Learning to spell - and other distractions

Visiting Wankie Game Reserve in 1975

My first visit to Hwange Game Reserve was in 1967. I was an entomologist in the Tsetse Control division of the Department of Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Control, which was part of the Department of Veterinary Services of the Rhodesian (now Zimbabwean) Government. Formerly called "Wankie," this game reserve was established in1928 under the supervision of a 22 year old conservation-minded young man named Ted Davison.  It was to become one of the finest Game Reserves in Africa. Davison's classic book "Wankie:The Story of a Great Game Reserve" was, for many decades, the definitive read for anyone interested in development of Africa's wildlife resources. 


The 14,600 sq.km. (5,637 sq. mile) park is the largest reserve in Zimbabwe.  It has been, perhaps, most noted for it's large population of elephant; drawn here by a series of watering holes established by Davison in the 1930s and 1940s. The western edge of the park is the border of Botswana and the vegetation transitions into the Kalahari desert there. 

Main Camp, Hwange Game Reserve, 1985

The prospect of returning to this unique wildlife preserve is causing me some excitement and that will build over the next 18 months.

Hwange elephant - August 1996

After spending three nights at Imbabala Camp, the African Bush Camps trip outline reads as follows:

 After an early morning activity and brunch, you will depart at 1100hrs to Victoria Falls Airport.
You will be driven east back to Victoria Falls airport, where you will meet your Sefofane Air pilot for your flight to Little Makalolo Camp, Hwange. The flight takes 1 hour, and you land at Makalolo Airstrip situated deep within the park on a private concession.



Little Makalolo, situated in a remote and private concession within the vast Hwange National Park, is one of the few camps built within the Park. Hwange is legendary for its wonderful array of wildlife, particularly the massive herds of elephant and buffalo, and summer sees the large antelope herds migrate onto the plains, closely followed by large predators.

The camp is built on the ground, providing panoramic unique views over the Little Somavundlha Pan with its excellent concentrations of wildlife. Accommodation consists of 6, comfortable tented rooms with en-suite facilities as well as an outdoor shower for those who enjoy showering under the stars. The lighting in the rooms is battery-powered so there is peace and quiet in camp, allowing one to listen to the sounds of the bushveld instead.

The main area has a lounge, pub, plunge pool and dining area where delicious meals are served. While the emphasis is on game drives, night drives and guided walks, well-situated hides or raised viewing platforms provide the ideal manner to while away the lazy midday hours, watching wildlife come down to the waterholes to drink.

There are a number of shallow pans spread throughout the Park, around which wildlife congregates, making for excellent and reliable game viewing. During summer plains game migrate onto the plains, closely followed by their predators. Elephant, Cape buffalo, sable, roan, southern giraffe, blue wildebeest, impala and sometimes even gemsbok (oryx) can be seen here.


This Park is one of the best for predators - lion, leopard, wild dog and cheetah are regularly sighted, along with the smaller African wildcat, serval, honey badger, civet and spotted hyena.

Bird life in the area is prolific, with more than 400 species found, and varied as species frequent teak woodlands as well as those more typical of the drier Kalahari being present.

3 nights at Little Makalolo Camp in a twin bedded tent, with en suite facilities, on an all inclusive basis.

 

Learning to spell - and other distractions

Muir College School Crest

 

My brother John and I had completed 6^th grade at C.A. Donehoo Elementary school in Gadsden, Alabama before traveling to South Africa.  Now, suitably outfitted in our new school uniforms we were to enter Standard 5 at Muir College Boys High School.  In South Africa schooling begins as Kindergarten I (KG 1), followed by KG II, then Standard 1, Std. 2 and so on.  So the seventh year of one’s schooling is Standard V (5). Eventually, in theory, we would finish High School by successfully completing the academic requirements of Standard X (10).  We would then have “matriculated” and moved on to higher education at a University.  In effect, because the U.S. school year ends in June each year and the South African school system ends in December, we would skip half a year, going from Grade 6 to a half year into Grade 7. 

Academic standards between the two school systems were not all that different.  I mostly remember having to catch up with a new history curriculum.  The settlement of the Cape Colony by the Dutch in the 1600s had not been a part of our history lessons in the 6^th grade in Alabama. The names Bartholomew Diaz, Simon Van Der Stel and Jan Van Riebeeck were unfamiliar to us.  A higher standard was demanded in English a stronger emphasis on written essays and reports.  Correct grammar, spelling and punctuation were required, without compromise.  Many words were spelled differently.  Neighbor, labor and just about all words ending in “or” were now to be spelled the old English way; Neighbour, labour, favour, vigour, etc. The transition in Math was not difficult.  In Social Studies we lost a little in the geography of Africa and the United Kingdom but had the upper hand on North American topics.  Generally speaking we were able to fall into the new system pretty easily and it didn’t take long to begin to catch up.

In 1956 South Africa there were two official languages taught in schools; English and Afrikaans.  In English schools Afrikaans was taught as a second language and vice versa in Afrikaans schools.  Afrikaans was derived from the old language spoken by the early Dutch settlers and farmers (“boers”).  A requirement for graduating (or Matriculation) was competence in two languages.  As our parents did not anticipate being in South Africa for more than my dad’s three year contract period we were advised to take Latin classes, knowing that Afrikaans wouldn’t transfer very well to any other country, if and when we were to move again.  So Latin was our second language and we would begin taking Latin in Standard VI.

Looking back, I found the transition to an all boys school system to be pretty easy.  We made friends easily.  Our southern accents were obviously a conversation starter but within about six months we had just about lost any outward evidence of our American origins.  (At home our diet still consisted of fried chicken, black eyed- peas and other traditional southern delicacies.)  The Muir uniforms in winter consisted of grey slacks, black leather shoes, white shirts with school tie and a blazer with dark blue vertical stripes with thin white and lighter blue stripes.  It was distinctive and a much better colour combination than many of the other school uniforms in the area.  In summer, we would wear cooler dark blue shorts with knee high socks that required elastic garters to hold them up.  There was also a “beany” cap required for younger students when walking to and from school or when wearing school attire in public.

Dr. Thomas Muir - 1914

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I mentioned the history of Muir College in an earlier blog.  There was a very strong feeling of history and tradition here, which was evident from the old buildings and many historic plaques on the walls of the main assembly hall.  The school had, after all, been established in Uitenhage 134 years before, in 1822, as the “English Free School.” 1822 to 1830 was a period of widespread chaos and destruction in the eastern and central parts of southern Africa, brought about by the expansion of the Zulu State under their powerful ruler, Shaka.  Putting this into even sharper historical context, it was only in1831 that Charles Darwin began his voyage on HMS Beagle to South America and the Galapagos Islands.  Slavery would be abolished in the British Empire in 1833.

My next blog will discuss school activities, competition and maintenance of one’s self-esteem in the decade of the 1950s.

 

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. 

Questions about this blog can be directed here.

On the subject of travel

The challenge of planning a trip to Africa is in deciding what to leave out - not what to include. 

We are18 months away from fulfilling our desires to return to Africa and our initial hope was that we could include four nights in one of those very special camps in the Okavango Delta of Botswana. The good folks at Travel Beyond (http://travelbeyond.com) gave us an estimate which turned out to be $6,400 per person for four nights and that includes flights in and out (of Maun or Kasane), all meals, game drives etc.  That is way out of our budget. We have done 15- 17 day tours of other areas of southern Africa for that amount of money.  The worst thing is that, because we would have a child or children with us, under the age of 12, we would have to pay an extra $500 per day to reserve our own 4WD vehicle for game drives.

So - on to Plan B.  This morning we talked, via Skype) with Chris Worden of African Bush Camps.  (http://www.bushcamps.com/)  Chris lives and works from the town of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.  ABC's core business is safari marketing, consulting and sales. Quite simply they focus on planning and arranging tailor-made safaris in Africa for independent travellers and small groups. 

Quite frankly, when I saw that ABC has permanent staff in Victoria Falls, Kariba and other locations in nearby Zambia, as well as offices in the UK, I was anxious to talk with them.  My Sunday email was answered promptly by Monday morning. When I described our objectives to Chris, he immediately gave us some great ideas on how to plan a tour of the Victoria Falls area, staying at kid-friendly bush camps.  I have been to Victoria Falls many, many, times, so to talk to someone who could update me on current conditions and facilities was a relief.

Taking refreshments at Makalolo Plains Camp

 

 We asked about Elephant Camp and Imbabala Safari Camp on the Zambezi River. Chris confirmed that these camps had upgraded since we last visited and were still reasonably priced, high quality, camps.  He then suggested we consider Makalolo Plains or Little Makalolo Camps in the Hwange Game Reserve.  So we threw together a tentative passenger list and slightly more positive dates and emailed him.  By tomorrow we will have a budget cost for the first nine days of our Zimbabwe Tour. 

 

On the subject of travel - generally

A few final recollections from my pre-Africa youth concerns the whole subject of travel.  Few southerners in the first half of the 20^th century and before (1865 to 1950s) ventured far from home.  Heaven forbid it would be necessary to go north of the Mason-Dixon Line.  The movement of new industry into the southern states slowly began to change the “bunker” mentality that had lingered since the defeat and surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox. 

When my dad was 22 years old and had been a tire builder for four years he was sent to Sweden as part of a team of trainers to help start up a new Goodyear tire plant near Stockholm. So in 1938 he crossed the Atlantic and worked for a year in an instructor’s role.  He made friends with yankees and foreigners and saw quite a bit of Europe, getting around by train.  Before going back to the USA, he was in Berlin in 1939 when Americans in Europe were advised to leave in expectation of the conflict that was just months away. 

My dad (left) with friends in Copenhagen, 1939

  

He boarded the first available train and headed home, getting a berth on a steamer out of France.  So he had a taste of the outside world, unlike most of his contemporaries.  In the years after I was born in 1944 my dad would have two weeks of vacation every year.  My parents could only afford to go on vacation every other year, and we would load the car to drive to south Alabama or on to St. Petersburg, Florida. It was a two-day journey each way. Of course the Interstate Highway system had not been thought of at the time, though it was possible that President Eisenhower had plans for such a system all along.

I vividly remember the narrow paved roads from Gadsden into south Alabama along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. Early on when I was about two or three, we stayed in a very “modest” (could also be described as run-down) cabin along a waterway in Gulf Shores. Of course there was an outhouse in the back. Meals were cooked on a two-burner, Coleman, portable gas stove. My dad had rented a small boat and outboard motor and would take his boys out fishing.  At a very early age I became familiar with baiting hooks and taking fish off the line.  Looking over the sand dunes we could see the tops of ships passing by along the Inland Waterway.

The roads through the rolling wooded hills were dotted with old farmhouses, and large barns with advertising on the roofs. Pecan orchards were common along the way and, of course the ubiquitous Burma Shave signs offered some humor.  We drove with the windows wide open because there was no air-conditioning. Tourist stops along the way would advertise two-headed snakes and five-legged alligators. Dad would let us tell him where to turn at road junctions, so we would learn to read the highway maps and watch for highway signs. If there was any uncertainty he would wait until we studied the map and then follow our recommendation on which way to go. My interest in and love of maps would continue throughout my life. 

For a couple of those vacations we stayed at the same motel on the shore of the Gulf in St. Petersburg. On our final trip, in 1954, we stayed in a two story home for several days.  It was a modern home with wood-paneling throughout and we could see the ocean from our upstairs bedroom.  The main feature was the hidden storage spaces behind the wall panels upstairs. Our young imaginations ran wild as we found new hiding places and explored their secrets.  Silver Springs, Florida, was a memorable stop over one year. We visited an alligator farm and saw Manatees in the clear springs for the first time.  It was the first time I was exposed to the animal kingdom in earnest, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.

Nine months after this vacation, in March 1955, we welcomed the arrival of my young brother David who was to accompany us on our journey to the Dark Continent at the tender age of one year.