Preparing for school in South Africa

The Zambezi River near Imbabala Safari Camp - 2001

Imbabala Safari Camp

On Thursday, July 19, after two days at Elephant Camp, the schedule that Chris Worden of African Bush Camps has proposed calls for a late morning transfer to Imbabala Safari Camp.  So, after a morning elephant ride (ho-hum) we would have breakfast and be picked up by Wild Horizons at 11:00 a.m. for the one hour drive westward on the road from Victoria Falls town to the Kasane Border Post (Botswana).

Jan and I have been to Imbabala twice before and each visit provided wonderful experiences. Some photographs of our previous trips are shown here.

The thatched roofed chalets at Imbabala - 2001

Chris Worden's itinerary describes Imbabala as follows: 

Situated where Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia and Namibia converge, 80km west of Victoria Falls, Imbabala Camp has its own concession bordering the Chobe National park in Botswana, in which game drives are conducted and is directly on the banks of the Zambezi River, also offering pontoon cruises on the river to view the game and extensive bird life.

(This is the only place in the world where 4 countries meet)

The lodge offers every comfort for your sojourn in the wild. There are just 8 thatched chalets accommodating a maximum of 18 Guests, so individual attention and service is guaranteed.

Each chalet has a view over the Zambezi. Each has en-suite facilities and mains electricity.

Meals are taken Al fresco or in the main dining room, and are of a very high culinary standard.

The swimming pool offers cool relaxation during the heat of the day.

Activities at Imbabala include 4x4 game viewing safaris in the Lodge's own concession, walking safaris and river cruises  on the Zambezi River on Imbabala's own pontoon boat - enabling close viewing of the wildlife that comes down to the River to drink as well as the amazing variety of birds that are attracted by the papyrus reeds that border the Zambezi.

Opposite the camp is Nampini Island, the home of the only population of Sitatunga antelope in Zimbabwe and you will try and photograph these shy animals by pontoon.

3 nights at Imbabala Camp, in a twin bedded room, with en suite facilities, on a fully inclusive basis.

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There are not too many places in Africa where such a profusion of wildlife, especially elephants, can be viewed up close from a boat.  Several times we were able to float alongside herds of elephant as they swam across the wide Zambezi.

Watching elephant cross the Zambezi from a pontoon boat. Imbabala Camp is in the background.

Elephants are, without any doubt whatsoever, our favorite animal to observe in the wild. The activities of their disciplined family units constantly amaze us. They are exceptionally intelligent creatures and the tenderness and affection that adults openly display toward their young is remarkable.

A typical family unit along the Zambezi River.

Is it obvious that we want to return to this magical place?

Preparing for school in South Africa

The two-day voyage around the Cape of Good Hope from Cape Town had been under overcast skies and, as I recall, too cool and windy to spend much time on deck aboard the SS Enterprise.  At last the city lay before us as we turned to port and entered the harbor in Algoa Bay.

It was the middle of winter when we docked in Port Elizabeth (hereinafter referred to as “PE").  It was cloudy and overcast and a little windy as our floating home for the last two weeks was eased into the harbor and tied up at berth.  We were met and driven out of the harbor area past the 175 feet (53.5M) tall red brick Campanile (or clock tower) standing as a memorial to the arrival of 4,000 British settlers in the area in 1820.  PE actually became a city in 1820, 16 years after the town of Uitenhage, 15 miles to the north.  For many years I would always have a mental image of PE as a windy and dismal place, no doubt due to the weather conditions on the day I arrived.  But the place actually was then, as it certainly is today, a picturesque city overlooking a beautiful bay. It has always been called “The Windy City” however for good reason.  The city had been named for the late wife of the Governor of the Cape Province back in 1820, in case anyone might have thought it was named for Queen Elizabeth the 1^st.

The family would spend a week at the Marine Hotel, south of the city along Marine Drive.  As soon as we had settled in to the hotel my Dad would be taken to visit the tyre (South Africa spelling for “tire”) factory where he would work for the next three years.  The day after our arrival we were driven to Uitenhage, past the tyre plant and up the hill to our new neighborhood called Mosel.  The house we were to occupy was one of about ten homes that had been built since 1948 when the Goodyear plant was built.  It wasn’t ready to be occupied so we moved into a smaller house across the street, where we stayed for a few months.  These were not luxurious homes but they were certainly well built and comfortable. 

As it was still winter we were happy to find the days mild and sunny.  Houses here did not have air conditioning, either heat or cold.  Space heaters or, in many cases, fireplaces would be used to warm the rooms during those brief months when the weather would turn cold and drop down into the 40s.  The electrical supply was 220 volts, 15 amps, so the puny little two-pin American plugs wouldn’t work and the several dozen 110V light bulbs we had brought with us were useless as well.  It was in those first weeks of our stay in South Africa that I took pliers, screw driver and other tools in hand and fitted all of our lamps and smaller appliances with the large three-pin 15 amp plugs required and discovered that I really enjoyed fixing things. 

One of the changes we had to get used to was driving on the left side of the road.  Most cars had the steering wheel on the right but some of the Goodyear management people had American cars that had been imported without that modification.  Our green Nash Rambler would stand out for years to come because of its left side steering wheel and, of course, for its size.  It also had a six cylinder engine which made it a fairly potent machine.  Most local cars were smaller and there were an unusually high number of Volkwagen Beetles in the region.  The Volkwagen (hereinafter known as “VW”) and Goodyear plants were adjacent to one another in Uitenhage.  Much of the tyre production was passed on to the VW plant through a conveyor system.

The town of Uitenhage, known as “The Garden Town” with good reason, was built on a series of hills on the east side of the Swartkops River.  The fertile river valley itself had, since the 1820s, enabled local farmers to provide the growing sea traffic around the Cape with provisions – fresh vegetables and fruit, meat and dairy products.  It had also become a major center for the South African Railways with large maintenance and repair facilities after the first rail line from PE to Kimberly was built in 1878.  Following the discovery of the world’s richest diamond mine in Kimberly in 1871, the rail system took on strategic importance in the growth of the rich mining industries inland and gave both Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage notable roles to play in the history of this southernmost tip of the African continent.

The fact that we had settled, at least for the coming three years, in a small town, in an important industrial and agricultural hub would, I understand now with the benefit of hindsight, give my brothers and me an unusually richly textured environment to grow and develop in.  I guess it would be described today as a broad-based socio-economic environment; just as Littleton High School in Colorado, where my three children went to school, is described today.  The friends we were to make at school came from all walks of life.  My classmates and neighbors would be the sons and daughters of railway machinists, farmers, auto-workers, tyre builders and of course all of the other job categories that go along with an industrial and agricultural area; lawyers, bankers, doctors, merchants, and delicatessen owners.  Of course we would be attending an all-white school, but at the time that didn’t seem different to us, coming as we had from the American Deep South. 

The old Muir College Boys High School - photographed in 2001. The school has since moved to a new location with modern facilities. The building pictured here was built in 1875.

In the first few days of our move to Uitenhage we made a visit to see the Principal of Muir College Boys High School.  His name was Harold Skillicorn (hereinafter to be referred to as “Skilly.” What else?)  He wasn’t a tall man, probably about 5’8” in his polished black shoes.  He had very bushy eyebrows, a stern look in his eye and over his suit and tie he always wore a black academic gown, as did all of the teachers.  I remember his surprise when my brother and I replied to his questions with a “yes sir” or “no sir.”  Previous American students had not found those terms of respect easy to get used to.  But none of the previous American families who had transferred here were raised in the Deep South! 

I can still remember Skilly’s office.  The school building was old, with weathered wooden flooring and wood paneling half-way up the walls of offices and classrooms.  His office was just inside the double-door entrance to the main building, on the left.  On the right, across the hall, was the school assembly hall in which several hundred uniformly dressed boys would assemble each morning before class for a brief prayer and announcements.  The whole atmosphere of this building and this institution was one of a rich tradition and history.

Then we went to buy our school uniforms.  My twin brother and I were just at the age where we were growing weary of our mother’s desire to dress us alike.  Now we would be wearing uniforms that would be just like those being worn by hundreds of other boys. 

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