see. The difference was that here there were a handful of other people on the beach. However, I did manage to get in a short snorkle, but the surf was too rough and there was no underwater reef, so it was unproductive. My campsite, however, was top-notch. I was nestled under the dense dune forest thicket and I had my own kitchen area, hot shower and toilet facility – all clean and modern. Oh, and there was a camp tender that would do anything I wanted, including building a campfire. This is living!

In Maputo, I drove a lot without seeing much wildlife, but I also had an awesome drive one morning through dry grassland and savannah on rolling hills to a small lake and saw lots of blue wildebeest, plains zebra, common reedbuck, waterbuck, steenbok, common duiker and hippos, and a single side-stripped jackal, not to mention lots of different bird species. I had the entire drive to myself and, as a result, I believe it was of my favorite drives of all time. I took a lot of video footage of the drive and some of the wildlife, so check out the composite video if you get excited to want to take a virtual safari with me. Here’s a few shots to wet your appetite:

For my second night, after my amazing morning drive (noted above), I headed to a backcountry campsite overlooking a small lake named Nela. The campsite was quite nice; it included nice shade trees for the Green Dragon and a rather nice, but primitive, kitchen facility, along with a shower stall and toilet. No water though, so I had to use my own water for everything. There was also a nice campfire ring under a nice shade tree overlooking the water where I spent the afternoon.

After the mid-day siesta, I made a huge pot of stir fry vegies with pasta and a curry sauce. Here’s a picture of the stir fry. Can you name all the vegies in this dish?

Just when I was finishing cooking and enjoying the serenity of the site and getting ready for a quiet evening with the animal sounds, guess who camerolling into camp? Yes, that’s right, a convey of South Africans – classic style. Eight (yes, I said 8) vehicles in this convoy all rigged out for extended camping. Apparently, they booked this campsite a while back. When I arrived at the Park they booked me and told me no one else would be there. TIA! Anyways, this little site was designed for maybe 4 vehicles, perhaps 5 max, but not 8. Not only that, but these were South Africans in a convoy, and they set up massive camps and make a lot of noise – I have camped next to them before! They weren’t going anywhere and there was no way I was going stay in this urban mess, so I packed up and headed to my next scheduled campsite at Xinguti. I arrived at dusk and only 1 of 8 sites were occupied – nice! This campground was identical to the one at Ponta Membene (i.e., identical layout and facilities) except without a lodge connected to it. It was next to a large lake but surprisingly the sites didn’t have a view of the lake or easy access to the shore. Poor design in my opinion. Why have a campground at a lake if you can’t really see the lake very well or easily access it?

Next morning, I took another wildlife drive on one of the off-the-beaten track routes back to the main entrance gate. Again, it was a delightful drive with a diversity of habitats, including dense thickets, wet grasslands and marshes, dry grassland and savannah. I didn’t see as much wildlife on this drive as the previous day, other than water birds. I believe this was likely due to the condition of the grasslands. This grassland hadn’t been burned in some time so the grasses were taller and less palatable then the fresh shoots of the recently burned grasslands of the previous area. Burning does an important job of revitalizing the grasslands and producing highly nutritious forage for the grazing animals, and I suspect the majority of the grazing animals simply move around with the better forage conditions. Nevertheless, I still saw lots of wildebeest and zebra, along with several antelope species, and a few giraffe. Again, I had the entire drive to myself. I suspect that the vast majority of visitors to the Park simply take the main dirt track out to the coast and beach, as I did on my first day. Most come for the deserted beaches I think, not the wildlife drives, which worked to my benefit. Here’s a few shots from this drive:

WARNING, below is a link to a very long video made for the most dedicated followers. I really enjoyed this Park for the reasons mentioned above, so I took a lot of video footage. In particular, for both of the wildlife drives I described above, in this video I will take you on a virtual safari with me from the driver’s seat. Hope you enjoy.

Maputo National Park composite (44 minutes)

Ok, since I voluntarily displaced myself from the backcountry campsite at Lake Nela and moved to Xinguti for my second night, rather than return to Xinguti for my planned third night (since there was nothing spectacular about this site), I exited the Park and spent the night at a lodge/campground in Ponta do Ouro, the southern most point in Mozambique on the coast and next to the border. Nothing to report about this one-night stand other than to say this place is clearly a vacation spot for tourists seeking beach and marine sports, as every other building is a lodge of some sort, so I am off to South Africa. It may be a while before I can post again because I’m not sure where I will be able to get a new sim card. So, see you when I see you.

New Species:

1. Natal red duiker
2. Rufous-naped lark
3. Eurasian moorhen
4. Red-capped robin-chat
5. White-backed duck

Not much to report as I am just incrementing my way down the coast en route to my final destination in Mozambique, Maputo National Park, but that will be the focus of my next post after my visit. For now, just to keep my journal continuous, I will give you a quick report on my last two nights. From Inhassaro, just north of Vilanculos shown on the map below, I headed several hours south to Coconut Bay just south of Inhambane shown on the map below, and then on to the seaside village of Macaneta just north of Maputo shown on the map below

Coconut Bay was another huge compound of campsites and cottages set back behind the frontal dunes, so no ocean view from the campsite, but rather a short hike through the dunes to the beach. Fortunately, I was the only guest, so I had the place to myself except the staff. I was originally going to stay a second night, but a huge wedding party was coming in the following day so I bailed. The campsite was rather atypical. As you can see here, you park your camper vehical under a big shed. I suppose most people come to the beach during their summer hot, wet season, and the sheds are probably a way of providing campers shelter from the rain. I suppose that would be nice under rainy conditions, but for me it felt less like camping. Anyways, not my favorite of camping sites, which was another reason to bail after one night:

The best thing about this place was the Bay itself. As I was the only guest, except for a few local fishmen, I had this amazing beach to myself. Talk about deserted sub-tropical beaches! I even got in a short snorkle behind the natural rock jetty shown in this photo, despite the winds and white-caps everywhere else. It wasn’t the greatest of snorkling locations – some reef fish and a few corals – but it was nice to get in the water regardless:

Also of note for the birders, I had a spotted eagle owl hooting in the tree next to my campsite during the early evening. I managed a poor photo, but I am putting in here for Phil (and you other birders) as proof:

And sunrise over the Indian Ocean is always a delight:

After leaving Coconut Bay, I kept heading south down the coast and randomly ended up in the small oceanside village of Macaneta just north of Maputo, and landed at Pisane Lodge, one of the several oceanside lodges/campgrounds. Nothing special or to my liking at this place – fancy lodge and campround with resstaurant, bar, pool and all the amenities – except that it had a big screen TV and I was in time to watch the US womens soccer defeat Brazil for the gold medal! Funny thing was that Nancy was watching the game with Phil and Mary and we were Whatsapping messages back forth about the game in real time as it was being played – isn’t technology amazing. Here’s my unexciting campsite:

Here’s a short 2-minute video of my campsite at Coconut Bay and of the Bay itself; there was nothing worth videoing at Pisane Lodge:

Coconut Bay video (2 minutes)

Ok, I’m off to my final destination in Mozambique, Maputo National Park. See you there.

After leaving Gorongosa National Park, I headed south to the coast, stopping en route for a night at Rio de Gorongosa private game reserve and then on to the coast at Inhasarro and then south along the coast to Vilanculos. Note, the map below doesn’t show my actual route, as I had that big detour to Tete after leaving Malawi and then two additional one-night stopovers before getting to Vilanculos, which is shown as the destination in this map, but it suffices to show the basic travel plan within Mozambique.

My first night was spent at a random spot en route to the coast. I had originally planned to drive all the way to the coast but after battling mine-fields on the main north-south national highway(!) for several hours, I decided enough was enough. I know I keep complaining about the roads, but you can’t image just how bad they really are and it’s all I can think about when on these terrible roads. It’s so bad that you simply can’t take your eye off the surface to enjoy the surrounding scenery – not that there was much in this part of the country. In this case, I was driving on a major national highway (N1) that had probably 100 km of potholes distributed intermittantly over 250 km of highway, with holes several inches to two feet deep, and so many of them that it was impossible to drive around them. I had no choice but to come to an almost complete stop and gently drop in and out of them. It was truly driving hell on Earth. SO, what should have taken a couple hours on a decent road surface took 3 times that.

As I was cursing the government for allowing such a disgrace in their national infrastructure, I came upon signs for a lodge/campground that looked promising. So, I abandoned the highway for some much needed R&R. It turns out that this lodge/camp called Rio Gorongosa is a private ranch of 15,000 hectares (soon to double in size) owned by a rich South African who purchased the land from the government (actually, a 99 year lease) back in 2012 to create a game ranch for himself. After purchasing the lease, he then purchased and transported from South Africa 100 African buffalo and some number of greater kudo and sable antelope (can you imagine the cost of that?), and then had the ranch fenced and allowed the populations to grow. He flies to and from the ranch in one of his two helicopters. He will start killing big trophy animals this year and will invite wealthy big game hunters from anywhere to pay him to come and shoot one of these majestic animals. This is classic South African. South Africa is filled with huge private white-owned game farms/ranches all for the purpose of growing big animals for the trophy hunt. Apparently, some of these types have looked to poorer neighboring countries to purchase land for their sport. I can’t abide this practice!

Anyways, I had a nice afternoon sitting by the gentle Gorongosa River and then camped for the night. I had the entire ranch to myself, with only the ranch manager/shef and another staff helper around. It only cost $6 USD. Not a bad stopover all things considered:

Next morning I headed on to the coast and found on iOverlander a somewhat remote, off-the-beaten-path, beachside lodge/campground called Vista de Bazaruto just south of the village of Inhassoro. This involved several kilometers of driving on sand track behind the frontal dunes (picture below), but I later learned that I could have driven the harder sand on the beach for a much easier and quicker drive.

Again, as with most of these off-the-beaten path places, I was the only guest. This was a delightful place with beautifully kept grounds and facilities, despite having major damage to the grounds and buildings from the major cyclone that hit here in March. I had a gorgeous beachside setting for the Green Dragon with full outdoor kitchen and toilet facilities, and a nice covered pergola to boot. Here’s what my Green Dragon site looked like:

The I following night I moved 4 hours south down the coast to another delightful beachside campground in the small village of Morrungulo and the lodge of the same name. This lodge and campground was quite different from the previous few. The lodge reception, restaurant, bar, pool, and, yes, minature golf course (although it looked not much used, if ever) sit high up on a hill overlooking the bay and the beachside cottages and campground. The compound is huge, with something on the order of 17 large beachside cottages and numerous smaller bandas and something like 45 campsites, both beachside and behind. Apparently they can get up to 450 guests when every cottage and campsite is full which happens during their summer – 95% are South Africans on holiday. Fortunately, I chose a quite time of year to visit, as there are only a handful of other guests in the entire compound. This place would be a zoo when there are 450 guests running around. I, of course, chose a beachside campsite under dense shade trees, grassy understory and very nice ablutions – including hot showers! This was truly a wonderful campsite setting – Nancy, you would have loved this site! This was also another classic white sand, palm-lined, Mozambiqe beach with almost no one on it. Incredible. Oh ya, and it cost only $5 USD! Even though I had a leftover dinner that needed to be eaten, I splurged and got fish and chips for dinner at the restaurant – I just couldn’t resist! And did I say that after my beach run, dip in the ocean, and hot shower, I sat in my campsite in the shade next to the beach and watched humpback whales courting in the waters just off shore – mainly raising the pectoral fin straight up in the air and then turning and slapping it against the water? I understand that this is a male courtship display, and I could see a big whale doing this over and over near a smaller whale, which was probably a female being courted. These whales come 5,000 km from their feeding grounds in the antarctic to mate (for next year’s births), give birth, and nurse their newborns before making the return trip south.

Here’s a not-too-exciting composite video of my last two campsites, along with a bit of flute playing to make it more interesting. Regarding the latter, I was playing my flute while sitting under the pergola at sunset at the Vista de Bazaruto site and the owners came out and wanted to hear me play and learn something about the native American flute, and he videoed a bit of it to share with his kids. Anyways, he shared with me and I am shamefully passing it on to you in the composite video:

Mozambique south coast composite (7 minutes)

Ok, I’m off further down the coast to another beachsite lodge and campground, and with a little luck a day of snorkling on an off-shore reef. See you there!

New Species:

1. Black and white shrike-flycatcher
2. Southern black flycatcher

After my one-night stand at Mwabvi “Wildlife Reserve” (note, wildlife reserve is in quotes because there wasn’t much of a reserve or wildlife), I headed south to the southern tip of Malawi and across the border into Mozambique. Here’s a map showing my intended route out of Malawi, with an en route stopover somewhere on the way to Gorongosa National Park. But TIA had other plans!

The crossing was very quick and simple as, once again, I was the only one crossing this remote, little used border post. But why so little used, I wondered? The map showed this to be a direct route south across the Zambezi River and on to Gorongosa National Park, my next destination. One of the border post staff that spoke some broken English indicated that I might not be able to drive through, but there seemed to be some conflicting information and advise amongst the border staff, and both my Garmin Navigator and Google Maps showed the direct route and directed me to go that way. After two hours drive on dirt track past small villages I ended up at the Zambezi River, only to find out that indeed there was no longer any bridge for vehicles, just a railway crossing, and the car ferry had broken some time ago and was rusting on the river bank. OK, what to do? There was a route east across the Shire River and then turning south back down to the highway heading on to Gorongosa – Great! No such luck, because This Is Africa (TIA) afterall. The bridge over the Shire was washed away some time ago and that boat ferry was also out of business, with no immediate plans to fix it and resume business. Options? Turn back to Malawi and drive all the way back to Mulanje (the site of my backpack trip) and across the eastern border post, and then make my way south again. Not a terrible option, except I would have to retrace my steps for probably 6 hours or so and cross two borders, one back into Malawi and another back out of Malawi, with each crossing taking some time and costing some money. Not something I could look forward to.

My final option was to drive 300 km on a dirt/gravel track – a major secondary road – west along the Zambezi all the way to the relatively big city of Tete, cross the big river there, and then head back east 250 km to Gorongosa, but on on tarmack after Tete. Just as I was leaving the Zambezi to start the grueling drive to Tete, a young man hailed me and with body language – since he spoke no English, indeed almost no one in the rural parts of Mozambique speak any English – convinced me that his friend had a boat that could ferry me and the Green Dragon across the Zambezi. I loaded him into the Green Dragon and we headed back to the River. It turned out that his “friend” did indeed have a boat, but it was a 20 foot wooden monohull (very much Dhow like) that he wanted to strap planks across the gunnels and have me drive on in a perpendicular orientation to the keel. My front and rear wheels would probably have been either sitting on the gunnels or may have extended beyond the gunnels. Can you picture this? He could, and tried to show me a picture of having done it, but neither he or his 10 buddies hovering around us could show me a picture. Needlesstosay, I opted out of that option and took the long and tortuous two-day drive out to Tete on rough native surface, across the river, and back on intermittantly pothole-ridden tarmack . Big-rig trucks trying to avoid bad potholes or passing other trucks on blind curves almost ran me off the road 3 times. Two days of TIA madness! Aren’t you glad you are enjoying this from a comfortable couch?

Gorongosa National Park, established as a game reserve in 1920 and later in 1960 declared a national park and covering 1,500 square miles, is located at the southern end of the Great African Rift Valley. The park comprises the valley floor and parts of surrounding plateaus and rivers originating on nearby Mount Gorongosa (6,112 ft) that drain into Lake Urema – a large lake in the middle of the Park, and includes a mixture of woodlands, savannahs and extensive floodplain grasslands. The Park doesn’t have the appearance and the feel of the rift valley settings in Kenya and Tanzania, as there are no dramatic escarpments to be seen, at least from the part of the Park I visited. Here are a few shots of the landscape as seen on my walking and driving safaris. Note, Gorongosa NP doesn’t allow self-drive safaris yet for a variety of reasons, mostly due to the aggressive elephants that haven’t habituated to humans yet after many years of persecution during the civil war (but this is changing with each new generation of elephants), so I had to go on guided safaris with other visitors (one birding walk, one morning drive and two afternoon drives).

Gorongosa National Park is yet another story of a southeast African Park that lost an estimated 95% of its large wildlife due to rampant poaching and the bloody civil war (1977-1992). After the civil war, the authorities recognized the opportunity for ecotourism based on wildlife conservation and started concerted efforts to restore the wildlife and ecology of the Park, very similar to what we saw in Malawi at Liwonde and Majete. Progress was slow at first, This Is Africa after all, but in 2008, the Government of Mozambique and the US-based Carr Foundation formed the “Gorongosa Project”, a 20-year Public-Private Partnership for the joint management of the Park and for human development in the communities near the Park, and they began a rehabilitation and reintroduction program to bring back many of the large mammal species that were lost. Of particular note has been the successful reintroduction of wild dogs (or African wolves as they are called here) in 2018 (now a population of 200 or so and enough that they are now supplying dogs for reintroductions to other Parks and Reserves), and in just the past few years they successfully reintroduced leopards (although still only a half dozen or so animals and rarely seen). The cheetah reintroduction has thus far failed. Of the 4 animals released, one died trying to kill a waterbuck, 2 others were poached for their skins and the lone surviving individual just disappeared. Hopefully they will try again becuase the habitat is certainly there for these cats. Time will tell, but along with the recovering lion population, it looks promising for the large cats and other predators since the populations of antelope species have rebounded providing the essential food source for these top predators.

Here are a few shots of some of the wildlife I observed, but I wasn’t able to capture the massive (i.e., many thousands) numbers of waterbuck I observed in the woodland savannahs and floodplain grasslands.

I camped at the main lodge and campsite in the Park called Chitengo. The setting was very Kruger-like. Chitengo is essentially a city comprised of a conference center, airstrip, dozens of bungalows and many dozens of tents of different luxuries, pool, restaurant, activities center, and a sprawling staff housing compound. The campground was an enclosed area with dozens of platform tents. I parked the Green Dragon in one of a few sites for vehicles between the tents. Note, there were aalmost no private vehicles here as most people either fly in or get picked up at the nearby town. The most, if not only, redeeming feature of the campground was the dense canopy of shade trees – and they did have a hot shower too. Not my kind of camping but I had no other choice. Here’s a photo of my campsite:

Here’s my composite video of my visit to Gorongosa National Park:

Gorongosa National Park composite (8 minutes)

New Species:

1. Lizard buzzard
2. Common scimitarbill
3. Gray-headed bushshrike
4. Dark-backed weaver
5. Stierling’s wren-warbler
6. Terrestrial brownbul
7. Little sparrowhawk
8. Yellow-throated bush sparrow
9. African penduline tit
10. Red-faced crombec
11. African skimmer
12. Square-tailed nightjar