Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park (aka HIP)

Last two weeks (Lots of tears!) - but hey we are just about to go on holiday for 13 weeks!

Warning again - dead animals in our pictures but this is 'Zululand not Disneyland!'

Due to no Internet for the last two weeks you may be reading this after we have returned home on the early morning of the 22^nd November so we may have even spoken to you before you read this!

The first thing to say before we go any further that is very important is that this is the park that saved the White Rhino and the vast majority if not all of the White Rhino in South Africa now come from their ancestors here.

The Park here is split in two by a main road with about 30 km’s of landscape and animals either side of it (the road has no fences and the other day we saw the traffic being stopped by a big bull elephant just standing in the middle of the main road). The North where we are based being very hilly and the South slightly less so with a large river running through it.

We are based up North near the top of a very large hill (Mountain!) As I write now we have just come back from checking where the dogs are and realised that the reason it is misty in camp is that we are actually in the clouds!

We are here with two other volunteers Helena from Sweden who has been at this camp for approximately 4 months and Michael from South West London (a devout AFC Wimbledon supporter who has watched them climb the English football leagues recently).

Cathy our monitor, like the rest of them is totally ‘insane’ (I use the word in a very friendly manner) and certainly managed to get us to see some amazing wildlife encounters including touching a baby Black Rhino that is due for release somewhere shortly.

Activities of a Volunteer

We now have realised how little exercise we have done over the last 8 weeks.

First task was to remove the camera traps that were laid 8 weeks ago by volunteers. Although the pictures have been collected weekly the survey in this part of the park for Leopards has now been completed so the wooden posts and metal cases that hold the cameras need to be removed.

The cameras are bolted onto metal posts and hammered into the ground by young fit 20 year olds! These have now hardened into the earth and require rocks, crowbars and a lot of brute force to remove in 30+C degree heat.

The requirements for the job are your chosen rock to counterbalance a crowbar and someone’s shoulder to lean on to keep your balance whist jumping up and down on the crowbar slowly forcing the metal post out of the ground. Not a pretty picture from behind.  A number of techniques were tried, including the bounce, jump and wiggle but from our exhaustive research we are able to confirm that the bounce is the most effective.  Not sure when we will be able to put this knowledge into practise again but will be stored away in case of need.

A Day Off

Our first and only full day off in 9 weeks! A trip to the St Lucia wetland park on the coast.

A great day out involving a 2 hour trip on a boat around the estuary seeing plenty of Hippos and Nile Crocodiles followed by lunch and a trip down to the Beach again.  We finished the day at the Crocodile Research Centre just in time for feeding.  What looked like huge docile sleeping logs soon sprang into action when the dinner gong was sounded!

The Challenge

Coming back from a morning in the bush to find that there is no running water!

Oh well it should not to be too bad we have gone without showers for a day or so before and we have some purchased water from a previous shopping trip to drink. 4 days later the water is turned back on again when the pump for the bore hole gets fixed! So the water supply consists of the tubs of rain water that has flowed off the roof (if you get any animal bits in the water you just think extra protein apparently). In the case below Dawn is fetching her shower (please note the distance the photographer had to stand)!

An Amazing Sighting

We managed to find one of the female Cheetahs in our area the other day with her two 11 month old cubs and after waiting for about 6/7 hours over two days we were lucky enough to see her stalk and kill an Impala. The impressiveness of this viewing was brought home specifically when we mentioned to some of the research team who have worked here for a number of years that have not seen this before – apparently this is rarer than a Leopard sighting (we are though very greedy and wanted both!).

A couple of pictures can’t show the tension or the thrill of the chase but show Mum in full stalking mode and then the whole family enjoying the benefits.

  

Lion Call ups - Again

Ah, more fun with Lions. This time we needed to call them in to place ID branding (note ‘V’ on front leg) so the park knows exactly who breeds with whom and also take blood samples etc.

When the two darted lions had fallen asleep our car’s job was to chase off the other 4 lions – who by the way only ended up being 20 metres away watching our every move!! Then everyone dragged the three drugged lions back to the carcass which was then followed by all the work – just before they woke up we managed a quick photo.

  

Tip of the week - Be nice to Elephants – Part 2!

We thought we would finish off the blog from this park with a bit of a cheat, as this is a picture of a picture in our kitchen. These people did get out all ok with the car having some lasting dents!

We look forward to catching up with you all soon.

David and Dawn