The magic of Africa

The horizontal profile of Table Mountain stands out against a clear blue sky. Photos by Paul Rush.
The horizontal profile of Table Mountain stands out against a clear blue sky. Photos by Paul Rush.

South Africa's premier touring route enables visitors to feel the pulse of Africa in untamed, untainted bush, writes Paul Rush.

Cape Town, South Africa's most beautiful mother city, reveals a glorious morning as our group emerges from the hotel.

The remarkable horizontal profile of Table Mountain stands out against a clear blue sky like some ancient monument to the gods.

Our route to the wine-lands capital of Stellenbosch passes through a residential area known as the Cape Flats, where shantytowns near the airport reflect the nation's epithet, ''rainbow nation''.

''Promising things have occurred since we became a multicultural democracy in 1994,'' our guide Sophia explains.

''But economic necessity dictates that Cape Coloureds like myself still remain in poorer townships.''

Her ebullient sense of humour cannot be repressed by economic imperatives. She recounts a story about an Englishwoman from an earlier tour.

''This very refined person asked why these `informal residential structures' were built close to the airport. I replied, 'We're putting all the people on a BA flight to London'. She was affronted by this and cried out 'What are we going to do with them?'.''

The lovely old Cape Dutch-style buildings and the laid-back holiday atmosphere of the wine lands are both apparent in the stylish Neethlingshof Estate winery.

We sip a crisp sauvignon blanc, a fruity gewurztraminer and a light-bodied malbec and collectively inform Sophia that we think the Garden Route tour is bloomin' great so far.

The level of biodiversity in South Africa is a surprise.

It ranks third highest in the world with 2300 plant species.

The variety of animal life is mind-numbing, too.

The big-five game animals that ''great white hunters'' stalked in colonial times (elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion and leopard) are not confined to iconic game reserves such as Kruger National Park, but range along the Eastern Cape as well.

The Little Karoo has shaken off winter's bite and the starkly arid land is slowly laying out a blanket of multihued wildflowers.

Succulents and cactus-like plants line the verge among pincushion proteas that seem to be a magnet for iridescent sunbirds.

Peach and apricot blossoms flood the Breede River Valley as we head for an intrinsically dangerous wilderness called Sanbona Wildlife Reserve.

I begin to feel a frisson of fear and heightened expectation.

Dawn in South Africa is both sudden and spectacular.

The transition from a pitch-black void into a panorama of burnt sienna bushveld and golden savannah, backlit by a pink glow, happens in the blink of an eye.

By the time the bright orb of the sun is climbing over the straggly acacia sweet-thorn thickets, our game drive with ranger Jannie is well under way.

Our presence on the sun-baked bushveld is hardly noticed.

The reserve just gets on with the business of being seriously wild.

We hear the constant chirping of cicadas, the eerie cries of hunting fish-eagles and the distant roar of lions.

This is the Africa that I have always dreamed of: vast, untamed and wild.

We soon sight a herd of kudu with big soft eyes and a graceful bearing.

A flighty ostrich crosses our path, uncertain as to which way to run.

Then a massed herd of white-bellied springbok dash first one way then another, ''pronking'' high in the air to demonstrate their agility and send lions a subtle signal: ''pursuit is futile''.

Without warning, a journey of giraffes bursts into view, angling towards our vehicle in a fantastical slow walking gait with the nonchalant air of superior beings displaying the height of elegance.

Liquid eyes peer down at us, while fly-whisk tails slap audibly against their flanks.

Sunlight catches the detail of their patchwork brown chest markings.

After climbing a rocky promontory to spot a crash of rhinos, Jannie leads us on foot into dense thickets of acacia sweet thorn to track them down.

There's an abrupt movement and a swirl of dust as a baby rhino swings its head around and looks directly at me.

Then a ponderous adult head rises up to face us.

Jannie gives the signal to retreat.

Sitting on the glorious Gondwana Lodge terrace with a gin and tonic, the traditional sundowner of generations of wildlife safaris, I can sense the age-old rhythm of the bush.

Africa, the crucible of human civilisation, has a profound effect on the traveller, a feeling of close kinship with our earliest ancestors on the savannah.

The city of Port Elizabeth is the gateway to the Eastern Cape game reserves, including Shamwari, where we are made welcome at a grand Edwardian lodge called Long Lee Manor, before setting out on a game drive to see lions sprawled out amid a copse of acacia bushes.

My heart beats rapidly when the big male with a dishevelled tawny mane raises his head, looks straight at me with pale yellow eyes and roars his disapproval.

It is a deep, booming sound that would strike fear into the bravest heart.

The lion, four lionesses and five sub-adult males must have dined royally as they are in a languorous state.

The matriarchal lioness sniffs the air and the lion throws a lazy foreleg over her back.

She grunts and rolls away on to her back, revealing a pale, bloated stomach.

The pride of Africa is blissfully at peace with the world.

The sun rises next morning on an idyllic bushveld scene, like a sepia photograph of the painted desert.

The wildlife safaris are the highlight of our tour.

The Garden Route has given us a zoologist's smorgasbord of wildlife, an artist's palette of colour.

My abiding memory of the Eastern Cape is of unspoiled, untamed natural beauty.

That's the magic of Africa.

• Paul Rush travelled to South Africa with assistance from Singapore Airlines, Adventure World and Harvey World Travel.

 


Getting there

• Singapore Airlines flies from Auckland to Cape Town via Changi Airport, Singapore.

Getting around

• Adventure World organises small group tours around South Africa in modern vehicles with local guides.

Accommodation

• The Cullinan Hotel, Cape Town, is very comfortable and centrally located. It is named after the fabulous 3000-carat diamond found in Pretoria.

• The Knysna Quays Protea Hotel is five minutes' walk from town with views over the marina.

• Shamwari has been voted the best South African game reserve for 10 consecutive years.

 


South Africa

• There are 11 official languages but travellers get by easily with English.

• New Zealand passport-holders can visit without a visa for up to 90 days.

• The official currency is the rand and the recent exchange rate was $NZ1 to 9.3 rand.


 

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