Richards Bay, South Africa
By mid-morning, we had reached Richards Bay in the northeastern region of South Africa and we dedicated the rest of the day to enjoying the fabulous natural history of the Dark Continent.
Most of us headed off to the Hluhluwe (pronounced sloosh' lewy) National Park for a full afternoon of game drives. This is the oldest national park in the country and it contains a remarkable array of African species, including the Big Five (elephant, Cape buffalo, lion, leopard, and rhinoceros). It is greatly appreciated that places like this still exist in the world, for the reason that here in Africa one can view remnants of the great megafauna that was found throughout the world up until about 12,000 years ago at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch.
Once in the national park, we explored a hilly, semi-open savannah habitat, which was very green and lush because of recent rains, although the guides explained that the region has suffered drought conditions for the past six years. Our guests encountered many different things with the various safari vehicles during the day, and overall we sighted an impressive number of different floral and faunal species, including four of the Big Five (that is, all but the leopard).
Hluhluwe National Park is world-famous for its rhinoceroses, and the park personnel here are credited with having saved the white rhino from extinction. From just a couple dozen individuals a few decades ago, the population has increased to more than 3,000 today (including about 1,400 that live here in Hluhluwe). Most of us had a wonderful encounter with a group of white rhinos near a waterhole in the northern section of the park and we were especially impressed by one large male that had a horn measuring about four feet in length (see image above). A couple of young male rhinos became somewhat boisterous while my vehicle happened to be there and we witnessed a show of real power as the behemoths pushed each other around, kicking up dust and shaking the ground in the process.
In the meantime, the rest of us went to the town of St. Lucia, where we joined a couple boats for an excursion on the St. Lucia River into the Simangaliso Wetland Park (a UNESCO Site). This river forms the largest estuarine environment in all of Africa and is amazingly rich in life. This river and lake system is an important feeding area for countless water birds and shore birds and we soon learned that it also contains the largest concentration of Nile crocodiles in Africa. This fact wasn’t surprising once we were out on the water, because we saw many crocodiles, of all ages and sizes, during the entire cruise.
However, the most impressive wildlife of the river is surely the huge population of hippopotamuses. We encountered groups of them scattered throughout the river happily lazing about in the safety of the water waiting for nightfall before going ashore to feed on the rich grasses on both sides of the river. We all agreed that there can be few things as cute as newborn hippos, as there were several of the tiny creatures bobbing about with their mothers (see image above). At the same time, we shouldn’t neglect mentioning that our bird watchers accumulated some pretty exciting species sightings, including many of the large and colorful African water birds.
By mid-morning, we had reached Richards Bay in the northeastern region of South Africa and we dedicated the rest of the day to enjoying the fabulous natural history of the Dark Continent.
Most of us headed off to the Hluhluwe (pronounced sloosh' lewy) National Park for a full afternoon of game drives. This is the oldest national park in the country and it contains a remarkable array of African species, including the Big Five (elephant, Cape buffalo, lion, leopard, and rhinoceros). It is greatly appreciated that places like this still exist in the world, for the reason that here in Africa one can view remnants of the great megafauna that was found throughout the world up until about 12,000 years ago at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch.
Once in the national park, we explored a hilly, semi-open savannah habitat, which was very green and lush because of recent rains, although the guides explained that the region has suffered drought conditions for the past six years. Our guests encountered many different things with the various safari vehicles during the day, and overall we sighted an impressive number of different floral and faunal species, including four of the Big Five (that is, all but the leopard).
Hluhluwe National Park is world-famous for its rhinoceroses, and the park personnel here are credited with having saved the white rhino from extinction. From just a couple dozen individuals a few decades ago, the population has increased to more than 3,000 today (including about 1,400 that live here in Hluhluwe). Most of us had a wonderful encounter with a group of white rhinos near a waterhole in the northern section of the park and we were especially impressed by one large male that had a horn measuring about four feet in length (see image above). A couple of young male rhinos became somewhat boisterous while my vehicle happened to be there and we witnessed a show of real power as the behemoths pushed each other around, kicking up dust and shaking the ground in the process.
In the meantime, the rest of us went to the town of St. Lucia, where we joined a couple boats for an excursion on the St. Lucia River into the Simangaliso Wetland Park (a UNESCO Site). This river forms the largest estuarine environment in all of Africa and is amazingly rich in life. This river and lake system is an important feeding area for countless water birds and shore birds and we soon learned that it also contains the largest concentration of Nile crocodiles in Africa. This fact wasn’t surprising once we were out on the water, because we saw many crocodiles, of all ages and sizes, during the entire cruise.
However, the most impressive wildlife of the river is surely the huge population of hippopotamuses. We encountered groups of them scattered throughout the river happily lazing about in the safety of the water waiting for nightfall before going ashore to feed on the rich grasses on both sides of the river. We all agreed that there can be few things as cute as newborn hippos, as there were several of the tiny creatures bobbing about with their mothers (see image above). At the same time, we shouldn’t neglect mentioning that our bird watchers accumulated some pretty exciting species sightings, including many of the large and colorful African water birds.
