Today we woke up at 4am for a morning game drive. We got to the Paul Kruger Gate around 4:45am and hopped into a open safari vehicle to begin our hunt. Daaaaaaamn was it freeeeeeezing. I was not prepared for the permafrost that developed on my face between 5am and 7am before the sun came up. On top of that, whenever we saw an animal all you could see were the eyes glimmering back at you in the spotlight. If I remember correctly, yellow eyes are all the antelope, and red eyes are the big cats (lions, leopards, etc) no red eyes though but it still was a great experience!
After the sun came up it was amazing...we saw all sorts of animals. Elephants, Buffalo, Giraffe, Rhinos, Hippos, and many kinds of antelope. When the guided drive ended around 8:30am, my dad and I hopped into our car and headed into the park on our own. We slowly made our way south through the park on paved and dirt roads. The park closed at 5:30pm and we exited the Southernmost Malelane Gate just in time. I would love to spend more time in Kruger. You NEED to watch this video of all the animals that welcomed us to their home:
At this point we had been going since 4am and I was BEAT. GPop is a champ though. He somehow trooped it 473 km to Mkuze while I "rested my eyes." Unfortunately, our rental car insurance was not valid in Swaziland so we had to drive around the country but we still got pretty close to the border:
Anyways, Mkuze is in KwaZulu-natal. Basically we are in Zulu Nation. The place we are staying tonight is called Ghost Mountain Inn. It has a eerie history. I read this legend just before I went to bed and had one of the strangest experiences I have ever in the middle of the night (I have to tell you about it in person - I still do not believe in ghosts but...I just have to explain to you in person...):
Looking east from Mkuze two very pronounced features rise out of the Ubombo range, on the left Gaza and on the right Tshaneni. At irregular intervals over the years, strange lights and flickering fires are seen among the fissures and cliffs of the summit. Weird noises and strange calls are also heard.
A section of the Ndwandwe tribe, headed by the Gaza family, had their home beneath this mountain until they were conquered by Shaka in 1819 and the head of the family, Soshongane, fled with his followers into Mozambique, where he founded the Shangaan tribe.
From early times it had become customary to bury the bodies of Chiefs on Ghost Mountain. High on its slopes there is a taboo cave, used as a tomb by generations of the Gaza family. Soshongane and his descendants, although they lived many miles away in Mozambique, were carried back to the Ghost Mountain when they died.
Their bodies, mummified and wrapped in the black bull skins, had to be transported by bearers who travelled by night and hid during the day to avoid detection by the Zulus. After the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879, when the British tried to rule Zululand by dividing it into 13 separate states, each with its own ruler, there was a period of chaotic rivalry, feuding and fighting.
The two principal rivals were Prince Dinuzulu, the son of the deposed Zulu King Cetshwayo, and his Usuthu warriors, and Zibhebhu, head of the powerful Mandlakazi section of the Zulu nation.
In a series of bloody fights, Zibhebhu gained the upper hand. Dinuzulu, in desperation, enlisted 600 Boers and Germans, led by Louis Botha (later General Louis Botha, who was also to become the first Prime Minister of The Union of South Africa), who were promised rewards of farms for their help. In June 1884 Dinuzulu's army of Zulus and Europeans invaded Zibhebhu's territory.
Zibhebhu was a resolute leader and his Mandlakazi section was considered to be made up of the finest warriors, but he had little chance against the opposition, although he also had a handful of white supporters, including the famous frontiersman, Johan Colenbrander.
Zibhebhu made a fighting retreat to the Mkuze River Pass through the Lebombo, and on the 5th of June, in this rugged gorge beneath Ghost Mountain, there was a vicious struggle known as the Battle of Tshaneni.
The Mandlakazi fought stubbornly but heavy rifle fire from Dinuzulu's army mowed them down and they broke and fled into the dense forest country of Tongaland. The battlefield was littered with thousands of bodies, and of this the late Col. Reitz makes mention in his book "Trekking On", where he claims that in the early 1920's when he journeyed through, skeletons were still strewn about on the slopes of the Ghost Mountain.
Denys Reitz was made Minister of Lands in 1922 and journeyed up through Zululand to establish the position of a new harbour. His opinion was that Richards Bay would not be suitable but Kosi Bay would be ideal. On this trip he went on a Hippo hunt with, as his book 'Commando' states, "…the mad Rutherfoord brothers…" This trip is documented in a series of photographs hanging in the Inn.
Peter Rutherfoord, the grandson of Richard Hubert, who escorted Denys Reitz on the Hippo hunt, is the present owner of the Ghost Mountain Inn.
source: http://www.ghostmountaininn.co.za/zululand_legends.htm
Tomorrow we meet again my friends,
Max
