Ken Borland

My second trip to Bonamanzi – situated between Lake St Lucia and Hluhluwe – saw me armed with my newly-acquired 4×4, a Hyundai Tucson 2.0 diesel automatic, which I call the Serval, but my wife calls Catalina.

Sadly, Lauren could not get leave to join me on this trip (she is forced to take leave over Christmas when her company is closed, which is most unfair I believe) so I was accompanied by Stidy, the renown cartoonist, my long-time birding mate and the sharer of many dramatic adventures with me.

Stidy was particularly pleased that I now had a 4×4 to ferry him around in, because it allowed me to track down a lifer for him – Lemonbreasted Canary.

Next to the entrance gate at Bonamanzi is a little track heading northwards along the boundary fence, into some pristine Lala Palm Savanna, the perfect habitat for the little canary Stidy was so eager to get … particularly since he had missed the ones I saw several years earlier heading into Crook’s Corner at Pafuri in the Kruger National Park!

But, given the amount of rain that had fallen in Zululand in October and November, this track was something of a quagmire … ideal to test out the capabilities of my new 4×4!

Marico Sunbird was a nice first sighting heading down the track and some Lesser Blackwinged Plover gave us a foretaste of the more exotic treat to come.

And there they were: Half-a-dozen Lemonbreasted Canaries cavorting on the trees hanging over the boundary fence. I allowed Stidy the agony of convincing me that they weren’t just washed out juvenile Yellowfronted Canaries, but there was no denying the greyish backs and the cute little black-and-white face patches.

It was a fortunate sighting because, shortly thereafter, the track disappeared beneath a large, muddy pool. Walking through it, I quickly became mired in the mud and there was no way I was going to risk the Serval ploughing through that and getting stuck on her first real outing!

It seemed harder, more slippery going on the way back … mostly because Borland forgot to engage the 4×4 properly! Sigh … must have been all the excitement of the canaries!

It was only the next day when we discovered we weren’t meant to be on the track at all … the No Entry sign had disappeared at the start, which perhaps explained the perplexed look of the guard at the main gate as we ducked off down the road.

Bonamanzi has a couple of the best camping sites I have ever had the pleasure of staying in and fortunately we were allocated the same one as on my previous visit – beautifully tucked away in the sand forest with your own ablutions and scullery.

That makes birding highly rewarding even when sitting on your camp chair and Yellowbellied Bulbul, Crested Guineafowl and Forest Weaver were all seen close to home.

On the second morning, Redchested Cuckoo obliged us with some lovely views and a Greyheaded Bush Shrike came to visit as well, while we also picked up Bluegrey Flycatcher.

There is a fantastic dam just below the main office block, which is fenced off because of the large Nile Crocodiles that lurk ominously therein. The island in the dam was frantic with three species of weaver nesting – Thickbilled, Lesser Masked and Yellow – and they were predictably attended by Diederick Cuckoo.

We also picked up Blackcrowned Night Heron, Water Dikkop, African Jacana, Black Crake and African Spoonbill. The facilities include a wonderful wooden walkway over a portion of the dam leading to a functions area, where we took shelter from a sudden squall and picked up House Martin and Lesser Striped Swallow.

Once it cleared, we then had our lunch under the Fever Trees, next to the crocodile enclosure. One of them took a liking to me and gradually inched its way closer to the fence and me … it was close enough for me to hear the malevolent hissing of the ancient reptile.

We then went on a good long walk that took in a couple of hides and waterholes, returning back to the main camp through the sand forest, and picked up Natal Robin, Purplecrested Lourie, Woollynecked Stork, Bearded Robin, Purplebanded Sunbird, Wahlberg’s Eagle and Malachite Kingfisher.

Back at camp and after dinner, I tracked down a pair of Wood Owl calling near our camp, enjoying the sense of natural wildness as I then turned off my spotlight and stood under the tree from which they were hu-hu-hooting.

Our last morning was spent driving through the myriad of tracks through the sand forest and some determined birding rewarded us with sightings of Sombre Bulbul, Yellowbreasted Apalis, Southern Boubou, Yellowspotted Nicator, Pale Flycatcher and Greater Honeyguide, all of which had been calling and calling but had evaded being actually seen.

The Nicator was an especially good sighting as he sat on the outer edge of a thick clump of bush, chuckling away beautifully.

Bonamanzi is that kind of place … exotic, beautiful and rapidly becoming a firm favourite of mine.

The other great thing about Bonamanzi is that although there are Vervet Monkey around, they are very well-behaved ones that never bother your campsite!

 

Sightings list

Nyala

Yellowbellied Bulbul

Blackbacked Puffback

Crowned Hornbill

Crested Guineafowl

Goldenbreasted Bunting

Kurrichane Thrush

Forktailed Drongo

Red Duiker

Terrestrial Bulbul

Yellowbilled Kite

Yellow Weaver

European Swallow

Little Swift

Forest Weaver

Moreau’s Tropical House Gecko

Redchested Cuckoo

Greyheaded Bush Shrike

Blackbellied Starling

Squaretailed Drongo

Bluegrey Flycatcher

Impala

Grey Heron

Thickbilled Weaver

Lesser Masked Weaver

Nile Crocodile

Blackcrowned Night Heron

Diederick Cuckoo

Water Dikkop

Yellowthroated Sparrow

African Jacana

Egyptian Goose

Black Crake

Redeyed Dove

African Spoonbill

Warthog

Hadeda Ibis

African Pied Wagtail

House Martin

Lesser Striped Swallow

Natal Robin

Purplecrested Lourie

Woollynecked Stork

Great White Egret

Whitefaced Duck

Blue Waxbill

European Bee-Eater

Speckled Mousebird

Blackeyed Bulbul

Marico Sunbird

Crowned Plover

Lesser Blackwinged Plover

Blue Wildebeest

Glossy Starling

Lemonbreasted Canary

Common Waxbill

Bearded Robin

Emeraldspotted Wood Dove

Goldentailed Woodpecker

Brownhooded Kingfisher

African Fish Eagle

Purplebanded Sunbird

Greenbacked Camaroptera

Rattling Cisticola

Wahlberg’s Eagle

Malachite Kingfisher

Collared Sunbird

Hamerkop

African Palm Swift

Southern Masked Weaver

Spottedbacked Weaver

Wood Owl

Foam Nest Frog

Sombre Bulbul

Yellowbreasted Apalis

Southern Boubou

Yellowspotted Nicator

Steppe Buzzard

Pale Flycatcher

Greater Honeyguide

Paradise Flycatcher

It’s always sad going back to a place and discovering that it has become an awful tourist trap and a rip-off. Unfortunately, that was my over-riding impression of Hluhluwe Game Reserve.

My family has a connection with Hluhluwe because my grandfather was camp warden there and my father a game ranger. So I feel an affinity for it, and Zululand in general.

The actual park is beautiful – golden sunlight dappling on grassy hills – but I would not recommend the place for any South African tourist. In fact, it embarrasses me that many overseas tourists will leave our country thinking Hluhluwe is the best we can offer.

The cheapest accommodation at Hluhluwe is R640 a night in one of their rondavels … literally a small room with two beds, a basin, a table, a fridge and cutlery/crockery. My wife, as beloved by bugs as by me, was quick to point out that the “mosquito netting” in the windows actually had gaps that were a good centimetre wide – only the most gluttonous, overfed mosquito would fail to fit through there!

Staying at the rondavels also means you have to use the communal bathroom and kitchen facilities, which is fine, but surely one shouldn’t have to pay R640 a night for that!

Anyway, the worst experience was the restaurant.

I’d promised my long-suffering, not overly camping-keen wife that we could eat at the restaurant the night we stayed in Hluhluwe. It was a Friday night so the only option they offered was a braai buffet … at R175 a head!

I reluctantly agreed to pay, expecting the sort of buffets you get in hotels … plenty of choices, great food.

In fact, the braai was a disgrace. I’ve had better braais at a drunk mate’s house in my student days.

The salads were three bowls of boring looking lettuce, beetroot chopped to smithereens and coleslaw. The putu was cold.

On the menu, it promised beef fillet, lamb chops and chicken … Instead, all they offered when we arrived, at 7.30pm for the 6.30-8.30pm buffet, was a scraggy piece of chicken fillet and boerewors. Apart complaint, they also offered us beef kebabs. The chops were as old as the ancient hills around Hluhluwe and as tough as the goats wandering around outside.

Borland being Borland, I decided on an act of civil disobedience in protest and brought my own bottle of Windhoek Lager into the restaurant. Only to discover, to my horror, that they were only serving Windhoek in cans … and my bottle would stand out somewhat …

So I had to hide the bottle – after I had poured its most-beneficial contents into my glass, of course – in the pocket of my jacket, which I had hung over my chair.

Of course, during the course of the evening, the bottle falls out of the pocket and bounces – not once, not twice, but three times on the hard floor and miraculously did not break!

Of course I then had to recover the bottle with the eyes of the restaurant on me … and my wife disowning me!

Anyway, it was lovely going for a couple of drives around the park and the highlights in terms of sightings were a Brownthroated Weaver well-spotted by Lauren, Woollynecked Stork (also Lauren), Orangebreasted Bush Shrike, Blackcrowned Tchagra and a posing Striped Kingfisher.

There were friendly Bushbuck, Red Duiker and Natal Robin in the camp, while we had lovely sightings of a Square-Lipped Rhinonoceros and her calf, as well as a lone Elephant on a hill on our drives.

One of my goals on this Zululand trip was to spot Black Coucal or find suitable habitat for it, and the area around the Memorial Gate in the north, on the Gontshi Loop, certainly looks promising.

Sightings list

Blackeyed Bulbul

Yellowfronted Canary

Brownthroated Weaver

Wattled Plover

Nyala

Warthog

Forktailed Drongo

Speckled Mousebird

Plains Zebra

Square-Lipped Rhinoceros

Hamerkop

Crested Francolin

Blackbacked Puffback

Redbilled Firefinch

Redfaced Mousebird

Natal Francolin

Woollynecked Stork

Emeraldspotted Wood Dove

Glossy Starling

Yellowthroated Sparrow

Orangebreasted Bush Shrike

Crested Barbet

Hadeda Ibis

Bushbuck

Red Duiker

Whitebacked Vulture

Redeyed Dove

Egyptian Goose

Blue Waxbill

African Pied Wagtail

Threebanded Plover

Blackcrowned Tchagra

Rattling Cisticola

Burchell’s Coucal

Goldenbreasted Bunting

Striped Kingfisher

Nile Crocodile

Little Bee-Eater

Cape Turtle Dove

Natal Robin

Trumpeter Hornbill

Blackheaded Oriole

European Swallow

Elephant