This Wasn’t In The Brochure – Part 2

( if you missed it,here is Part 1…)

After buses, trains, planes and a circuitous route via Puerto Vallarta, Guadalajara, Atlanta, London – Heathrow and London – Gatwick, I touched down in Johannesburg.

The last leg was a 5 hour drive to my final destination.

Or: it would have been 5 hours if we hadn’t got lost immediately on leaving the airport. The road signs warned; ‘Beware car jacking area – Do not stop at traffic lights’ which sounded… problematic. Rather than worry, I kept quiet in the back and pondered what was the best option. 

Wait for the green light and risk armed robbery? Or just plough straight on into traffic? After getting back on track and suffering two punctures, me and my jet lag finally reached eSwatini.

A brief eSwatini primer for you;

For a small country there’s an impressive diversity in landscape. From lush green hills to flat arid bush.

And its home to plenty of wildlife, which is what I was there for.

Three months volunteering on conservation projects in their national parks.

There was a lot more variety than Mexico:

• I walked every trail in the 4,500 hectare Mlilwane reserve with a GPS to map them all.
  
• Monitoring wildlife numbers of species  including rare blue swallows, aardwolves and bats.
  
• Ringing marabou stork and martial eagle chicks for future monitoring. Marabou stork chicks are big and ugly. They defecate on their legs which helps regulate their body temperature but creates one hell of a stink.
  One particular chick reacted badly to the process, it struggled, kicked up a fuss and….. died of apparent shock. Whereas the martial eagle chicks were small, cute and totally chilled, lay in our hands keeping an interested eye on proceedings without complaint.
  
• Clearing invasive tree species.
  
• Clambering around a rocky hillside looking for rare Cycad plants to monitor their growth:

• Monitoring the impact of elephants on the vegetation. I didn’t see any elephants, just a lot of elephant droppings. And a lot of destruction caused by them.
  As we were on foot for this, the pre-task briefing included what to do if we came across elephants and they charged us. “Run uphill” was the basic message, they don’t like going uphill.
  What to do if there wasn’t a hill nearby wasn’t specified. But we never got to put it to the test.
  
• Making an inventory of rhinos, you can tell them apart by their ears so each rhino we found we’d sketch their ears so we could tell if we’d already counted that one.

There was plenty of downtime as well. Our main base was at Sondzela Backpackers hostel in the Mlilwane Sanctuary.

This was luxury compared to Mexico. It even had a pool which had a dual purpose as outsize water bowl for ostrich. More than once my swim was accompanied by ostrich drinking from the pool. I went for walks whenever there was free time, I never got bored of wandering miles through the reserve sharing space with zebra, antelope, warthog, impala, baboons and more with no fences between us.

There was also a lone giraffe, there had been a family group but their height makes them susceptible to lightning strikes which had claimed the others. Despite its height it wasn’t often seen. I had one close up encounter; walking through bushes I came into a small clearing and there he was. We stood completely still watching each other, a couple of metres apart.

I always carried my camera but didn’t dare reach for it in case the movement spooked him.

We stayed like that a couple of minutes before he got bored and moved off. It was a special moment.

In the main there weren’t dangerous animals at Mlilwane which is why we were free to walk around – apart from the crocodiles, hippos and snakes.

First weekend I was there, Tilman showed me round. Walking through woods by the lake Tilman led the way, he suddenly yelped; “Oh shit!” and ran back past me. I stopped dead and saw the issue; a large crocodile on the path facing me. Supposedly they won’t attack when out of water but I wasn’t tempted to put it to the test, run was my only thought.

I walked that path plenty times and never encountered another croc close up.

There was a point where the path went right to the water’s edge and when it had rained the path merged with the edge of the lake.

Whenever I got to that point I’d spend a minute intently looking for signs of crocs and very briskly cross while internally bricking it.

Fortunately I never saw the hippos out the water. Never ever get between a hippo and water. They’re bad tempered, surprisingly fast and reportedly kill several hundred people each year. It was only during the night they left the lake to feed. From my bed in the hostel I could hear their grunts carrying miles across the reserve. In 3 months all I ever saw of them was the top of their heads and nostrils peaking out above the water.

As for snakes, a few crossed my path but the most hair raising experience was when I didn’t see one. We were at the Simunye reserve monitoring bats and staying on a campsite. There was an unlit toilet block, the warning came that deadly black mambas liked to hang out in there and had bitten visitors.

I got heatstroke, one of the side effects which I hadn’t been aware of is diarrhoea. Middle of the night I woke up with the simple urge; toilet quick. I hurried across the campsite wondering what was out there watching me. Reaching the toilet block door: I was caught between the urgent need to go in, and the life enhancing need to check for:

Snakes.

Stamping my feet, I shone my torch and listened out for signs of movement. I tentatively made my way in checking every possible hiding place, including lifting the seats before nervously relieving myself. ‘Shit-scared’ seemed quite apt. 

One of the other parks we helped out in; Hlane, had the big animals.

Lions, elephants, rhino, cheetah. There was no walking round there. That first time seeing a massive bull elephant walk right past our vehicle was breathtaking, and a little scary.

When not working there were extracurricular trips, we camped at a beauty spot known as The Gap, where the river disappeared through a narrow rocky channel. It rained heavily the morning we went and even in a 4×4 we found ourselves stuck in mud on the dirt track.

To the rescue, and seemingly from nowhere: barefoot children and teenagers started appearing.

They helped us, bringing rocks to place on the track and pushing the vehicle. Some of the kids looked as young as 5. One teen taking the lead gave a pep talk:

“We are people, they are people, we’re all people and they need our help so let’s help them.”

LEADER AND COORDINATOR: Simunye reserve ALL-VOLUNTEER RESCUE SQUAD

It was only slightly spoiled by one of the others who looking at us caked in mud, declared with a laugh:

“You all smell of faeces, you offend my nose, I’m leaving.”

RESIDENT COMEDIAN: Simunye reserve ALL-VOLUNTEER RESCUE SQUAD

Can’t win ’em all. He wasn’t wrong. But the others stayed until we were free.

Now mud splattered, it was decided that it might be best if some of us continued the journey outside the 4×4. Someone sat on the roof, a couple stood on the bumper holding on and I got pride of the place, up on the front of the bonnet. Further up the road, dirt track turned into pothole strewn tarmac with the road zigzagging steeply down to our destination.

As we slalomed downhill, I shouted and pointed out instructions on how to avoid the worst of the holes.

Maybe you shouldn’t say yes to every experience.

But there was something about having the whole year off and a lack of usual responsibilities that encouraged a far more blasé attitude to things like personal safety.

Then there was a beach trip – only an 11 hour drive to Tofo beach in Mozambique. The culture change between the neighbouring countries was marked. In eSwatini the people were open and friendly, I went all over on public transport and people would start chatting. I went to a football match at the National Stadium and spent most of the match answering questions about the failings of the England football team.

In Mozambique, that same openness wasn’t there, though that may be due to the country’s recent history.

With the long drive we had to make a couple of toilet stops. With a lack of service stations it was a side of the road affair. I stepped off the road onto the verge and was warned not to go more than a few feet as there could be landmines. The legacy of a brutal civil war from 1977 to 1992. Those few days I spent in the country it was a common sight to see people with missing limbs. It wasn’t until 2015 that it was declared that the last of 171,000 mines had been cleared.

A reminder that I had the privilege of adventure and travel but the reality of everyday life can be a lot darker.

The beach though had stunning white sands. The Indian Ocean was warm, a vision of paradise far off the beaten track. We went out in a boat and not far offshore had the incredible experience of snorkelling with whale sharks. If I thought the elephants were big these were on another scale. There was such a disconnect between the natural beauty and the still visible legacy of the war. It was a headspinning few days taking in the two extremes.

I celebrated Christmas during my three months. We went to Kruger National Park in South Africa in the days before Christmas Day.

We were camping, the campsite surrounded by large barbed wire topped fences to keep the animals out, it felt like a zoo in reverse. Except the baboons knew how to get in. We came back one day to find our belongings strewn about and our food ransacked. They don’t like cheese, though. They left a block with teeth marks in it.

Waking up 4am Christmas morning to the sound of roaring lions was another unforgettable moment. I’d never been up that early even as a child. Unforgettable also describes the smell of the giraffe that had been killed a couple of days previously by lions and was festering in the extreme heat – it wasn’t putting the lions and vultures off though as they continued to tuck in at the buffet.

We packed up and drove back to eSwatini where the hostel was providing Christmas dinner in the form of warthog spitroasted for 24 hours.

Sorry Pumbaa! Much like pork but a bit saltier.

When at the Malalotja reserve we had use of a slightly crumbling cottage. It felt very remote, the cottage overlooked a steep hillside with the view channeled down the valley to the hills beyond. We spent days here without seeing anyone else. It was much bigger than Mlilwane and to get to our location for Cycad monitoring was half a day trekking with all our gear on our backs.

We camped by a stream, used water from it to cook rice on a camping stove, washed in it, drank from it and swam in it as sweet relief from the heat. As a way of connecting with nature you couldn’t beat it. Let’s just pass on the toilet situation. At least snakes weren’t a problem.

Our group leader had a project for us to work on at the Malalotja cottage aside from the conservation. To build an outdoor shower. We connected pipes from the cottage and created a screen out of tree branches so you had privacy. It was open at the front though so you showered naked in the open air looking straight down the valley.

Just you.
Hot water.
Freedom.
And nature. 

And after 3 incredible months it was back to the airport for one more stop….

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