Collected Moments of Survival

Rather shockingly, a small amount of research about African animals reveals the following: There were once 100 000 Black Rhinos in Africa, now there are approximately 2700. In 1930 there were 5 – 10 million African Elephants and now we have less than 600 000. 100 years ago African Wild Dog packs numbered up to 100 per pack seen on the Serengeti Plains. Now a pack is usually 10 dogs and we have about 1 500 dogs left in Africa. The African Lion numbered 50 000 roaming free only about a decade ago. Now we have around 10 000. In 1900 there were 100 000 wild cheetah in Africa, now the number is closer to 10 000. Please note that the above statistics are unverified and should be taken as being approximate. On the other side of the scale the world population figures read as follows: 1800 - 1 billion 2000 - 6 billion 2012 – 7 billion Have you got out of your seat yet? The next statistic to look at is the land area of the earth. 150 ...

There is no doubt that the African bush has a magical quality that, once it has crept into your soul, never leaves again. Each visit beguiles one more and the yearning to return time after time drives a search for undiscovered places and new experiences. kwaZulu-Natal has only a smattering of destinations to explore and the most desirable of these is Phinda Game Reserve. A destination much vaunted for its Black Rhino, Cheetah and Lions this reserve has to be high on the agenda of the bush junkie. So it is that I find myself heading east towards the Indian Ocean. On our first sortie the familiar feel of the wind whipping through my hair is a welcome one while the discomfort of the bench on the back of the safari vehicle allows me to savour the moment of being back in the bush. We head for the open plains (referred to as the Marsh Area) to look for a lion pride that has been seen in the area. Without too much searching we find our target. A sizable pride consisting of tw...

The travelbug is indeed a very bad virus to contract. Once it flows through the bloodstream it is impossible to eradicate. The four corners of the earth are scoured for new destinations and as a heroin addict searches for the next fix so the compulsive traveller will need new destinations to feed the insatiable virus its next fix. In the absence of a magical far-away destination for March 2012 the maps came out and the compass pointed north to a little reserve just down the road called Ithala Game Reserve. Research into the Reserve on the internet revealed that some tour operators will stop at nothing to hoodwink people into travelling with them including claiming that animals not on a reserve will be seen there. Ithala has no big cats other than the Leopard, a very elusive animal not easily seen in reserves where they have not been habituated. But, we should be able to see some elephants and rhinos amongst the other plains game. However, what attracted me to the destinat...