Visiting Africa and the Kruger National Park Safari thourgh Drifters Adventure Tours – February 2014
Drifters article “Bring your binocs,” or Tales of a Reluctant Safari Tourist
The paperwork alone nearly buried me. I’ve been all over the world, by rail or thumb, by the skin of my teeth, wherever the wind shall blow and I enjoy the edge and the surprises. So, as a traveler, I’m not a planner. I prefer spontaneity to the idea of being cooped-up with strangers and led around by a leash on a guided tour. The thought alone makes me break out in hyperventilating hives.
But going on a safari in Africa is not something one can wing. I would have skipped it altogether if I wasn’t being prodded by my son and boyfriend. I was informed that my preference of wanting to hanging out in Cape Town and in the vineyards of Stellenbosch was, well, not experiencing real Africa. One couldn’t imagine the grandeur of the continent until one had gone up north and seen the wild animals in their natural and open environments. Seeing “The Big 5” was a must, I was told. In short, I had no choice but to endure a safari. And unlike my vision of Katherine Hepburn in “The African Queen,” no, we were not floating down a river under umbrellas, pith helmets and mosquito nets.
So, since the question was not “if,” but “when,” “how” and “which” safari company would we go with? After extensive research, trying to fit into our time and cost restrictions, we came across The Drifters Adventure Tours and Lodges. One of the original safari companies, The Drifters opened in 1983 with only one armored truck. Today, they run 10 tours ranging from five to 28 days roaming the entire eastern continent, north to south. Tours range from comprehensive travel adventures through South Africa as far north as Uganda; and packages east from Mozambique to west, to Namibia. We opted for the five-day Kruger National Park trip, and our tour seemed the most comprehensive, packing the most of a punch, offering a mixture of armored vehicles and open game drives, and accommodation in tent cabins, lodges and rondavels, western-style African huts. We would learn later on the trip, rondavels were built so the spirits would run in circles around the hut, too dizzy to find an entrance to haunt the folks inside.
Drifters is unique in many ways. Having the foresight to purchase nature reserves that neighbor Kruger National Park, they are able to keep costs low. By gently and gradually acquiring land and equipment for over 30 years, as well as building their own accommodations, they have created a thoughtful enterprise with infinitely more flexibility to experience the bush more intimately than other companies. With bigger tour companies, there is a focus on the larger animals and you drive right by the foundations of the bush, behind massive tour buses. You miss the connection to the world. With Drifters, we got both.
So, I gathered up my proper khaki-with-flair outfits and my binoculars, ready for anything. The first night, we arrived in Johannesburg at the headquartered lodge. It all seemed surreal, quite removed from the adventure we were supposed to be experiencing. Irritable from our long journey to “Joburg,” surrounded by 13 other tourists equally as irritated, fun did not seem the agenda for the next five days. My boyfriend, son and I made a pact to ignore the bores and try to enjoy ourselves.
Adding to the disgruntled affair, the headquarters certainly had their routine down, and our initial responses to their promises of an all-inclusive trip were negative. They seemed all too keen on making a quick buck for every “extra” that might come up. For example, we arrived hungry after a long day of flying. On a tight budget, we asked where a nearby grocery store was. Out of the kindness of their hearts, they offered to make us sandwiches. The kindness lasted until we were handed a bill for the sandwiches – which we were led to believe was included, as our breakfast would be the next morning and all other meals on our journey. The allure of the “lodge as homestead” was a misnomer. Every minute on the Internet was charged for, every glass of water. Two weeks before the trip, they’d hounded us for releases and forms we had to fill out several times over, interrupting our travels in Cape Town. The admin was killing me and my experience with Drifters was not starting out on the right foot. It made me nervous. I dreaded every minute of what was to come and how much we were going to be charged. This was a money-churning machine.
Next, we loaded onto the armored truck for a pep talk. Those same seats became our permanent spots, our butt homes for five days. My son and I took over the back two rows, while my boyfriend occupied a row near the front. I would split my time between the rows, which turned out to be fortuitous for the full-range of photo opps. We were given lockers – with slide locks that would keep the doors from slamming and slapping during the drive. Hold on, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
We met our guide – or what Drifters calls our “adventure specialist.” Louis Lock was his real name, but immediately, he let us know his nickname was Kudu, an African antelope known for its spiral horns, majesty and speed. “This is not a vacation,” our Kudu suggested. “This is an adventure!” In his thick, melodic, at times barely discernible Afrikaans accent, he rallied us to prepare our headlamps, water and cameras. He had his opening speech down, and furthermore he couldn’t suppress his love of animals, particularly birds. Posters of birds of prey, African starlings, shrikes, yellow and red hornbills, kites, eagles, lilac breasted rollers, hawks and weavers covered the ceiling of the truck. His own metal-fortressed trunk near the front housed his personal library of photographic field guides, giving us the option of more detailed reading. All this he made available to us, though I highly doubted we’d be that involved. Why read when we’d see the sights out the window? I was dead wrong. We scoured those books to either deepen our curiosity, or ask Kudu’s clarification on say, the complex systems of a brood parasite. For me, Kudu’s dedication to furthering our erudite edification and insight into the lifestyles of the animals watered an eagerness to see what he was so passionate about. In spite of my reservations about going, I was in. A sigh of relief. We were in safe – and smart – hands.
Once out of the clutches of the lodge itself, we were all Kudu’s. Only 24, and already a guide for three years, Kudu’s instincts and passion were palpable. This is where the wonders began, and our seats, as Kudu gleefully smirked “would give us a free African massage.” Driving that entire day, rumps sore but minds ablaze, we were taken through the northern Gauteng province flatlands and mountains, past the coal mines, Zulu villages and the purple blossoming jacaranda trees. The magnificent South African landscape was all brought to life by Kudu’s stories and historical knowledge of the places. Having grown up on a tiny Afrikaans’ farm outside of Joburg, with Trekker grandparents, he pointed out battle spots of the Boer Wars, wagon-wheeled ways now shrouded in controversy as South African history has been overhauled since Mandela. Kudu bridged the worlds, and gave us a fresh perspective of the future of such a new country, with checkered pasts, showing us in the flesh that the red, green, yellow and black colors of the nation’s flag could all be brought together.
Through his eyes, we couldn’t help but feel like Voortrekkers ourselves, climbing through Blyde River Canyon, either the largest or third largest canyon in the world depending on your source, certainly the deepest, and an entryway into the escarpment and dramatic Drakensberg mountains. Next in eastern Mpumalanga, on the Sterkspruit/Dorps rivers, through Long Tom’s Pass, we drove through Lyndenburg. Dutch for “Town of Suffering,” the town’s official name is now Mashishing, “long green grass,” though it hasn’t caught on with the locals, and the road and business signs still hold on in Afrikaans. Through Robbers Pass, where thieves would hide out to grab gold from Trekkers, we saw some of the legendary herds of Kaapsehoop, wild horses who washed ashore a century ago after Portuguese ships crashed in the Cape of Storms. Stopping for lunch at Pilgrim’s Rest, a protected heritage site and former Voortrekker gold mining town, we visited a restored 19th century Afrikaans house/museum, full of the blue and white Dutch, or delft, pottery, handmade lace, guns and mining tools. Having grown up in Northern California with gold rush towns in the Sierra-Nevada mountains, it was spectacular to compare the similarities of sites. The difference lay in the African craft stalls that parked right outside the museum, showing all in one that South Africa is that, all-in-one.
The spectacular Three Rondavels were our next stop. The day we were there the mountains were met with a fleeting, Scottish Highland-like mist fleeting through, blanketing the valleys. One could see why this was J.R.R. Tolkein’s inspirational landscape for Lord of the Rings, having been born in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State (now Free State Province.) (Apparently, as a toddler, Tolkien was bitten by a golden baboon spider, the echoing memory of which, later in life, reverberated through his writing.)
At the fabulous, Bourke’s Luck Potholes in the Motlatse Canyon Province, we read that in Zulu lore, it was “the river of sorrow” meets “rush of joy” in “nature’s wishing well.” The whirlpools, waterfalls, the carved lichen-enriched cylindrical caverns and yellow streaks of sand rock inspired the God-fearing trekkers, and it was here, the Voortrekkers arrived and envisioned gold for their taking, after their infamous trek from their slaughter by the British. They were somewhat right, though gold was discovered elsewhere in the mountains.We also passed numerous tribal villages and huts, stopping for breaks and taking in the “curios” of the local artists of the Shangana tribe, people displaced to the lowveld at the early part of 20th century to make way for Kruger Park, and descendents of Shaka Zulu and Tsonga tribes.
After a long, but exciting day of butt massages, we finally arrived at The Drifters Two Figs campsite where each of our couples was given a tentlodge with an animal track mark to identify it. Ours was Ostrich. We met up with Vusi, the local tour guide, who was an experienced tracker. Drifters prides itself on hiring South African locals, thereby expanding and supporting the very communities that surround the bush. Vusi was from the Ndebele people of the north, a Mpulmalanga tribe and a Sotho-speaking branch of the Ngoni tribe, all branches of Zulu. Though soft-spoken and sometimes hard to hear, Vusi spoke with mystery about the bush people’s customs, the practical as well as spiritual uses of plant life and the tribal tales of his ancestors. He was an excellent foil to Kudu. Vusi had the drinks stocked and the honor system applied. You could only buy wine by the bottle, so what the hell, we had to do it.
Besides the solar lanterns of our dining area, there was no light for miles around. Drifters’ tents were rustic resort-like, with amazing hot-water showers, full bathroom and lights. It all operated on solar-power generators, which we were told to use only sparingly. We relied on our headlamps to walk the path to the bathrooms and our tent cabins, and a nerve-racking walk it was. We had arrived at dusk and could predict none of the surrounding animals’ whereabouts, nor were we accustomed to do so. Kudu told us lions and leopards hadn’t yet learned to open doors, so once inside, we were safe. If we heard anything, or the tent walls rustled, do not open the door. Black mambos, larger-than-life spiders and scorpions were the real night prowlers to worry about, so check the boots. Earlier, I had dumped my backpack of all snacks, cookies and crumbs, and put them in the armored truck. I wanted to take no risks of being invaded or sniffed out by hungry baboons.
The next morning was transformative, to say the least. The benefit of Drifters’ foresight to have these reserves allowed us to take this bush walk. Little did we know, this would be a highlight in memory, something that can’t be done on a self-drive or in other tour groups where you are trapped in a truck and can only look at animals from behind a metal curtain. To walk through the earth, soak in the muted hues of the landscape is to learn to be a tracker. I felt safe with both the company’s extensive knowledge of the terrain and safety precautions necessary.
The Drifters’ site states their philosophy “…is based on one of SUSTAINABILITY – the long-term assurance that whatever activity we conduct in any specific natural area must contribute to the conservation and to the well-being of the inhabitants of that area, thus ensuring that future generations will be able to visit those same areas and enjoy the same experience as did their parents before them.”
Committing to reducing carbon footprint, Kudu and Vusi braiied our food and packed up the leftovers in the truck, grouped us in kitchen and cleanup crews and ensured that we left nothing but nature and termite mounds in our tracks. We may have come for the Big Five, but Drifters and our guide Kudu allowed us to appreciate the Little Five, smaller creatures named after the big ones: rhinoceros beetle, buffalo weaver, elephant shrew, leopard tortoise and the ant lion. We did see an ear-flapping elephant ready to crush a nagging little self-drive sedan, and took comfort that in our massive truck, we weren’t needling the animals’ fragile sense of space.
Kudu tells us that in 20 years these animals could be gone. The greatest danger to the animals is us. The areas to roam are getting more congested, and by the sight of the trees knocked over by elephants, the encroachment is causing stress to the animals and affecting their health. Elephants die of heart disease, malnutrition and starvation, not to mention poachers. Roughing and loving it, the Drifters’ motto is true. Drifters has it down.
Welcome to the wildest show
The elephant and buffalo
Doesn’t matter the weather
As long as we’re together
It was incredible!
It was amazing!
For Drifters Adventure Tour information:
http://www.drifters.co.za/displayCustomLink.aspx?name=Conditions