Safari Days And Starry Nights

Horrible weather

Peeping Tom

Carolyn Lamb has an African Adventure with Kaapstad — part two

Next day was to be one of the highlights of the trip. We were riding into Kruger Park. We were only the sixth party of motorbikes ever to be allowed into the park and later that day we would find out exactly why bikes are generally not allowed. In the meantime, we had several hundred kilometres of riding through the highlands of Swaziland. We stopped for a cool drink at the impressive Maguga dam hydro electric scheme and saw two fish eagles wheeling above the dam, but we couldn’t tarry long, we still had many miles to go.

There are two aspects of motorcycling which are the same the world over. First, there is ‘small boy syndrome’. All small boys love motorbikes and the Swazi boys were no exception. They loved to wave to us and give the thumbs up as we sped past. The other syndrome is ‘target fixation’, a familiar concept to us all; if you look at something, you will ride straight at it!

Unfortunately for one of our number, both phenomena coincided. She was waving at a crowd of small boys and simultaneously target fixated on them. The bike careered off the road straight towards the wee boys who scattered like peas and gave her a cheer as she rode up the ditch and back onto the road. Impressive off-roading sister! Needless to say, we ribbed her mercilessly at the next stop but thankfully no-one was hurt. Alex just shook his head in despair again.

Next stop Kruger. I could barely contain my excitement.

Alex has many skills. As well as being an expert biker and businessman, he is also a qualified tracker trained in wildlife conservation. He stopped us just before the entrance to the park and explained that there was an elephant trail crossing the road just inside the gates. He would enter the park first and ensure the way was clear for us. We would follow at his signal, coasting down towards the river. We did exactly as directed and sure enough, as we drew up beside him, a huge elephant crossed the road twenty yards in front of us.

We sat amazed as the elephant plodded past. Just as we were about to start our engines and ride on, the elephant suddenly wheeled around and started trumpeting, flapping its ears and charging towards us. Alex mouthed that well-known biker’s prayer, “Oh f**k”, whilst I sat contemplating how quickly I could learn to do a u-turn and wondering if my death notice would say, ‘trampled to death on a motorbike by an elephant’.

Alex drew his bike in front of us three women and was getting ready to make lots of noise

when just as suddenly; the elephant lost interest in us, turned and ambled away. Alex apologised for swearing but we assured him that under the circumstances it was acceptable.

Shaking, we rode over the rickety bridge over Crocodile River. ‘Great’, I thought, ‘survived the elephant, just to fall off into a crocodile infested river’.

We were buzzing with adrenalin as we checked into our thatched huts for the day and chalked up the elephants as our first sighting of the Big Five. I spent the rest of the afternoon watching hippos snorting and wallowing in the river then, as evening fell, we joined an organised game drive. The sun was setting over the savannah creating a low dusk light which was the best time to see the wildlife. The animal sightings came fast. We saw impala, antelope, wildebeest and the most beautiful tailed genet. We saw little mongooses (mongeese?) civet and vultures. And we spotted lions; we saw a big-maned male lion and we watched a whole pride of lionesses with their cubs. But the greatest excitement came when we saw a leopard. They are very elusive and even the park ranger was excited to see the big cat silently glide away into the bush. I wondered how anyone could look at all these beautiful creatures and

Rhinos in Southwaite

think, ‘yes, I’d like to shoot that and put its stuffed head on my wall’.

Now we had chalked up three of the Big Five, just buffalo and rhinos to go!

Our evening continued with a barbecue out in the bush, listening to the night sounds of the animals stealthily moving about and watching bats flit around the starry African sky.

Next day I rose early and watched the elephants and hippos at the water’s edge, then we packed up and rode on to our next stop at Moholoholo.

Kaapstad Motorcycle Tours SPECIALIST IN SOUTH AFRICA

With a focus on history, culture and wildlife, Kaapstad Motorcycle Tours are now entering their 12th year of running motorcycle tours and Safaris in South Africa. It’s all about the client! Call now: 01525 377520 www.kaapstadmat.com

This little piggy theived the picnic

This is a privately owned nature reserve and much smaller and less commercialised than Kruger. We rode into Moholoholo on another dirt road and were met near our accommodation by Jason, one of the wardens. He motioned Jane and me into our parking space under a shady canopy.

Eeek! Too late, I realised I had just ridden into soft sand and hadn’t had time to warn Jane who rode up beside me. We were both stuck! We couldn’t get off the bikes, we couldn’t paddle them back and we were slowly sinking into the sand. Fits of giggles overcame us again as I plaintively shouted to Jason, “Help! HELP!” I squawked.

Fortunately, he heard us and came to our rescue by placing a big stone under each of the side stands to allow us to dismount. Alex arrived to see what the commotion was about and gave us another of his despairing shakes of the head as we laughed at our predicament.

Mololoholo was a lovely friendly place and we enjoyed a home-cooked meal that evening whilst chatting to Jason and the other staff. But after many days of heat and riding, exhaustion was creeping up on us all and Jane and I left to have an early night. The best laid plans o’ mice and men aft gang awry....or in this case, it was a bush squirrel, in our chalet. There ensued a comedy sketch as we were under the beds with torches, (‘squeak’ said the squirrel), up amongst the thatch, (squeak!), we peered down between the floorboards (squeak!). Finally, the squirrel won the battle and we collapsed laughing and exhausted into our beds and left the wee critter to its own devices hoping it wouldn’t poop in our panniers.

In the morning, I wandered out onto the veranda to have a coffee when, all of a sudden, the birds started sounding an alarm call. I looked round the side of the chalet and there was a huge giraffe peering back at me. I shot back into the chalet and shook Jane awake. “Look! Look!” I spluttered as she blearily wakened up. Jane sat bolt upright as I pointed out the window and we both simultaneously breathed “Wow!”

The giraffe was standing ten feet from our window and was having a good old look at us as we gazed back at him. He was completely unperturbed and just stood there watching us. What an amazing experience!

Later in the day, we saw the fourth of our Big Five sightings as we were driven in a safari truck by Jason past the park’s buffalo herd. But no rhinoceros. The last of the Big Five was proving elusive.

We left Moholoholo rather sadly as that was our last visit to a big game park and, in keeping with the mood, the weather changed for the worse. Riding up into the mountains, we entered into the clouds. It was freezing. The clouds were so dense we were soon soaked through. We were riding in close convoy with numerous other vehicles with hazard flashers on. Visibility reduced to a few yards and Alex gave us hi-vis vests to wear for safety. Almost like riding in Scotland really.

The last night on the road was spent in the town of Dullstroom which is the highest town in South Africa. We had a pleasant enough evening but the mood was lowering towards the end of the holiday and we still hadn’t seen any rhinos. The next day was to be a rather boring motorway push back to Johannesburg, so with heavy hearts we packed the panniers for the last time and loaded the bikes for Joburg and set off down the motorway.

After a couple of hours of steady motorway riding, Alex slowed to pull us into a motorway service area. I was just thinking how much I had seen, that I had seen the best of South Africa but still no rhinos, when Alex started gesticulating wildly to the left. Rhinos. A whole herd of rhinos!

We parked up in the motorway service area and ran up to watch the rhinos. They started ambling towards a small lake near the cafe to take a drink. There was a tiny little baby one which was feeding from its mum and a herd of adults. Oh the excitement. We had seen the Big Five. Ten days without seeing a single rhino and nine come along at once.

On the very last day of our vacation, at a motorway service station, we finally saw rhinoceros. What a fabulous end to our South African safari.

Now that is a sight you don’t see at Southwaite.