We’d managed to travel far with no problems regarding roads, traffic, directions or assistance, but were now on our way to say goodbye to our trusty vehicle, and be escorted for the rest of our stay in South Africa.
Being away for three months and going from southern to northern hemisphere with changing climates, it wasn’t easy to travel light – especially as part of our trip was cruising. As we rendezvoused with our driver at Hertz Port Elizabeth airport who was to take us to our game lodge, and transferred our luggage from our car to his minibus, we realised we’d probably got twice as much as the regular safari-goer who just needs to pack warm outdoor clothes and shoes and a good camera.
He obliged by taking us on a tour of the city, remembering things as we did way back in 1968 when we lived there for a while. But like many cities we’d been to in South Africa in the past three weeks, it was a disappointment to us. Once-grand hotels stood empty and derelict, rubbish piled up round them. Attempts that have been made to beautify the city have failed miserably, and our Afrikaans driver didn’t hold out much hope of lifting the urban decay. We talked a lot about how things are now as he drove us to the private game lodge in which we were to spend our last four nights in the Cape.
We weren’t disappointed with this luxury lodge. Treated royally during our stay, we took all the drives we could with our dedicated ranger, Wayne, who proved, with his keen eye and many years of experience, to be the best they had. We met interesting couples with whom we spent many evenings sitting round roaring log fires exchanging stories of how this female lion made the chase, and how that bull elephant came so close you could have touched him. These wild animals – some irresistibly cute and cuddly, others so big and powerful need to be seen like this, in the wild, from time to time, to remind us of our responsibility in keeping them alive and increasing in population, because I have to say, the statistics of poached rhino in this one reserve alone make depressingly sad reading. And the lengths the rangers have to go to, talking in code on their radios, or sending texts to colleagues’ private mobile phones to disguise the find from hackers listening in, is unbelievable. Apparently, rhino horn is more valuable than gold!
However, needless to say, we saw every variety of big game – the BIG FIVE – bar the elusive buffalo which stayed hidden right to the very last drive, just before we left for Port Elizabeth for our flight to Johannesburg, laden with hundreds of wonderful photographic and personal memories.
