Day 17, Year 6 Wild Wonderful Africa, Day 2
Date: Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Weather: Heavy Rain Overnight, Overcast & Rainy All Day
Location: Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Nature Reserve, South Africa
You can’t win them all and we definitely picked the wrong weather week for this adventure. The weather report has changed and now says instead of sun tomorrow, the rainy, cool weather will continue through the week. We can only hope the weather forecast is wrong this time or something changes quickly. I had a too-close encounter with the rain last night as our thatch-roofed beehive hut had a tiny leak right over my bed. It was almost like Chinese water torture for the three hours that it poured rain as the ‘drip-drip’ hit my bed every few seconds. It was just enough to be aggravating and soak only one side of the twin bed, so I just moved to the other side and slept on. We had a wonderful breakfast at mMuzi Bushcamp with Rex and Catua continuing to give us detailed information about what to visit where. So with their recommendations in hand, we took off and managed to have a good day today outside the park learning more about Zulu history and culture. We first visited the KwaZulu Cultural-Historical Museum inside the Ondini Complex where we had spent the night and then we visited the Spirit of eMakhosini Monument. It is a huge bronze Zulu beer pot surrounded by seven large horns symbolizing the seven king buried in the valley. Then we headed to the Mgunmgundvolu Multi-media Center, just opened in December of 2009. We had a fantastic guide, Neo, to lead us through the very modern museum and we watched a thirty-minute video connecting modern day life of the Zulu people to their ancestors. There are many things I want to share with you, but with limited electricity I will save the history lessons for a log when we return to Windbird.
Despite the weather, we had a good couple of hours driving back into Hluhluwe-iMfolozi and seeing more of the same animals we saw yesterday. The only additions were a couple of birds, a different type of turtle, and monkeys. Tomorrow morning we will get an early start and are really hoping that tomorrow is the Day of Cats-cheetah, leopard, and lion. We are right now settling into our accommodation in the park. We are in a double safari tent with an attached bathroom, a deck, and a separate kitchen unit Constance is in the unit next door and it is time for us to go there for dinner. These safari tents are pretty fancy and even though it is cool and damp, we refuse to let this weather ‘dampen’ our spirits. We are going to enjoy this park, rain or shine.
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| 101110 Day 17a South Africa–Zululand Tour |
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| 101110 Day 17b South Africa–Hluhluwe-iMfolozi, Day 2 |
