The park office had closed. There was a blackboard with peoples' names beside the chalets and cottages but there was no one in the campground. We managed to get a crackling cell phone signal and called the after hours' number and were able to hear 'any tent site' so went ahead and pitched our tiny two man tent.
There was a great big kitchen which looked like you could cater for a ten course sit down dinner for dozens of people as it was so well equipped; gravy boats, stainless steel lidded-serving dishes and a whole range of pots and pans.
During the early hours of the morning we heard something that sounded like gentle rain. When we got up the tent fly was covered with ash from the sugar cane that was being burnt all around us on the farms in the local area.
The local monkeys came through the camp in the morning as it was pretty dry in the reserve because there hadn't been any water. They manage to work out how to get the juicy bits of sugar cane stalk and munched on those from the tops of the trees tossing down the unwanted fibrous matter.
The park manager gave us maps and directions to visit lots of places around the reserve on private properties. So we headed off after a short walk on the baboon trail near the camp. Our first stop was called Leopard Rock. This place had been a quarry for marble and dolomite, but now it has a huge souvenir shop/restaurant over looking the Umizimkulwana and Umzimkulu Rivers in the bottom of the gorge. The restaurant was full of white South African families who were on a motorbike rally in nearby Margate. Motorbikes are not allowed in the parks so they were decked out in their leather vests but arrived in cars.
We next stopped at the Lake Eland Game Reserve further along the rivers. It started to rain as soon as we arrived but we decided to drive in our car around the reserve to look at the animals anyway. They gave us a huge list of animals that we could possibly see on the drive but of course they never say how many years ago that particular wild animal was last seen. We did manage to see several zebra, wildebeest and 3 types of bucks.
It was pretty cold and misty but we made it to the San (an indigenous tribe who live in this area) caves to look at some cave drawings. The drawings were on pieces slabs of rock lined up behind a wire fence and covered with modern graffiti, so we were not sure if any of it was authentic or not.
The reserve had lots of accommodation for families who could fish in the dams, ride horses in the reserve, walk the trails with the animals or ride mountain bikes around them. Across the road was a quad bike track for various competitions. The reserve was also surrounded by sugar cane plantations and one of the owners told John that they would eventually turn the cane fields into game reserve as well. Reserves are a good way to make an income. The animals roam the land and the owners get an income from the tourists who drive and then as the animals increase they can be culled and the meat sold to restaurants, or dried for biltong and the hides sold for leather. There were many ways for the 'farmer' to diversify and make an income from the farm.
When we returned to the campsite we found some water in the bottom of our tent so we were offered a 3 bedroomed house by the manager. It was much flasher than any park hut I have ever seen in NZ parks. It was like 4 star accommodation.
We needed some provisions so we headed for the local petrol station only to find that they had bread, ice cream and a few can of baked beans and not much else. The nearest shopping centre was at Shepstone back on the coast. Once again we were the only white faces in the town and the supermarket.
Before leaving the nature reserve we did a walk along the gorge where there were supposed to be clawless otters and other wildlife. The aloe was in flower and there were quite a few birds. It is a popular place for birdwatchers and we were given a long list the names of the local birds but of course they meant nothing to us as we had no idea what any of them looked like. However, we can now recognise the call of the sunbird and identify it with its iridescent blue black feathers and red breast.
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These native trees were eerie with their peeling skin to reveal a green bark.Fortunately we were able to dry our tent out and head along the coast for Durban to celebrate further Lil's 59th birthday!
