Richard’s Bay, South Africa

April 4, 2024 - We have officially arrived in Africa — and our first port of call Richard’s Bay South Africa. We were booked on an afternoon included safari to the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park and had pretty low expectations about what animals we would actually see on an afternoon safari - but it turned out to be an amazing experience!

We docked in Richard’s Bay about 7 AM, and while many of the ports have been “working ports” where shipping containers were being load on cargo ships nearby, this was truly a working port with piles of black coal within feet of our ship. So needless to say, there was not a lot of opportunity for “independent exploration”, so you really needed to take a tour — or at minimum take a shuttle bus from right outside the ship - to get somewhere it was safe to walk around. Many of the early morning tours were delayed in getting started as we had to wait for immigration officers to come onboard to do face-to-face inspections of us, our passports and the declaration forms we had to complete in advance. These immigration processes across the varied countries we are visiting alone could make for an interesting comparisons —- from India with its manual paperwork and multiple checkpoints, to Singapore with its online, finger print/retina scan processes to Indonesia with nothing at all. For South Africa, they came onboard (in African time) took our paper forms (which they didn’t look at), stamped our passports, and sent us on our way.

We left the ship with masks on and immediately spotted a monkey running along the cement barriers around the coal. We then boarded our buses at 10:45 for our 90 minute drive to Hulhulwe-iMfolozi National Park where we boarded covered 4x4 jeeps for our 2 hour safari adventure through this national park. The ride was quite nice, with beautiful rolling hills and a lot of cattle. and eucalyptus tree (used for making paper), citrus and sugar cane farms along the way. We were expecting a less green, more brown and flat landscape, so it was quite a change to our preconceived ideas about Africa. There were several people along the road selling drinks and hand-made wood platters and straw rugs. Our guide told us that unemployment in the country is almost 40% and that many people lost jobs during the pandemic when companies closed (and have not re-opened) so there is a lot of government assistance and people setting up along the roads just to make a living. We wished we had time or opportunity to stop along the way, but time did not allow for this unfortunately.

When we arrived at the park, since the morning tours got a late start, we had to wait for their jeeps to return before we could set-out. This made for a bit of a frenzy as people in our groups were “rushing” the jeeps as soon as they pulled in and barely waited for others to get off before they tried to climb onboard. As is our typical approach, we just stood back and waited, letting the “crazies” go ahead. And it worked out for us, as our jeep wasn’t full so nobody had a middle seat for our ride with our ranger/guide Alan.

Within the first 5 minutes we saw a heard of Impala and a group of elephants, including some baby ones, washing themselves in a mud. We then saw wild boars, a lizard and then a few Cape buffalo happily planted in a mud bath. We then saw a white rhino, which despite the name, actually appears to be black not white, but it is because they were muddy. We were hoping to see a giraffe, so Alan took us to an area where a giraffe had been seen earlier in the day. Unfortunately. we did not find them, and then it was time to head back as we were due back by 3 PM. But as we drove along, there was an elephant in the middle of the road who had other ideas! The elephant was “in musk” so Alan had no intention of trying to approach or pass this elephant, so we just had to wait until the elephant was good an ready to move out of the way and let us (and the other cars and jeeps, including those that had to keep backing up away from the elephants path) move forward. This was a clear indication of the differences in safaris and zoos — of whose home it is and who is in charge - man or animal.

We had a wonderful first day in South Africa, and while the port and its coal piles was not the best view for us, it created an even bigger issue for the crew — coal dust/dirt everywhere. The housekeeping team in particular had a job cleaning cabins and verandas - especially on the port side of the ship. As if they didn’t already work hard enough, now they were mopping floors, shampooing carpets, replacing dirty towels and even wiping down walls.

Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Le Port, Reunion Island