Dispatch 25 - The Road to Satara
We add a little water from the Sabi River to the calabash we are carrying from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic, already it's a cocktail of many rivers and lakes, swirling around in this traditional Zulu beaded container with a wooden cork that lives in its own padded bag in the Landy. Over the radio I remind Dave to keep on scribbling his observations for Anna to later type into this expedition dispatch. They make interesting reading.
A herd of buffalo grazing in the themeda grass, a crash of white rhino, the sound of crunching branches, a herd of elephant amongst Sycamore figs, Apple Leaf and Delagoa Thorn acacia trees, a pride of Lions with some young cubs rest beneath ancient Leadwood trees at Mazithi Dam where a lone bull elephant has a dust bath, then quenches his thirst watched by a massive croc whilst a saddle bill stork strides like an undertaker, baboons frolic and waterbuck graze in this Garden of Eden. More elephants on the banks of the N'waswitsontso River, the cry of a fish eagle - it's all so peaceful, a herd of giraffe with their young, zebra and hundreds of impala blending with the red brown grass, a batelieur eagle soars overhead, vultures circle a kill, Radio Jacaranda plays good music softly. Canvas topped game viewing vehicles with bush bars and side rails and guides in khaki, foreign tourists with sun burnt noses and long lenses swing their cameras away from the lions to film our colourful convoy of Boundless Expedition Landies.
Our friends from SanParks join us for the night. A circle of tents around the fire, food bubbles in cast iron pots - they are wonderful hosts. We pass around the Talking Stick which after a few Captains becomes a performing stick with each recipient having to sing a ditty. There's English, Afrikaans, Venda, Zulu, Shangaan, Portuguese and expedition volunteer Big Ben even booms out a bit of Italian opera. The expedition is also about having fun and connecting with people who support the expedition objective of linking nature, culture and community - something which SanParks readily do.
Next morning our Land Rover convoy trundles on. We stop to watch a large herd of breeding elephant wade across the Olifants River. Later we add a little water from the Olifants and some from the Letaba River to the expedition calabash; and collect a stone which with others will, at the end of the Boundless Expedition, create an isivivane - a small monument to Transfrontier Conservation in the Sperrgebiet at the Mouth of the Orange. Kruger's over. "It was beautiful," comes Ross' voice over the radio. "You turn off to the right, just 24 kilometres. See you at the Giriyondo Gate, the entrance to Parque Nacional do Limpopo in Mozambique."
We say cheers to our friends from SanParks - they'd been terrific and promise to continue to support the expedition through other SanParks controlled areas as we zigzag across the continent in this expedition to link 2 Oceans, 7 Transfrontier Parks, 9 countries and over 30 nature and game reserves and more importantly, the communities living in and adjacent to these areas. Bheki Zwane who's in charge of sales and marketing for SanParks scribbles these words in the Scroll:
Yinhle lento - Guys pass on the good word about conservation - it is music to our ears, go well and good luck. The communications chief William Mabasa writes: To Kingsley and the team, the Boundless Southern Africa Expedition is something that we at Kruger National Park have been looking forward to for many years… Congratulations to you and your team for the effort and the time you are putting in to this, you have all our support. And then a special surprise: Mabarule, big Johan Oelofse, one of the Kruger Park's great characters and his wife Jocelyn have traveled South from Mopani Camp to wish us well, they're old friends, years ago Mabarule had guided us across the Kruger Park on foot as part of a journey to circumnavigate the globe by land along the Tropic of Capricorn.
The Giriyondo border post is a great Transfrontier crossing, neat and tidy under thatch with helpful officials. It makes for a great bush and beach crossing - up through Kruger Park to cross into the Parque Nacional do Limpopo in Mozambique. You can overnight in luxury at Machampane tented camp on the Mozambican side or pitch your own tents on the shores of the Massangir Dam, which is filled by the Olifants River - now more romantically called the Rio dos Elefantes. You can then make your way down to the coast of Mozambique - it makes for interesting 4x4 adventure route, which can either take you to the Xaixai Beline area on the Mozambican coast or in the winter months you can take the track that leads straight across the park to cross the Limpopo at Mapai and then on to the beautiful Vilanculos area. Or, for another adventure and the way we are going, is to take the 4x4 track, cross the Limpopo at Mapai and follow the old railway line up to Chiqualaquala and the border with Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou National Park. There's always the excitement of crossing into a new park - We'll keep you posted.
