when it is cold by the roadside, see the flawless skins of the impalas shiver in the first light. Or stand by the camp fence in the middle of the night while everyone sleeps, and listen to a jackal far away, howling its heart out.
This assault on the senses comes from nature and the culture of the game reserve as a whole. But the greatest comes from the animals. Without them the experience of the bush would be rather sterile – like a very artful garden with a large variety of trees and plants. It is the game in the game reserve that distinguishes it.
Game watching is of course an education in itself. The game reserve is not to be dictated to. To me one of the most wonderful things about the park is its mystery: why and where things happen and how they coincide. The game reserve is the stuff of life.
Now, just to contradict myself completely: to fully enjoy the game reserve, is to enjoy everything that happens to you, especially the many kilometres of dusty roads you will drive without seeing a single animal. For no matter how special the game is, there is no guarantee you will see any kind of animal at any stage at any place. Which makes me think of my impatient brother-in-law (a sworn game reserve-goer) who said, when we first drove together in the park: “There aren’t enough animals here. They should bring in more animals.”
It is important to decide what the purpose of your game reserve holiday is and what you want out of it, because that determines what you are going to do, how you plan on doing it, and how you execute it.
Where does one start?
Begin at the beginning, most people will tell you. It is a riddle almost like a lion hunt: you must know everything to know anything. You must, for example, know where to look for game to know where to stay. You must know where to eat in order to know where to drive. You must know what to eat in order to know what to pack. You must know where to stay in order to book the right accommodation. And so on.
I have decided that one must, as Stephen Covey says, “begin with the end in mind”. For that reason I start with the game in the game reserve and work my way back.
Only when you know what you want to do, can you plan your holiday. Only when you know where to look for game can you book a place to stay. Only when you know what you want to eat and do, will you know what to pack. When you have done all these things, will you be ready to undertake a trip to the Lowveld.
Chapter 1
How to sight game
I have thought a lot about how to convey my ideas about game watching. There are two sides to the story: on the one hand there are certain common-sense principles that undoubtedly help, and have often helped me. On the other is the fact that the game reserve is a wondrous part of the cosmos that works in patterns we know only in part. And it is exactly this that makes it so exciting – and that makes the experience one I wish, with my whole heart, everyone could have.
For the moment I accept that readers want to see as many animals as possible, and preferably as many of the Big Five (lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, rhinoceros) as possible – or if you add cheetah and wild dog, the Great Seven. I am not saying that to see the Big Seven is the only reason to go to the game reserve. But if I don’t tackle this topic thoroughly, I am not doing my job.
In the same breath I also ask that you do not cheat yourself out of the largest part of the wildlife – the plants and the birds. Without them the park would be similar to a zoo or a farm. The big advantage of bird- and tree-watching is you simply have a much broader experience of the bush. What’s more, most of these species come to you, or stand in one place. Stop and smell the roses – or in this case the buffalo grass/mopani trees/river rushes.
The best way to enjoy trees and birds is to learn their names, and the best way to do that is by acquiring a good book to identify them. Buy a pair of binoculars too. They needn’t be special field glasses. Most models available in shops – some of which don’t cost more than a few hundred rand – will work. You need not assiduously study in order to learn the names of the trees and birds. Just make a point of noticing what strikes you as interesting or unusual, or commonly occurs, and look up its name and other information.
I guarantee you within the first day someone in your group will say: “I wonder what kind of tree that is – the one with the thick trunk that looks as if it was planted upside down?” Or: “What are those shiny blue birds in all the camps?” In other words, research the species that catch your eye, especially in the camps or at picnic spots. It’s a great way of getting to know the bush. It isn’t hard work. I keep my books and binoculars in a shoulder bag in the front of the car. As soon as there is something that I want to look up, the book and binoculars are on hand.
Trees most people notice sooner or later because of their characteristic appearance are: umbrella thorn (speaks for itself), baobab (the very thickest trees with branches like roots), wild pear or “drolpeer” (fruit like buck droppings), sausage tree (use your imagination), paperbark thorn (speaks for itself), lekkerbreek (“breaks easily”), marula (distinctive thick twigs and compound leaves, bark pattern like a Monet painting), knob thorn (knots and knuckles, fine round leaves), wild syringa (another type of umbrella tree), naboom (those cacti in Thomas Baines paintings), ilala palm (palms with long pointed fan-like leaves), apple leaf (guess), mopani (red and green butterfly-shaped leaves, a few million specimens to practice on if you are battling), leadwood (distinctive blocked bark pattern and leaves), bush willow (long, smooth, mossy cross branches and distinctive leaves, often hangs over water), fever tree (yellow trunk, branches and leaves) and wild fig (thick, light grey, smooth, curling trunks and branches, shiny green leaves).
The same applies to smaller mammals. It can be extremely frustrating not to know what any one of the following are, and yet you will see them sooner or later: klipspringer, warthog, duiker, steenbok, bushbuck, nyala, dwarf mongoose, tree squirrel, banded mongoose, water mongoose, rock rabbit, otter and tsessebe.
Or birds: glossy starlings (shiny blue birds found in most camps), hornbills (name speaks for itself – also in most camps), ground hornbills (large red and black cousins of hornbills, along roads), fish eagles (white, brown and black eagles along rivers), kingfishers (different kinds, spear-like beaks and crests), bee-eaters (colourful, along riverbanks), bee-catchers (black with distinctive forked tail), grey louries or the “go-away” bird (with a crest, and sounds like its nickname) and lilac-breasted rollers (the most beautiful bird for many – blue and lilac feathers, normally in a dry tree by the roadside).
1 Yellow-billed hornbill
2 Baobab
3 Mopani
4 Ground hornbill
Good books for each of these types of wildlife are:
»Trees
How To Identify Trees In Southern Africa, Braam van Wyk & Piet van Wyk (Random House Struik)
»Birds
Roberts Birds, Hugh Chittenden, Ian Whyte, Guy Upfold (Jacana)
Sasol Birds Of Southern Africa, Ian Sinclair, Phil Hockey, Peter Ryan and Warwick Tarboton (Random House Struik)
»Mammals
