Tembe Elephant Park

Zulu dancers from the village performed one evening

We left the Durban airport and headed northeast to Tembe Elephant Park, a 5 hour drive from Durban. There are 500 km of sugarcane plantation along the coast. We saw swaying green rolling hills interlaced with a network of narrow and wide sandy brown paths. There were clusters of cane cutters cottages along the way. At harvest time the fields are burned to clear out snakes and vermin and then the cutters start. Raw brown sugar is extracted for export and the 'waste' is made into paper.
The sugar cane gave way to eucalyptus plantations - very tall, straight and narrow trees with little foliage. Another export.

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I thought we were going to the jungle but Tembe turned out to be a sand forest, a former ocean bed. The lodge operates sort of like a private public partnership, the public being the Tembe tribe, one of the Zulu tribes united by King Shaka back in the day. The Tembe tribe and the Tembe land are very poor. There are very few opportunities and young people leave for the cities. A familiar story.


Every evening the staff gathered on the dining deck to greet us and announce the evening's menu. They expressed sincere gratitude to the guests for travelling so far to come to Tembe to support their community.  Our tent was far from "roughing it" with flush toilet and hot shower...








Ian made a video. Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmfnvMYjvOA



Some things we heard from our guide Carlos:

Impala and wildebeest give birth midday when their predators are resting. The newborn can run as quickly as their mothers 30 minutes after birth.

When giraffes begin to browse (nibble) on acacia trees the roots react and send a scent up to the leaves which is repellant to the giraffes. The giraffes, not to be out smarted, start browsing upwind so that the trees downwind don't know they are coming!!

The green warty skin of a toad fruit can be scratched to release a poisonous white sap. A few drops in a pan of milk will curdle the milk to make a nourishing snack. Carlos said when he was a herd boy out all day with the cattle he would milk a cow and make himself curd to eat.


Elephants can sense the vibration of other elephants' feet 10 km away. Apparently elephants in the vicinity of the big tsunamis are rarely injured or lost because they sense the approach and head to high ground.

One evening as we were heading back to the lodge Carlos slowed the truck and said "Leopard ... in that tree." We thought he was teasing because, though the park has several leopards, they are rarely seen. It scampered down the tree and ran off into the tall grass. I asked Carlos how he knew there was a leopard in the tree. He spotted its ears from about 30 meters away!

We didn't see any lions though a truck about 10 minutes ahead of us saw a large group - male, females, cubs, the whole shebang. I'm happy to know they are there and they are safe.

When we were in Cape Town we saw an international wildlife photography exhibition. The images are awesome (in the true sense of the word). A small exhibit of 6 photos depicted the despicable practice of rhino horn poaching. The word poaching is too gentle (think of an egg). Massacre, slaughter, butchery are more apt.

An interesting Canadian connection: A man in Bowser BC somehow operates the webcam at one of the hides in Tembe Park. Another mystery of technology - mysterious to me anyway!

Tembe Park has had no poaching and they credit that in part to the introduction of lions. If poaching is life threatening to the poachers and not only to the rhino it decreases. Doh.

An aside about the photo exhibit: Some of the photos made me think that photography could be deemed an extreme sport. One photographer submerged himself through an ice hole into antarctic water  in order to photograph Emperor penguins ascending from the depths out through the ice hole. It wasn't 'on cue' so who knows how long he was in that frigid water.

And yet ... another photographer stumbled across a Kermode bear in the lush green moss of a BC forest gorging herself on a salmon. He shot it (the photo!) from about 3 metres away.

Photos from the exhibit can be viewed at
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/onlineGallery.do

A day out with Alison

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A great day! Cheetahs, raptors, lunch. We went to a place where there are several cheetahs to view- Cheetah Outreach. They are called ambassadors. They are bred and kept in captivity to raise awareness about the plight of cheetahs.The money that is raised goes into breeding and raising Anatolian sheepdogs who are then given to farmers to guard their livestock against predators such as wild cheetahs.

No, he's not dead, just sleeping

The hope is that the farmers will then not trap, poison or shoot the wild cheetahs. The program pays for the food and upkeep of the dog for the first year that the farmer has it. Most of the time the farmers agree to adopt the dog after the year is over but if not the program takes it back.  The old patriarch of the cheetahs, Joseph, is available for petting under close supervision.













After the cheetahs we went to a fancy shmancy place with a restaurant, wine tasting room, fancy takeout picnic shop and a bird sanctuary. We had a very delicious lunch and then went to see the birds.

The Raptors



As I was watching some of the birds I had an epiphany about a recent dream. In the dream a huge mythic falcon captures a sheltie dog and flies off with him, clutched in her talons. I think the dream was about 'the rapture' and the entrepreneurial zeal of con artists offering dog care to those expecting to be raptured 'cause, ya know, ya can't take it with you! Maybe I'm worried about Jake and his afterlife?

Shine

Ian volunteered to make a video for Shine where Julie works. It's an early intervention literacy NGO. We spent a morning there shooting the children with their volunteer learning partners. The learning partners are volunteers, some local and some foreign. The space is very small and before the children arrived I anticipated noise and chaos. Not at all. Each child was focused and attentive to the literacy games that the volunteer was playing even though they were sitting within  three feet of the next couple. At times Ian had the camera on the low table inches from the child's face.

"Words change worlds"

At the end of the morning Ian wanted to get a few words from some of the children. They were enthusiastic and very positive about learning to read. Due to the incompetence of Ian's assistant (moi!) the audio didn't come through. I was so mad at myself! Ian was forgiving, bless him.

Ian posted the video on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EEAqWjqme8

After Shine

Julie's mom, Alison, came to pick us up. The plan for the afternoon was to accompany Alison and Simon to Simon's horseback riding lesson. We went to Alison's for a bite to eat first where we met her lovely dogs, Shelley and Jamie! And Nugget! I think Shelley and Jaime, our former tenants, would be happy to know that such friendly canines are carrying their names.


Simon has been taking lessons at the Sleepy Hollow ranch for a few years. The focus is on balance, coordination, posture etc. He was pleased to have such an attentive audience. We clapped once when he did something and after that he kept telling us to clap. Alison said, "Simon, you have to do something for us to clap for." He got it and performed beautifully!

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After the lesson Alison drove us over Chapman'sPeak. Stunning scenery - steep mountain sides, white sand beaches and emerald green water.  We came to a toll booth with only one lane open. The driver in front of us had some issue and was at the booth for 3 minutes, then 5, then 10. Not a blast out of one of the other cars. We sat and we sat. Another lane opened and all the waiting cars went through. A sign of patience and tolerance or just not wanting to create a scene? Not even in Canada would you see such politeness and restraint!

A Day in London

I've heard from people who live in the London area that public transit can be hellish. I thought it was magic! We went down the hill from Robert and Mary's, got on a train, switched to a tube and whoosh! .... we were in the Victoria and Albert museum without even having to step outside. (The walk downhill was a bit chilly and we were grateful for the extra swaddling that Mary provided.)

V & A Foyer ceiling (Click on to enlarge, back space to return)

The visit to the V&A was wonderful. We did two short tours and ate lunch in the excessively ornate cafeteria. I doubt it was a cafeteria in its beginnings. It is a circular room with very large etched and stained glass windows with writing on them. I tried to read some of the text.  It seemed to be about cooking! Maybe it was a kitchen once. The ceiling soared above us, supported by yellow and white high gloss porcelain columns.

The bits of the collections that we saw - diamond encrusted snuff boxes, a salt server for the table made out of gold in the shape of a two masted sailing ship, a notebook of Leonardo Da Vinci's (he wrote in mirror image with his left hand to dissuade hackers), a huge tapestry of a bear and boar hunt and finally an erotic black and white photo of Christine Keeler! Oh, and an ivory plaque with a family name and a depiction of a pagan ritual. It came from a time and place where Christianity  was dominant and according to our guide the rich pagan family was asserting its right to go against the mainstream.
Author's note: All mistakes in the foregoing are entirely my fault!!

Ian suggested going to Westminster Abbey for Evensong. He has not had a religious conversion. It's a way of getting into the abbey without paying the £15 entrance fee! There were fewer than 100 worshiper/spectators, about fifteen male choristers, the clergy and the High Commissioner for Grenada. She read the second lesson. In the blessing at the end the minister made a point of blessing Grenada, the royal family, and the Catholic Church. That last bit was confusing to Ian and me but
Frank will sort us out, no doubt!

Beer at Wimbledon Pub

On the way home I ducked into the loo in the Victoria tube station. I was expecting the worst, hygiene-wise, but was pleasantly surprised. There was an old-fashioned gum ball machine dispensing not gum balls but "chewable toothbrushes" that looked like lumps of styrofoam. The gum ball machine had BEAVER embossed on it with the figure of our national rodent. My heart swelled with pride!