Adventure Travel in Africa

More Elephants…

February 8, 2010 By Jillian

We knew we’d spend a good portion of our time in South Africa game viewing at the national and provincial parks , after all it’s not exactly common to see a lion hunt in downtown D.C. (well depending on your profession maybe it is!). First through Kruger, than the parks in Swaziland, Huhuilwe-iMfolozi and finally we hit what many consider to be South Africa’s hidden gem- Addo Elephant Park.

Ever since the “elephant incident” at Kruger I’ve been dreading Addo Elephant Park. A park dedicated to elephant sent visions of being crushed by these gentle giants through my head, and well I was hoping that having two other people in the car might persuade my darling husband to re-evaluate the actual distance of 30 meters. That was until we sat near a waterhole, watching water buffalo, ostrich, zebra and finally two elephants come for a drink. Not only did the elephants approach the watering hole passing less than 10 meters from our car, but they as well as everyone else in the car seemed completely unfazed by our proximity…Except of course, me. “Now I see why you’re not allowed to drive in the game parks,” pipped up our friend in the back. “I’m calm,” I replied, willing myself to relax a little.

In the heat of summer most of the waterholes have gone dry so its easy to find the animals at Addo- just go to the water. Advised by other travelers to just go to a watering hole and let the animals come to us, we spent the morning watching small family groups of zebra, ostrich, jackal, buffalo, warthog and elephant come and go. Addo might be known for its huge elephant population, said to be the densest in Africa, but we spent the morning watching a menagerie of African animal parade before us, even spotting four lions lounging in the shade.

After a decade in Washington, D.C. there was one watering hole we had to go to, no matter what may or may not be there– Marion Baree water hole. I’m sure the watering hole is named for a very respectable, very worthy person, but the irony of the pronunciation- the same as the infamous Washington, D.C. Mayor was too much.

Almost everything hides in the heat of the African sun, but as we came around the corner to visit our beloved former mayor, my jaw dropped. A breeding herd of about thirty elephants including several very young calves crowded around the hole drinking, splashing and playing about in the water. Speechless the four of us stared out the window for what seemed like forever, watching the elephants trumpet and splash each other. We’ve had some pretty incredible wildlife experiences over the last six weeks, but this is a memory even I do not want to forget.

Addo Elephant Park is so named for the herd of over 450 elephant in the park, but most of the elephants were hanging out in the inaccessible portions of the park. Still, it was an incredible day, and as we sipped wine watching sundown over a watering hole filled with both lions and kudu, I finally began to calm down. Maybe next time I should just drink a glass before we meet the elephants?

Foodie Friday: Dining in Lesotho

February 5, 2010 By Jillian

While staying at Malealea Lodge in Lesotho we were rather well equipped to provide for ourselves, or ‘self-cater’ as its referred to here, each night. We had just enough food between the four of us (ourselves and two others we managed to squeeze into our little car) to last us our entire stay with the exception of dinner one night. Dinner at the lodge didn’t look too bad actually, but something else appealed to us a bit more. A traditional Basotho meal served at the home of one of the villagers.

On account of the rains our host Teboho arrived to pick us up at the lodge early. We wrapped up what we were doing and scurried with him out of the lodge and to his father’s home. The house was a one room, 10′ x 20′ block consisting of a few chairs, a cabinet/closet that looked like something from Ikea, some other shelves, and a double bed. We each took a seat as Teboho ran out of the house to the kitchen to bring us our meals.

While he was gone, his 74 year old father joined us and began to tell us about his life. He was proud of his only son (who was lucky enough to have 4 sisters) who started this business and that they often hosted people 2-3 times a week. His people didn’t use cow skin as blankets any more because the first white men who came (French missionaries) brought blankets that were so warm and so soft and so fuzzy that his people decided to use those instead. He taught me that when the beer or wine (we’d brought a bottle of red) was running low it was tradition in Lesotho to pour the elderly first and congratulated me on learning the tradition so quickly.

The meal itself was simple; a small piece of chicken, an unknown green vegetable, and mealy pap. Pap is basically a brick of corn meal that, well, tastes like a brick of corn meal. Although pap figures on the favorite food list of no one I’ve ever met, the vegetable and chicken were both seasoned rather nicely and left us all quite pleased. When our friend asked what the vegetable was, and we had a hard time understanding the word ‘spinach’ through the thick accents, we understood the word ‘popeye’ once Nicopane put his arm up and flexed his bicep for us.

Signing the guest book by weak lamp-light we knew we’d been apart of something special. Sure, this was a business venture by the young Basotho but it was unique. It was a venture that started with the help of a a Peace Corps volunteer over a year ago whose time in the Corps ended the day after Teboho hosted his first dinner guest. It is little bits of gold like this that make us most proud to be Americans.

Hiking in Lesotho

February 3, 2010 By Jillian

As we set off to find the bushman paintings, the village men surrounding the gate were severely disappointed we didn’t want a guide. Sure the paintings would have been easier to find with a guide, but what’s the fun in that. Hearing the owners warning not to go into the gorge for fear of disrupting a boy’s coming of age ceremony, we took what we were sure was the right path. Breathtaking scenery, it wasn’t too long before local children started to shout lumela, hello, lumela, at us. Grabbing our hands, the children smiled, asked us to take their picture and got up the courage to ask for sweets. Without sweets, the children were disappointed, but enthralled by our friend’s camera which recorded video. Playing back their dancing and singing, he excited the children so much they didn’t want to let us go. Eventually we made our way into the gorge, our presence being the excitement of the day for children in every village. With only a few words of Sesotho between the four of us, happily navigated our way downstream avoiding every would-be guide along the way.

Seemingly scratching their heads at us, the villages smiled, said “Lodge”, asking if we were coming from Malealea Lodge, and smiled again when we said yes. “Bushman paintings?” we said and thanked whomever pointed the way. Eventually the hands started pointing up the gorge toward the rim. Confused, we let a local sheep hearder, with the same level of English as our Sesotho show us the way. Hoofing it up the hill, he explained in charades that there were 3 paintings and he would take us to all of them. Nodding our heads in agreement, I decided it was time to learn a little Sesotho. Pointing at animals, rocks, huts and trees, I asked our guide their Sesotho names and repeated them in English. We pointed at our chests, the international symbol for “I am” and said our names.

The first two sites were incredible, and we all agreed without our guide we never would have found them. Colored in red, yellow and black, the paintings represented hunting, spiritual life, and even what we thought was an erotic scene or two. We took tons of photographs, tried to determine the faded figures and marveled at the site. We’ve seen petroglyphs before, but there was just something magical about the bushman paintings. Although their style is thousands and thousands of years old, experts put these drawings at less than a thousand years old. The third site, an overhang above the valley, proved the most memorable. Picking up a stick our friend approached the cave painting as though he was going to touch it. Jumping out our guide said what we can only assume was no, don’t touch it! Without touching the painting, our friend had lined up the stick as though he was painting the image. Snapping away, we each took our turns “painting” the bushman designs. Showing our guide the pictures, he laughed and jumped up to take his turn. We could say no more than hello, sheep, donkey and our names in each others language, but we all had a good laugh over our artistry. Waving good bye, we headed back to the lodge still laughing at the thought of the modern Basotho pretending to paint the designs of his ancestors.

Modern Lesotho quickly came into view although I doubt the view is that different than 100 years ago, there was one striking difference. Along the road the school children, in their maroon and gold uniforms danced, sang and ran their way home. Seeing tourists, the children mobbed us, demanding we take their picture and show it to them. Laughing we snapped away as the children acted like they were models in a photo shoot. Recording video of them singing and playing, our friend shared the video with the children, who immediately huddled around him for a better view. Instantly his head disappeared among the sea of children. Giggling, the kids would have been perfectly happy to spend the entire afternoon at the “photo shoot”. We were treated to a lesson on the planets by one girl, and a recital of the numbers one through ten in English by another.

Running into so many villagers on our hike to the paintings made it a real cultural experience not just a hike through a beautiful gorge. For us, after so many negative experiences with children in Latin America aggressively asking and begging for money, playing with these children was a wonderfully different experience.

A different kind of tourism

February 1, 2010 By Jillian

The end of traditional tourism is here, say good-bye to huge resources draining all-inclusive resorts. World-wide lodges, hostels and hotels are turning more eco-friendly, and some even go beyond not changing the used towels you hang up. Worldwide new trends in tourism are developing, from eco-tourism to poverty tourism to agro-tourism, but one of the most promising is perhaps the increasingly popularity of sustainable tourism. Sustainable tourism, developing the tourism industry in a way that it enhances the traditional culture and environment instead of tearing it down. We’ve been lucky enough to see true sustainable tourism twice on our trip- once in Nicaragua and once in Lesotho.

The Malealea Lodge in Malealea, Lesotho is written up in all the guidebooks as a must-do. Although they give a vague description on the lodge, its activities and the associated Malealea Development Trust, no guidebook can express the atmosphere of a place like the Malealea Lodge. Seven kilometers of dirt road through a pass known as the “gates of paradise” takes you a world away from the paved road you left. Immediately life looks more pastoral over the pass and it doesn’t take long to encounter a local on the road. Greetings take on an importance in Lesotho that they have lost in the West, and every single person we met on the road greeted us with a genuine smile and lumela (hello).

Like other parts of the world, tourism means money, and so generally the locals are happy to see you, and then again just as happy to see you go. Malealea Lodge and its Development Trust ensure that when you go, that core feeling you have that your life has changed is also the same feeling the surrounding community has. Through trial and error, the owners of Malealea have developed sustainable tourism programs to benefit the entire community. Through financial, professional and volunteer donations, the Lodge and Trust have made themselves they keystone of a thriving Basotho community where traditional customs are maintained and will continue to be preserved.

As we hiked through the surrounding countryside we saw small subtle hints of Malealea’s impact. Clean water taps to outlying villages, a reclaimed donga, a traditional handi-craft center giving local woman a fair income for their work, and even tables made from tin cans, the examples of the positive impact of tourists in the community are never too far. The hands of tourists have built the community a pre-school, a primary school, and set up a fund to subsidize school fees and uniforms. Short-term tourists turn into long-term visitors, teaching English, computer skills, moderating HIV/AIDS awareness projects, eventually passing these jobs on to locals. Tourism dollars support small business loans that help entrepreneurs build their first mill, buy their first shoe leather and set up a successful shop. The repayment of these loans helps goes back in the pool to be loaned to others. Perhaps the most positive impact of a place like Malealea is that it teaches both tourists and locals how to interact with each other in a way that isn’t disruptive but rather inter-dependent.

It’s easy to say I want to help those around me, especially in Africa where there are so many people living in sub-standard conditions, but like all aid, we struggle to balance a hand out with a hand up. The extra pocket change you give as a tip to your hiking guide or pony guide can translate to jealousy in a local community, and may not reach its intended purpose. Aid can sometimes be like a chess game, what impact does this small seemingly insignificant gesture or project have on the local community? That’s why projects like those at Malealea are so important. As a tourist we paid the same money, perhaps even less, than we would have at a traditional lodge, and not only got an authentic cultural experience, but also supported the community in such a way that in 20 years it will still remain intact.

Malealea had a very deep and profound impact on me, one that deepens every day. The owners set out just to have a small lodge, not a community supporting development project, but through their work and that of their clients they’ve positively impacted the lives of everyone in that valley. It’s leadership like theirs, which inspires us to have an impact and to think about our travel decisions which will help change the world, not just the little sign reminding us to hang up our used towels to be used again tomorrow.

Operation Rhino

January 25, 2010 By Jillian

Most famous for its “Operation Rhino” program, Hluhuluwe-iMfolozi National Park is a conservation focused big game park. Home to a quarter of the world’s rhinocerous population, the park’s Operation Rhino has successfully brought the white rhino back from the brink of extinction. A little over 100 years ago only 20 white rhinos existed in the world, today the global population is closer to 13,000 with the entire world’s population originating from the conservation efforts at Hlhuluwe-Imfolozi park. That’s quite an accomplishment. The program is so successful that the park has had to move “surplus” rhinos to other big game parks across Southern Africa in order to maintain a manageable population for the park.

The story of the white rhinocerous is like the story of so many species over the years, only it appears to have a happy ending. With the white rhino population steadily rising, the park has now begun to focus its conservation efforts on the black rhino who has suffered extreme dwindling numbers due to poaching over the last decade. Estimates indicated that in the last decade the number of black rhino has fallen from 14,000 to 1550 due mainly to poaching.

Poaching, surprisingly still exists in the big game parks in South Africa. In fact, a guide at Kruger National Park told us that last year Park Rangers found the carcases of 30 poached rhinos. Like elephant poachers which only take the tusks of the animal, rhino poachers remove only the horns, which can fetch up to 10,000 USD on the international market. Although international awareness against poaching increases every year, there continues to be great demand for rhino horns which are believed to cure infertility in some cultures.

Rangers often find the remains of animals, not the poachers themselves, especially at trans-frontier parks like Kruger where poachers can enter and exit the area from different countries. A very shocking set of images at Kruger Park didn’t need captions to describe the cruelty and brutality of the snares and traps used by poachers.

With so much at stake, successful conservation programs like that at Hluhuluwe-Imfolozi will only become more and more important in the preservation of species and the enviroment. Hopefully the example set by Hluhulhwe will serve to spur serious animal conservation efforts not only in Africa with the big game, but also in our own country, to protect smaller species.

More Elephants…

Foodie Friday: Dining in Lesotho

Hiking in Lesotho

A different kind of tourism

Operation Rhino

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