Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park

Dr. Toe Zaw, Dr. Hla Tun, and I traveled to the national game reserve of Hluhluwe (pronounced “Shloo-shloo-wee”)-Imfolozi Park for a four day weekend, starting on the afternoon of Thursday Aug 25th. The park is only 90 km from Nongoma by a potholed dirt road. Instead, we chose to drive a safer paved route via the coastal town of Empangeni that takes a big 3 hour “U” around the park.

The docs have an old Burmese friend living in Empangeni which meant another delicious Burmese meal for me. Their friend stuffed me with a delicious assortment of soups, fish, mutton, chicken, and cake. I left the table a bit sedated and happily distended. We stayed overnight on Thursday in Empangeni with our belts slightly unbuckled.

The next morning I sated myself with a breakfast of noodles and soups before we launched ourselves into the unique world of game watching. Impalas and warthogs greeted us just past the gate of Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park. Created in 1895, the two parks together cover 96,000 hectares of wildlife displaying rhinos, wild dogs, zebras, wilderbeest, elephants, giraffes, buffalo, hippo, lions, cheetahs, leopards, and more.

The paved and dirt roads on the rolling hilly terrain furnished viewing pleasures from our white Toyota. The national park provides 3 hour wildlife tours on big trucks and jeeps which must be booked on the day of arrival. Unfortunately the evening drive was booked full and so we had to settle into our westernized huts and chalets on Hilltop Camp and wait for a Saturday 5:20am morning wildlife screening. Being a smart traveler, I brought my laptop and several dvds. I popped in the transgenerational1992 favorite “My Cousin Vinny” where Joe Pesci defends Karate Kid in case of mistaken identity. Dr. Hla Tun laugh hysterically while Dr. Toe Taw found his bed to be more exciting. Then a meal of roasted chicken, chips (fries), and extra hot Nando sauce settled our night away.

The early morning made me shiver. We escaped into the dark with 17 other passengers in on open air truck. Just to note, all the passengers were white. The driver slash tour guide took us down the mountain, providing us two spotlights to break the darkness. The wind made life uncomfortable, but I was ready to capture the South African wildlife in their “real” habitant. I soon realized that night driving was a cool concept (as if the animals wouldn’t notice us at night), but had limited wildlife viewing. That is, we couldn’t see any animals and when we did, I could not capture any proof with my digital camera. Shame.

But as the morning sunlight overtook our spotlights, I became a five year old at a zoo with Asian tourist tendencies. “Ooh, ooh, look there. That’s a giraffe. Wow, there’s so many. Picture time.” Flash, snap, flash, snap, flash, and snap came from my camera capturing the GQ giraffes models at every angle possible. I flashed, snaped so much that I had to switch batteries in my camera. The rhinos, elephants, and the sly hyena satisfied my bizarre hunger for a moment before I realized we have yet to enjoy the presence of the rare lion, cheetah, or leopard.

After the morning view was over, we trekked on our own vehicle hoping to uncover Simba, the lion. Yet the felines escaped my eyes after three hours of personal driving plus three more hours of tour guide driving.

So we left with a triumphant viewing of a hyena, but with a common disappointment of no lion sightings. Next time, in order to satiate my hunger, I will have to see the lions at the local Saint Paul Como Zoo. Roar!