Читать книгу Your Kruger National Park Guide - With Stories - Frans Rautenbach - Страница 8

Why go to the game reserve?

The obvious reason is to see animals. And there is nothing wrong with that. The park is one of the few places where an ordinary person can see almost all the mammals of Africa – and most of the birds and many reptiles – in their natural habitat. The beauty of seeing an animal – a rare animal, but especially a dangerous animal – is that it speaks to the deepest instincts of humanity. We want to satisfy our curiosity. We crave the mystery and the adventure. We remain hunters in our hearts, even though we do it with the eye and the camera.

But the game reserve is also socially a magnificent place. Anybody who has spent an evening around a game reserve fire in good company, with a glass of red wine and a chop, can tell you how pleasant it really is. But even that is informed by nature. That is the topic people sit and talk about on evenings around the fire. That is the social glue that binds people in the park together, family, friends and strangers. Here, away from our respective homes, jobs and general life troubles, is something that can unite people, just like a national sports event.

For someone else the park may perhaps be a significant “laboratory” for research projects, or paradise to a nature photographer. But these pastimes also focus on the wildlife.

If I think of my own experience, the best description I can give is that it is, first of all, simply enjoyable to be there. It is a sensuous experience. If you do not retain something of the sensual pleasure of the place, then you have missed the boat. You must smell, feel, hear, taste and see it.

If ever there was a place in the world that makes it easy to enjoy the moment, it is here. Sometimes you simply want to sit by a water hole and do nothing and say nothing. Just listen to the sound of the guinea fowl in the underbrush, smell the dry grass, feel the heat on your skin. Or in early morning, when it is cold by the roadside, see the flawless skins of the impalas shiver in the first light. Or stand by the camp fence in the middle of the night while everyone sleeps, and listen to a jackal far away, howling its heart out.

This assault on the senses comes from nature and the culture of the game reserve as a whole. But the greatest comes from the animals. Without them the experience of the bush would be rather sterile – like a very artful garden with a large variety of trees and plants. It is the game in the game reserve that distinguishes it.

Game watching is of course an education in itself. The game reserve is not to be dictated to. To me one of the most wonderful things about the park is its mystery: why and where things happen and how they coincide. The game reserve is the stuff of life.

Now, just to contradict myself completely: to fully enjoy the game reserve, is to enjoy everything that happens to you, especially the many kilometres of dusty roads you will drive without seeing a single animal. For no matter how special the game is, there is no guarantee you will see any kind of animal at any stage at any place. Which makes me think of my impatient brother-in-law (a sworn game reserve-goer) who said, when we first drove together in the park: “There aren’t enough animals here. They should bring in more animals.”

It is important to decide what the purpose of your game reserve holiday is and what you want out of it, because that determines what you are going to do, how you plan on doing it, and how you execute it.

Where does one start?

Begin at the beginning, most people will tell you. It is a riddle almost like a lion hunt: you must know everything to know anything. You must, for example, know where to look for game to know where to stay. You must know where to eat in order to know where to drive. You must know what to eat in order to know what to pack. You must know where to stay in order to book the right accommodation. And so on.

I have decided that one must, as Stephen Covey says, “begin with the end in mind”. For that reason I start with the game in the game reserve and work my way back.

Only when you know what you want to do, can you plan your holiday. Only when you know where to look for game can you book a place to stay. Only when you know what you want to eat and do, will you know what to pack. When you have done all these things, will you be ready to undertake a trip to the Lowveld.