110 SCIENCE AND CULTURE, MARCH-APRIL, 2020

SAFARI THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA - I

ANTONIA HOOGEWERF*

A TRAVELLER’S JOURNAL

* The writer is British born and bred but has spent much of heradult life in France, the Loire Valley, the Deep South. She hasnow been living in Paris since 1999. Her passion is travelling,exploring the world and its people and experiencing their variousand diverse cultures. For the last 17 years she has spent the winterstravelling widely in India, a country she loves, always coming backto rest in Kolkata. These articles are random extracts from the travelnotebooks she wrote to record her experiences around the world.The author may be contacted at : antoniahoogewerf@hotmail.com

Africa! the dark continent – a huge land mass ofjungles deserts and incredible natural beauty whichfinally I came to visit this year, 30 million squarekilometres with a relatively sparse population. I know NorthAfrica only from many trips to Egypt and Morocco but ofthe South I knew nothing.

As often when I travel somewhere new and totallyunknown I decide to include a short tour with a groupwithin my month-long stay, but for the first ten days I amon my own. Thus I fly to Cape Town via Johannesburg onthe largest commercial aeroplane in the world – the Airbus380 – a massive bird on two levels capable of carrying850 passengers with around 50 personnel.

I am picked up at Cape Town airport by friends whogo all the way back to my Paris days in the seventies, andwhisked off to their beautiful rambling house in Constantia.My suitcase does not deign to make it with me, stoppingovernight in Johannesburg, an inconvenience which wasmildly disconcerting at the time but luckily it materializesthe next day in Cape Town, having received a thoroughgoing-over by the Customs authorites.

My friends tell me I can stay as long as I like, but Iwill not see anything except them – delightful as this is, Iagree, and immediately make plans for various excursions.So first stop the Whales! Hermanus is a small coastal townfamous for the whales which come every year to breed inthe Summer months. The females return a year later togive birth and spend the next four or five months in the

shallow waters of Hermanus Bay, teaching their newly borncalves to feed and swim, providing the best time forsighting these extraordinary creatures. By December theyhave gone – it is November so I am just in time to see thelast of them.

I have a wonderful guide who is a photographer andwhale expert, devoting his life to the study of these hugemammals. He laughingly tells me he is locally known asThe Prince of W(h)ales! Dave has compiled several booksof beautiful photographs he has taken over the years. Heis a tough rugged bluff South African, a big man withshaggy silver shoulder-length hair and a broad grin, fullof bonhomie and fun.

Penguins at Stony Point

He comes to Constantia to pick me up for the twohour journey along the coast south of Cape Town, alongthe coast. On the way we see several interesting diversions,not least a real live heist – crime is rife here as I amconstantly told, and there on a calm Monday morning is agang holding up a Bank security van on the main Highway.They have been rumbled and there are Police cars andvans everywhere, but it is a salutary reminder of the fragilesituation. Poverty is extreme in the ghettos and life cheap.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36094/sc.v86.2020.Safari_South_Africa.Hoogewerf.110

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We stop at Betty’s Bay, an old Norwegian Whalingstation whose heyday was in the early 1900’s. Whales have40cm of blubber around their entire bodies and they makeeasy prey being naturally curious and friendly and havingno real predators. And they are slow! The Whalers usedthe blubber to make candles, soaps and of course then soldthe meat. The industry did not last long here, about 30years over the turn of the century although in Japan it stillcarries on today. Dave does not disapprove as he says theyonly fish what they need.

We walk round Stony Point where there is a largecolony of Penguins and follow the boardwalk watchingthese comical creatures, strutting about in their classicblack and white bow-tie attire. There are some 26,000breeding pairs here, more than at Boulders Rock which Iwill visit later, but a lot less than even ten years ago.Strangely they were originally birds until their wings andfeathers mutated into the hard bone flippers they use toswim, around 60 million years ago. We also spot a RockHyrax, a small brown furry mammal whose closest relative,weirdly, is the Elephant!

Zebra at the Country Lodge

Driving into Hermanus along the coast road isspectacular. Dave tells me about his life here, his love forthe whales and career as a photgrapher. Taking me up to aviewpoint among the vineyards far above the town, we lookdown on the hillock that is Sir Willian Hoy’s burial place,the founder of Hermanus, and Governor of the Cape.Originally he wanted a Railway to connect to Cape Townand built the Station, but realizing that his Paradise wouldbe massively invaded he decided not to even begin to buildthe Railway line – the Station however, remains to thisday.

The bed and breakfast hotel at Walkers Bay ischarming, a stone’s throw from the sea where whale-watching is a constant. We lunch in a delightful restaurant

in the town centre and then try to spot a whale but withoutsuccess. Dave is determined and completely confident thatwe will see some – but not that day. I relax in my roomand go for an evening walk along the coast hoping, butthe wind is strong and the churning of the waves makesthe “blow” of the whales difficult to discern.

That evening Dave comes by to take me to therestaurant owned and run by my host about 3 kilometresaway. We have a few drinks then he goes home while Ihave fresh caught oysters and a wonderful steak. I amjoined by a local architect who is good company and kindlydrives me home later.

The next day we set out after breakfast and yes!Dave punches the air in delight, his joy infectious, asthere they are – a mother and calf, gently swimming along,close in to the shore. The calf seems to be playing, jumpingover his mother, running in circles around her as youngcreatures do. These are Southern Right Whales althoughsometimes one can see Humpbacks.

It is a magical sight and many other whale-watchersjoin us and walk along the shoreline following them. Thewhales love Hermanus for its shallow waters the wholelength of the bay, a curved coastline stretching for miles –then after a few months they take to the Deep. They canswim 7,000 kilometres at a stretch but not fast. Theiraverage speed is only 4-5 kilometres an hour, and the wholeocean is their playground, four-fifths of the Earth’s surface.

Dave regales me with statistics about the SouthernRight Whales which are mind-bending. A fully grown whaleweighs 65-70,000 kg (about the weight of 10-12 AfricanElephants) and measures around 15-18 meters long. A calfis born at 1,000 kg and around 6 metres long, and doubleshis weight in the first week, while the mother loses 40%of her body weight after the birth. He will drink 100 litresof the mother’s milk a day which is 45% fat compared tohuman milk which is 4% fat. Not to put too fine a pointon it, the male genitalia alone weigh 1,000 kg and his penisis 3 metres long. They do not operate in couples and thereare no Alpha males, but when in season there is a hugelove-fest when every male will try to copulate with everyavailable female, lasting 4-5 days. The gestation period isa year but the females produce a calf only every 3-4 years.

Dave knows many individual whales, he can recognizethem by the callosity in their markings, a whitepigmentation which transforms into hard crusty patches onwhich small shellfish, barnacles, and parasites live. Theyare born with snow-white underbellies which turn greywith age. We also see Seals, one with a huge Octopus inits mouth.

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On the way back we drive through the winelands ofHermanus. These are relatively new, there have only beenvineyards here for about 40 years, whereas those aroundCape Town are far older. We go for a wine-tasting at oneof the original wine-makers here, Hamilton Russell, whoplanted his first vines in 1975. Interestingly, whereas inFrance vines start to produce grapes 3 years after plantingand have a life of around 80 years, here they need at least6 years before grapes can be harvested and have to bere-planted every 20 years. A much harsher sun and drierland I imagine. The wine is good, the Chardonnay deliciousand cool, and I really like the South African red varietycalled “Pinotage”.

Back through the mountains, Dave drops me inClaremont in northern Cape Town where I am to meetcousins who own a large vineyard in Stellenbosch. We takeSir Lowry’s Pass, and he tells me of his concerns aboutthe new President, and his clear love of all his compatriots,be they black white or anything in between, the RainbowNation. He is infuriated by the poverty, the lack of jobs,homes, water even, no infrastructure in the shanty towns,let alone schools or hospitals; it is no wonder there is somuch crime. Later I have a wonderful dinner in my cousins’beautiful home and we talk late into the night. The nextday I am to fly to Johannesburg.

In Johannesburg I stay in a lovely hotel in Rosebank,and decide to buy a good camera in order to take advantageof the game drives in Kruger Park coming up. Myphotographs of the whales were, let’s just say, not good.Again I have a wonderful guide, very different to Davebut equally knowledgeable. Chuck takes me to theAparthied Museum which is interesting, but adds littleinsight to what I am already aware of. Mandela is noteverybody’s hero here, indeed he started out as a terrorist– how often there are two sides to the coin. Clearly it wasan abhorrent and abusive system, but in fact the blackpopulation did not want to mix with the whites, even morethan vice versa, and they point-blank refused to work onthe land. The Zulus were warriors and would not beanything else, hence Indians and other Asians were broughtin to work the sugar cane fields which were and still are alarge source of national wealth.

It was interesting to learn about Jan Smuts who wasa truly remarkable man, highly intelligent and altrusistic,and I was impressed by De Klerk’s wonderful speech whenhe released Mandela from jail and a new era began. Thatevening I am taken for a sundowner by friends at theirgracious home in Melrose and then out for a deliciousdinner. The food in South Africa is hearty, copious, meaty,and mainly Western. South Africans for the most part tend

to be well-built, good eaters, and physically keensportsmen.

Chuck drives me next day first through Johannesburg,which still bears witness to its wealthy origins due to thediscovery of Gold in the early 1800’s. One can still see olddisused mining shafts and a fine gold dust covers muchof the old city. Then through Pretoria, stopping to look atthe imposing Government buildings, Parliament and theLaw Courts still operational today, and the officialresidence of Mr Ramaposa, the current President. Whilethe capital is generally considered to be Cape Town,Pretoria is the Administrative capital and Bloemfontein theJudicial capital. The famous Jacaranda trees are coming tothe end of their season but still make a glorious displayof deep blue-purple blossoms. A short drive then bringsus to Cullinan and the Lodge hotel where I am to start theGroup tour.

The Zebra Country Lodge is a charming wildlife resortset a 400 square kilometer Game Park. I am a day early asthe rest of the group will arrive the next day, so I opt fora game drive all to myself. Musoni is a great guide. Hetakes me all over the wildlife park that first balmy sunnymorning and I am thrilled with seeing lots of Impala, Kudu,Blaze Bok, Nyala, Blue Wildebeest, Red Heart Beest, Eland,Zebra, Baboons, and of course Giraffe.

These are the gentle giants of the Forest, soft prettyheads with liquid eyes and long eyelashes and beautifulunique markings, but also formidable when angry with apowerful kick and a swipe of the head can kill. They arethe tallest mammals on earth, their legs alone 2 metreslong and they can run at 35 kmph over short distances.One very friendly (and pushy) one is called Jakey, hissheer height and size a little alarming as he tries to actuallyget inside the jeep, chasing us for a while until Musoniaccelerates. Later we catch him at the hotel pool, his legsbent at the knees trying to drink the water!

The Zebras are lovely to look at too, though theyalso can kick viciously, and their stripes are not only blackand white but cream and brown as well. The Wildebeestare impressive, congregating in large herds with theirpowerful heavy heads. These are all herbivores, grazers,the only predators in the Park are the Jackals who comeout at night. We see traces of Aardwark, Porcupine, andso many different birds and flowers. An amazingly richwildlife culture and a great start to my experiences in SouthAfrica.

The next article covers my travels with the group asI am able to explore much further afield into the hinterlandof South Africa, including Kruger Park.

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