Dickinson to Durban » Climate Change, Mosaic Action » Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!
Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!
By: Christine Burns ’14
While we did not see tigers and bears, we did see lions and many other exciting African animals while on Safari this past weekend. On Friday afternoon, we packed up our outdoor gear, and headed for Hluhluwe Game Reserve. The researchers at the park were kind enough to share some of their research and let us stay at their research station. It was an amazing experience.
Saturday morning Anna and I were woken up to the sound of monkeys jumping on our roof! It was crazy. We stepped outside of our little hut to find about thirty monkeys running from roof top to roof top. Neither Anna nor I had ever seen wild monkeys before, so this was very exciting. The trip only got better from there.
We did two game drives at Hluhluwe and a boat ride at iSimangaliso Wetland Park formerly known as St. Lucia Wetland Park. The two game drives were incredible.
The night drive started at about 5:00 and we got to see a rhino and her baby cross the road in front of us, and a young bull elephant cross the road a few cars in front of us. We also saw a large herd of Cape Buffalo. Although my favorite part of the night game drive was the lions.
At first we only saw the lions fro a distance, but later in the night we came upon them again in the middle of the road. Before I knew it, our driver had driven our vehicle into the pride of lions. It was exhilarating to be so close to such impressive animals. There were about 8 in total. Six were female, and two were young males. At one point we were entirely surrounded! It was unreal. As we headed back to our starting point, we came upon the head male of the group. Although I only glimpsed him for a second, he was beautiful.
The next morning we got up bright and early (4:10 am) so that we could do a morning game drive. This time we got to see the sunrise over the landscape. We also came across a few animals on this ride. We saw zebra and giraffe. My favorite part of this day was actually at iSimangaliso. There we encountered many birds, two crocodiles, and soooooo many hippos. Hippos are my favorite animal so I was thrilled to get to see them up close in the wild. It was an amazing weekend, and I feel so privileged to have gotten a chance to see so many awesome animals!
Filed under: Climate Change, Mosaic Action · Tags: African animals, Christine Burns, fun adventures, Safari weekend
Hi, Christine,
Did the topic of indigenous people’s rights come up in discussion about the game reserve or wetlands park? The photos are magnificent!
Sala kahle,
J Ball
Sawbona!!!
Actually, we kind of danced around the topic of indigenous rights at the game reserve. There is a corridor connecting two parks that used to be indigenous lands and was taken from them a while back. It has technically been given back to them, but they can’t really use it in any way. They are not allowed to farm, graze, or extract resources from this land. The researchers we talked to said the legalities were still being worked out. They are trying to figure out how to balance park rules and initiatives with indigenous rights, so that the indigenous peoples can still benefit from the park perhaps in a sustainable way. Nothing has been worked out yet, but hopefully soon. They are allowed on the land during the day time, and they do get a portion of the proceeds from the park.
Sala Khale!
Christine