It’s not always easy finding people to travel with – and my
own major issue is that I don’t really have friends or family who are
interested in travelling to the places that call out to me. It doesn’t help
that I tend to make decisions on a whim, or that I’ve been told in the past I’m
a bitch who isn’t worth travelling with.
Probably understandable, in that this is the major reason I wanted to go to NYC. |
But yes, I make odd and sudden decisions when it comes to
destinations – in fact one of my favourite trips ever was an impulse trip to
Mexico, and I ended up there only because I couldn’t stop listening to ClintMansell’s incredible soundtrack to Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain, and I was also playing Tomb Raider: Underworld and was enchanted by the Southern Mexico
level. So, I ended up on a Gecko’s tour from Mexico City to Cancún. Now, Gecko’s
has a policy that they won’t charge a single supplement on the assumption that
if there is another single traveller of the same gender on your tour, you will
share a room. After we had to share a giant bed
in Mexico City – and this after our first meeting involved watching the riot police line up right
outside our window – my roommate Nicole and I got along just famously.
Truthfully, I have been on three Gecko’s tours and found the people each time
to be wonderful. In particular, our tiny Turkish group made many a happy memory
together.
We also made our tour leader wear a fez. I still doubt he's ever forgiven us. |
I still felt some trepidation about South Africa. I knew
that I would be sharing small spaces with a large group of people, and I’m…a
loner, by nature. Or by necessity, perhaps (see the “bitch” comment above). I
also live alone, so it’s pretty peculiar to go from having an entire flat to
yourself to sharing a room with…well, more people than I actually ever counted.
I believe it was probably twenty people, in the big dorm? But then, maybe it
says something, that I never counted. Because I didn’t need to.
When you first sign up with this trip, you don’t know if you
will be in KwaZulu-Natal or Limpopo until about six weeks before you go. I was
lucky enough to be sent up north, which is where I wanted to go, though I wasn’t
quite sure why (in theory I should have preferred KZN, as my father was
concerned about me travelling in South Africa alone and all his contacts are in
the Richards Bay area). Excited as I was to be going up there, as I collected
my kit I did begin to worry about how I’d survive.
Not my bed in Limpopo. |
We arrived in the dark. We knew this; it was made clear
before arrival that the base only had generator power and that for only a few
hours at a time. The gennie was off when we arrived on our long and dusty drive
from Jo’burg, and Andreas thoughtfully warned us to watch out for Zuri – being black
as night and friendly as heck, we were likely to experience said friendliness
long before we saw it coming. And thus, we stumbled into the welcoming embrace
of the staff and current vols, with a few good licks from the base dog to accompany
it.
Honestly, in the dark, she's like the bloody Predator. Only with less screaming. |
We claimed our bunks by light of many a headlamp – as it
turns out, bottom is best, though I ended up on top. Being the middle of
winter, the mosquito nets weren’t really necessary, but given Kathmandu had
recalled my net just before I left and I went to considerable trouble to get
another impregnated one (from Lifestream, who are well worth supporting), I
totally put mine up. Actually, everyone did – because while we maybe didn’t
need them because of the wildlife, they still gave a little space of one’s own.
…kind of like a curtained four poster bed. Only without the silk and delusions
of kingly grandeur, I guess.
(Which isn’t to say the reserve itself doesn’t have its luxury
accommodation, we just never saw it. The closest I ever got, actually, was sitting
in the truck in a driveway…which was a hilarious story in and of itself. After
spending a futile hour attempting to change a tyre in the close vicinity of two
lionesses and two lions, we were “rescued” by the giant jack brought over from
the nearby lodge…who then refused to let us tighten the wheel nuts anywhere
near the lions. Frankly, by that point, we were blasé as hell as we figured
they’d have eaten us long ago if they actually cared enough to bother. But our
rescuers insisted we follow them to the lodge before we actually finished the
job properly. And yet no-one was invited in for a stiff drink! I can only but
hope they were serious about the whip-round to get the base a few decent jacks,
however…)
LION DON'T CARE. |
I never slept particularly well on base, but that’s just me –
I don’t sleep well at the best of times, and certainly on the first night we
were treated to a lullabye courtesy of the local hyena clan. Though I had had
considerable drama getting to South Africa thanks to the absolutely rubbish
service provided by Jetstar, and had been unable to get the planned Good Night’s
Sleep in Johannesburg, I was more interested in lying awake and listening to
the hyena about their evening.
Still beats "sleeping" in Perth Airport when you swore to god you'd never go back again. THANKS, JETSTAR. |
But we were up at five or six the next day – I don’t
actually remember, being that we would normally be up at five most mornings,
although I suspect they let us have a “lie-in” that first morning. But this was
how life worked on base: up early to go on first drive, which had a winter
start of six. We’d be back by maybe ten-thirty or eleven; second drive would
leave at three for a return around seven or so. The afternoon space was usually
filled with lectures or perhaps a trip off-base – most memorably to the animal orphanage
and bush school at Daktari, though we also visited a local school and it was
one of those things you never forget – and the evenings usually involved
dinner, a bit of mucking about, and then an early night. This was the ebb and
flow of my life in those two weeks, and it was a tide I willingly gave myself
over to.
It’s very different to life at home – but in a way I think
that total difference is what makes it easier to adapt to. We were told up
front that we weren’t there to have a holiday, and though I suspect this wasn’t
what some people had signed on for, everyone on base had a common passion: the
animals. Some of us were more passionate than others; I know I felt keenly my
ignorance in the face of these brilliant people. In fact I felt a bit of a
fake, though I did respond to it by reading some of the many books about the
teaching room, and by asking many, many
questions – I’m in fact surprised no-one sent me outside to sit and think about
what an annoying twat I must have been. Although then again I would go and make
a fool of myself quite regularly by running about with Zuri anyway. It must
have looked ridiculous: the sleek black dog with the build of a cheetah being
chased about the lawns by a tubby little human with no coordination or grace
whatsoever. …hell, no wonder I used to hear the hyena laughing.
Or maybe that was just Zuri. I swear she ate so much bone she must have been part hyena herself. |
Still, it was that passion for the work on the base that
tied us together. We had this in common, and though we had a large group of
people in a small space, everything just worked.
I put a lot of this down to good base management, though: the staff had it all
worked out, from one job to the next.
And I can imagine it would have been a disaster if they didn’t.
The base was not fenced in any way – we were one big building with several
small satellites, a driveway, and areas of mown grass. Once you got to the long
grass, though, you were back into reserve territory…which was no joke,
considering the proximity of the hyena den, and the fact that at least two
large male leopards had their territories in the immediate vicinity. Basically,
if you wanted to be alone? You hadn’t much choice. Some of us decided that the
knobthorn tree in the driveway could be the Fortress of Solitude and if someone
was seen to be sitting under it, best leave them to it, but surprisingly enough
it didn’t seem to be that necessary. Because there was always something to do.
It’s funny, too, how the simple things can sometimes seem
big, but then…they don’t have to be. As I said, there were about thirty of us
around, including staff, and at least twenty of us were sharing the same two
toilets and two showers – not to mention that despite rumours to the contrary
there was hot water, but it was
limited. As in, you could get hot water in both showers and in the laundry
sink, but never simultaneously. And of the two toilets, one could cope with
liquid and not much else. Recipe for disaster, you say? …no. Not at all. In
fact, living like that does a person good, I think. I’m one of those assholes
who is wound really tight, though it’s not always obvious; I remember once
being told in Doncaster that I generally was known to be “so laid back as to be
horizontal!” and I have no idea how I got that rep, considering I am usually
hell to work with.
Still, I found on base I just…let stuff go. I’m not sure
what it was. I remember being really freaked out about the idea of base duty,
because in our second week the new vols were put on the roster; I was on with
Elena, which I had no issue with because she was always good value and we got
on. I was concerned, though, because base duty involved not only cleaning –
which I can live with – but also cooking.
I am a lousy cook. I mean, a couple years ago I went off my nut and baked
almost constantly (my workmates were ready to smother me, I think; I tend to
bake very sugar-rich things and though I couldn’t eat them, they sure did), but
I can’t cook to save my life. I also generally dislike cooking for other
people, because I tend to screw it up and then feel embarrassed for the next
three days because people had to suffer through my food instead of having someone
good cook them decent food.
I have developed kind of an obsession with Tennis biscuits, though. |
Still, the recipes were purported to be idiot proof (cold
comfort to a career idiot like me). Even then I might have got over it, until I
realised – we had to make bread. I
was terrified. I mean, I know how to make bread; I’m known to do it for fun.
But making little bread rolls for thirty people who I’m sure already realised I
was a bit of a special one? Oh, lord.
With that said, Elena had never made bread, but was a very
good cook – so I guided her through lunch, she guided me through dinner, and
things worked out just fine. Which, really, was what life on base really boiled
down to. We were different people gathered together for the same reason, and
that link kept us together. And besides, I didn’t mention the best thing about
base duty.
I was washing the showermats in the big stone sinks on the veranda
when I noticed Zuri sitting by the door. “What’s up, girl?” I asked, wandering over as I dried my
hands on my trousers. Her tail thumped on the floor – once, twice. Her ears
twitched to match, acknowledging my nearing presence. But she didn’t look away.
When I took my place next to her on the step, I saw it: in the garden, a herd
of impala meandered through the long grass.
I was told they are the McDonald’s
of South Africa, ostensibly because of the distinctive black “m” on their rumps,
but more likely because everyone likes to eat them. They’re also pretty
(understandably) skittish, and a right bastard to count on Impala Week. Yet
that morning, this herd of maybe twenty or thirty individuals grazed peacefully
in the garden while Zuri and I sat in the doorway, watching them. I had work to
do – Zuri didn’t, unless she gets paid for something I don’t know about – but I
could take a break just to watch. It was a gift, and one I felt I didn’t
deserve. …which naturally didn’t stop me from grabbing it with both hands.
Of course, I later stuck my head into the office, spotted
Jamie, and said: “If I tell you there are impala in the back yard, are you
going to tell me to count them?” and got the reply of: “Unless you’re standing
on the driveway, it doesn’t count!” so all was well. Because otherwise I was
totally playing the “dumb vol is dumb” card and claiming they were kudu or
something.
IF I SAY THEY KILLED SIMBA'S DAD I DON'T HAVE TO COUNT THEM, RIGHT? |
Life on base was pretty chill, all things considered. There
was always something to do – and even in the calm moments, it could change in a
second, such as the evening of Pangolin Pandemonium (best not mentioned to You
Know Who), or my last night when we came careening in on the truck to a) shut
Zuri in and b) pick up our base manager because two male leopards were
posturing all about the base area. I just find it incredible that a person like
me, so very used to her solitude (and often very deserving of being left to her
own devices), was so easily accepted into the life of this place. There’s just
a feeling of acceptance that seems
very suited to the area – because we humans, we’re just guests on the reserve.
We say we gave it to the animals, but we live there by their grace and
generosity. And you don’t forget it, not when you look up from reading Nelson
Mandela’s Long Walk To Freedom to see
a giraffe gracefully stretching its neck across the volleyball court.
Our base manager asked us on our first full day to remember
that while we were just passing through on a working holiday, that for many of
the staff, the base? Is their home. And within a few short days I knew what a
privilege it was – for them to live there, and for us to be allowed to share in
it. And even when I couldn’t sleep for hyena and snoring and sleep Tourette’s (…don’t
ask), I wouldn’t have changed it for anything.
Although you have to see the funny side of it, that the best
night’s sleep I had was when we camped out near the hyena den in a dry
riverbed. Even with the braai encouraging the hyena to come investigate their
new meat friends and having to be woken for an hour’s watch, I slept like a
baby. Note: shouting “MUFASA!” at hyenas makes them run. It makes them run good.
Ask us how we know.
That’s just the kind of people this place attracts.
Also: KEROSENE. |