Laws, regulations and rules govern our lives. Society is replete with controls to help us negotiate our complicated day-to-day existences. In most cases, these instructions and directions are written down. Somewhere. But some of the most convoluted guidelines are not noted anywhere. These are social conventions, standard protocols and procedures that steer us through delicate interactions with other humans.
So, what am I getting at? Well, this newsletter is all about wildlife and safaris in game reserves and parks around South Africa. Our behaviour in these parks is strictly managed through noticeboards, indemnity forms, pamphlets and face-to-face instructions to protect the natural environment and ourselves. Not necessarily in that order.
Do not litter; no firearms or drones; don’t make a noise; do not get out of your car, and until recently in the Addo Elephant Park: no citrus fruit. All these are sensible regulations that should be followed to the letter.
Unwritten rules can also be important. For example, if you have parked your car at the perfect spot to watch a pride of lions gorging themselves, it is considered good form to turn your engine off, take enough pictures and then move on to allow other people to enjoy the same opportunity. Most people adhere to this convention and it can be very exciting to have the best view of a great sighting, even if only for a short while.
Park management encourages people to turn off their vehicle’s engine at a sighting. This is not a rule so I don’t think anyone can be fined for allowing their car to keep running. It is however, beyond annoying to be parked at a wonderful sighting while a diesel engine in the next car down is making an awful clattering sound.
Drivers leave their engines running for three possible reasons. Firstly, because they are too dumb to remember to switch off, secondly because they are inherently inconsiderate of wild life and other people and thirdly because they want to keep their air-conditioning running.
I can somewhat sympathise with those who invoke the last reason. It is extremely hot in a car moving slowly along dusty roads in the middle of summer. On the other hand, it is nice to open your window and breathe in the pungent air shared with a herd of elephants. Of course, remembering to look out for potentially dangerous predators in the vicinity.
It’s common practice, and definitely not a rule, to greet drivers in oncoming vehicles by casually raising a hand in solidarity with the other driver. This usually happens on days when traffic is low. When the park is busy, there are just too many people to greet. We try to be friendly even though we wish that all the other cars would simply go away. There’s no better time to visit the park than in the middle of the week during a school term.
Although we don’t really like other drivers, they are useful when someone else spots an animal. It is really exciting when after driving for several kilometres without seeing any animals, you suddenly come around a bend and see half a dozen cars all parked off to the side of the track. “They’ve spotted something”, “which side are they looking?”
It takes a certain kind of skill to triangulate the direction the occupants of other cars are looking with the position of your car. Are they looking off into the distance, perhaps with binoculars? Is it something in a tree, behind a bush or next to the car in front? It can be frustrating if you know everyone is looking intently into the veld and you see nothing at all.
In another situation, you see only one car parked off to the side. Does this mean they’ve spotted something interesting, or have they just stopped at an intersection to argue about which direction to take? They could be consulting a map of the park or a bird book, or just pausing to munch their sandwiches.
Following birders, or twitchers has its own challenges to the extent that some cars even have bumper stickers that say something like “Go past, we’re bird-watchers”.
Sharing information about sightings
At the various rest camps, picnic spots and gates they usually have a large metal map on a notice board with colour-coded, magnetic squares so that you can place a square on the map where you had a sighting. So, for example, if you see an elephant on Ngulube Loop, you place a black square on the map where you saw it. The idea is that other visitors will then be able to go to that point with expectation of seeing that same elephant.
This is all very well but you don’t know how long ago the sighting was made nor when the square was placed there. The boards are supposedly reset everyday so you won’t be searching for yesterday’s sighting, but a buffalo can walk a long way in an hour.
Another method of exchanging information about sightings is through social media groups. I find the Addo Sightings group on WhatsApp to be particularly useful. I have also used sightings groups for the Karoo National Park near Beaufort West and the Mountain Zebra Park near the town of Cradock when I have visited those parks.
While these sightings groups are useful, problems arise when sightings take place where cell phone reception is poor, or non-existent. Sometimes you post a message about a sighting that only comes through a few hours later as you drive within range of a transmitter.
A third method of sharing information is through face-to-face conversations with other visitors. You might drive past a vehicle with an open window and you can ask the occupants directly about their sightings. At rest camps and picnic spots it is normal to enquire whether the other person has had any luck.
Someone who is stretching their legs at the picnic spot could ask, “Have you seen anything?”
This is a common question and might be misleading because of course you have seen something. You cannot drive all the way to Jack’s Picnic Spot without seeing many animals. The real question they are asking is “Have you had any exciting sightings?” This typically means, “have you seen any lions or anything unusual?”
A few days ago, while I was hanging around the ablution block at Jack’s when the driver of a car that had been cruising ahead of us, asked the inevitable question, “Have you seen anything?”
I replied in the negative and then he quickly revealed what he really wanted to talk about. “Did you see the brown hyena?”
“Whaaat? No, I did not see the brown hyena”.
Brown hyena sightings are extremely rare in the Addo Elephant Park and in most other parks. I have not seen a brown hyena for about 25 years. In fact, the only time I have ever seen a brown hyena was in the Kgalagadi National Park and that was at such a great distance I had to use binoculars.
We had come so close. That man driving his car perhaps three or four hundred metres ahead of us, said that the hyena had come out of the bush on one side of the road, walked along the track for a few metres and then disappeared into the other side just before we came along.
Of course, he knew we had not seen the brown hyena. He merely wanted to tell us of his great fortune and our bad luck.
My initial flash of resentment tempered with disappointment quickly transmorphed into gratitude. I’m glad he told us because now we know we there is a chance of seeing a brown hyena and there is something to look forward to in future excursions.
Game viewing is, after all, an eternal quest to experience the next incredible sighting.
Thank-you for reading Real Safari Newsletter – I hope to see you soon in one of the country’s beautiful game parks.