Imfolozi Wilderness Leadership School

Well...basically a remix of the Jurassic Park theme song and "Everything is Awesome"  from the LEGO movie has been on repeat in my head for the past five days. But I will get there.

Last Thursday I visited Durban for a very brief period (about 18 hours) and had an internet binge in order to straighten out some future school items. Liz and I left on Friday back to Mhlopeni for her to have a weekend away from studying. Exiting the car Joy greeted me with, "So your back to Durban on Monday. Wilderness Leadership School emailed and said they have a slot open for the trail." After a couple days of delicious treats and a full moon hike, we were back in the car on our way to Durban. "Hey! I will finally get to see Durban in the daylight," I commented, not realizing I had cursed us. 20km from Pietermaritzburg and about 100 km from Durban, the car began making a dragging noise. Liz pulled over and popped the hood. Nothing obvious, but fortunately a young guy pulled over to help and was able to point out our issue and offered to follow us. Within 1km the car completely lost power and he proceeded to tow us into Pietermaritzburg where we awaited our hero, Liz's mom. After the tow line snapping on downhill into Durban and waiting for Uncle Jim to come to the rescue, we eventually made it into town after dark. At one point Liz laughed as she said, "This is terrible."

Monday morning I met up with the other WLS participants at the airport and one of our guides, Mandla (both of our guides were actually named Mandla). I sighed in relief as I met the other hikers, all from Cape Town. Three young, sweet teenage girls and a wonderful couple.

A brief history about Imfulozi: After the locals were moved off of the land some decades ago, poaching became an enormous issue. In the 1960s, Ian Player among other conservationists noticed the near extinction of the black and white rhinos. With the phenomenal help of the people who once lived on the land, efforts were made to successfully increase the number of rhinos from just a few hundred to about 10,000 in total by the year 2000'ish.

The Jurassic Park theme initiated when we drove into the park and looked way into the river to see three elephants bathing. They were just specs but you could just see their incredible mass. We ate lunch and hit the trail. Within minutes we saw a pride of lion across the river, our only lion sighting minus their midnight roars during each of our night watches. I could ramble the excruciating details. But I never thought I would be standing 30 feet from two snoozing white rhinos as giraffe and zebra grazed nearby. All of the campsites were on riverside boulders, perched high enough to peer at buffalo, rhino, a hippo, nyala, zebra, giraffe, baboons and others that came to or near the river to graze, bathe, and drink. Each of us took turns for a 2 hour night watch shift filled with an amazingly full night sky, shooting stars, thoughts, and solitude. And the one time spotted genet eyes.

On our last evening, I trekked up the steep hill from our campsite to use the bathroom. "Something cool is going to happen while I am gone." And it did, and I almost missed it! At my feet lay a tiny scorpion, not even 1 inch in length but as brave as any lion. I admired him as any naturalist would do. Lifting my head I peered at the buffalo laying in the reeds on the north side of the river. How pretty. Turning my head ever so slightly to the south side, just across from the buffalo was a white rhino crossing the river! I bolted down the path, leaving the scorpion in my dust. In mid-river he was just a silhouette, a perfect African image of rhino in a sunset-bathed river. Without words we watched him spray his territory and wallow in the mud. What a way to end a trip.

Last night I compiled a list of my impressions on the wildlife we saw:

Crocodile: The red eyes in the night, and the "small stick" in the water next to your rock that all of a sudden disappears.

Elephant: You have to respect an animal who poops a ball as big as your head.

Giraffe: A gregarious and sweet journey (did you catch that??) that fills yours soul with peace just to be in its presence.

Zebra ("Zeh-bra"): The skeptic, and you don't win his trust easily.

Anurans (Frogs): The evening choir.

Pair of territorial Egyptian geese: The synchronized dancers with wings spread proud.

Nyala: Dirty, old grungy bearded man with young and beautiful girlfriends.

Hippo: Lumbering and sensitive. He could be a poet.

Lions: The extroverts who steal all the energy from the room.

Buffalo: Your typical professional football team.

Rhino: He is complex, and this makes him often misunderstood. I sympathize with this.

Impala. The quiet onlookers.

Baboon: Eh...the babies are cute.

Bats: An evening show. My affinity for them has increased since living in Austin on that first night on SoCo bridge in February.

And then leaving the park today, there was a fantastic show of roadside impala, zebra, and (wait for it, Caroline) a HUGE elephant!! My South Africa video is going to be sweet. EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!!

"Life is good under the stars." "It is where it is best lived."