I remember the first time I saw South Africa, back in 1966 when surfer/photographer Bruce Brown made the movie "The Endless Summer." As a pimply-faced surfer who could barely paddle through the shore break, let alone catch and ride a wave, I was awestruck by this filming of a surfing safari. Sitting in the audience at the old Del Mar theater in San Leandro, California, it was all I could to sit still and not dream about Santa Cruz’s Cowells Beach (the beginners surf break) as Brown talked about heading to South Africa in search of the perfect wave and a surf break called Cape Saint Francis. At that time in my life, Mars and South Africa were about the same distance from my reality.
Flash forward forty-one years and I find myself as a professional photojournalist assigned to cover a safari in South Africa. Not a surfing safari, but a big game safari in a region of South Africa called Shamwari Game Reserve (http://www.shamwari.com). It's in the Eastern Cape about an hours drive from Port Elizabeth. This place is so far off the radar screen that movie stars like Brad Pitt and John Travolta head here to escape from the paparazzi. The game reserve is 49,000 acres inhabited by rhinos,cheetahs,elephants,lions,leopards,hippos...basically the big five plus hundreds more...all sharing the space with some 300 different kind of birds.
The reserve has six different types of accommodations spread over the acreage, ranging from luxury tents to ultra modern bungalows. It seems Pitt, Travolta and I have something in common--we all stayed at the Eagles Crag Lodge (Too bad it’s not Angelina Jolie or Kelly Preston). There are only nine bungalows, each with a private soaking pool, and enough surrounding foliage that even a helicopter couldn't find Brad, John, or even me. Each bungalow has two entire walls of glass, so you can lay back in your king sized bed with 700-count Egyptian sheets and wait for an exotic animal to take a sip of water from your private pool.
Forget about electronic entertainment or wi-fi, there's only one TV and that's in the lodge. If you're like me and don't know how to relax, this place forced my email addition to take a break. After I got used to not being tied to the world of hi tech, I didn’t want to leave, but at $1000 per night I had second thoughts, unlike my two movie star idols that each spent a week here.
A typical day in the reserve starts at the crack of dawn. To spot wild animals in the bush you need to get up when they eat. Since I work from home and usually get up at noon, I didn’t get much sleep. A little groggy, I jumped back when I saw ranger Ryan load a three inch bullet into the huge rifle he keeps on the dashboard of his Land Rover Defender. When I asked him why he used such a large bullet, he said, "It pays to be safe." I was still thinking that maybe the rifle was all for show, but when I asked him when he last fired it, he replied, "we train every week."
It's cold that early in the morning but Ryan thoughtfully packed plenty of wool blankets and ponchos. I didn't care how silly I looked, I wrapped myself in everything I could find just to stay warm. Ranger Ryan told us we were searching for the "big five:" elephants, leopards, lions, rhinos, and buffaloes. Within a few minutes we spotted a family of giraffes, some gazelles and a lion who barely lifted his head to see who we were before going back to sleep. In a way the old lion is like a movie star-tired of the annoying paparazzi.
Then suddenly the truck came to a complete stop in the middle of the road for a pedestrian crossing. Ranger Ryan gave the right away to a giant tortoise and her baby crossing the road. Animals like to move through the reserve in packs, much like a family heading to Target for household supplies, so every few minutes or so we'd see another group of animals looking for food, and so far only one of the "big five," the lazy lion.
I was ready to head back in when Ranger Ryan took a sharp right turn, and we spotted an elephant eating some tree leaves. My training as a photojournalist automatically kicked in and without thinking, I'm jumping back and forth snapping pictures at five frames a second (did I mention my camera makes a loud noise when the shutter goes off?), when the elephant decided to come closer to the truck and see what all the ruckus was about. Ranger Ryan sternly told me to "stay still," but it was too late. The elephant, all of 15 feet tall and who knows how many tons, began circling our Land Rover. The next thing I see is our ranger with a rifle in his hand, and the other passengers frozen to their seats with their eyes wide open.
Only eight feet and a thin canvas door separated me from a couple of pointed ivory tusks, a six-foot long nose, and the biggest eyes and mouth I've ever seen. Perhaps he was like Travolta and Pitt and tired of the paparazzi, because the next thing I know he's at the back of the truck. Backing up a little bit, all the while looking me straight in the eye, he did a mini charge toward the jeep. A normal person might have jumped under the seat, but there's something about holding a camera between you and your subject that gives you a false sense of security and even though my fingers were itching to pull the camera’s trigger my seat mates restrained me. The elephant retreated and I remained calm until Ranger Ryan said, "we better go back now, there's a herd of rhinos heading our way."
In 2006, eight million visitors came to South Africa for a visit, with 70% of them going on a game safari. There was a time when South Africa's economy relied on gold mining, but these days they're mining for tourists and putting out the word that there's more to this beautiful country than wild animals. Durban, the second largest city in South Africa is home to the Golden Mile, a stretch of sandy beach along hotel row. There's a vibrant cultural life with trendy nightspots, superb cuisine, and a Persian market offering everything from jewelry and spices to one of a kind hand-carved masks.
Movie stars stay at The Beverly Hills Hotel, but mere mortals (like me) are also welcome. A lighthouse guides visitors to this small, modern hotel sitting on a bluff overlooking the Indian Ocean. Bruce Brown and his movie star pals would feel right at home having lunch by the pool watching the dolphins play in the surf. The more energetic can opt for golf or going deep-sea fishing or serious retail therapy. The largest shopping center in the southern hemisphere is a short drive away. Gateway Shoppertainment World (I couldn’t have made up a name that my wife would appreciate more) has hundreds of retail shops, dozens of restaurants, an IMAX theater, a wave making machine and a skateboard park.
As long as you've spent a day and a half on various airplanes just to reach South Africa, don't miss the country's jewel, the city of Capetown. Located in the Western Cape, where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet, it's home to a dozen or so fishing villages nestled along the rugged shoreline. 'The' place to stay in this area is Grootbos (http://www.grootbos.com), a nature preserve with only 11 cottages. Activities include off-road champagne beach drives, mountain bike riding, white shark cage-diving, visiting local breweries, hanging out on your own private beach, or walking along the trails with over 600 species of flowering plants.
After my elephant encounter I decided to play it safe here and leave the camera in my room. Sitting on a piece of driftwood sipping champagne at the private Grootbos beach, as the sun set behind the mountain, I could almost see myself paddling out through the shore break and catching the perfect wave as legendary surf photographer Bruce Brown filmed me shooting the curl for his next surf movie. In my imaginary version of "The Endless Summer," Pitt and Travolta were in the audience; the paparazzi were chasing me; and the great elephant knew better than to charge my truck. It's amazing the effect South Africa can have on you.
Check out this video shot by travel writer Stan Washington of Atlanta, GA on the recent safari I spent with him in the Shamwari Game Reserve near Port Elizabeth of a huge male elephant about to charge our land rover. Hold on to your cameras.... http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=503385831958458049
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