Attack of the Ostriches

Anna Oliver

Adventure Traveller

1. Age: 21
2. Nationality: England
3. Where was your adventure?: South Africa
4. How many days was it?: About 30
5. What type of adventure?: Trekking
6. Give us a general overview of your adventure:
   My journey happened in July and August 2001. Having just turned 18 and finished my school career, I joined a group travelling from my school and another school in Bristol through a company called World Challenge, which specialises in school leavers and gap-year travelling. I was the oldest of the students, who were mostly aged 15-16, and we also had 1 teacher from each school and a representative from World Challenge with us also. We flew from Gatwick, London to Durban with a brief stop at Johannesburg. At Durban, we stayed in a fairly anonymous backpacker’s lodge, and the next day headed toward the St Lucia Wetlands for a 5-day trek. The trek was brilliant – for the first couple of days we got a guide with a gun (a bit unsettling) as the wetlands are known for hippos and crocodiles.

   We stayed at very basic campsites, which don’t charge anything, and are basically a flat area of land with a picnic table and a long-drop toilet. The long-drops were pretty grim, but beat having to dig your own. The personal, but surreal highlight, was sitting on the lavatory and being able to see 7 hippos on the lake next to our site. At the same site, I had the worst night’s sleep ever, as I could clearly hear the crocs growling on the lake from my tent. We swam in the Indian Ocean (beautiful – warm and soft, even when you’ve forgotten your cossie and had to go in your pants) and spent the last day of the trek walking along the beach to our next pickup.

   Here we stayed for a couple of nights at the Isinkwe Backpacker’s Bush Camp in Hluhluwe, which was luxury compared with our tents. It has great facilities – Internet, laundry, games, kitchen and communal Boma area as well as a Bush pool – shallow and ice-cold, but incredible. It’s also very reasonably priced (as with everything in South Africa) and offers game drives in the Hluhluwe/Umfolozi Game Reserve. Don’t bother with the Zulu village or Crocodile Centre nearby – they’re complete tourist traps. From there we rented a mini-bus to take us to Swaziland – an independent kingdom bordered entirely by South Africa. There we trekked for about 7-days from Mkaya Game Reserve to Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary through a river gorge with 2 swazi guides, 1 of whom woke us up at 5 am every morning with a LOUD rendition of Happy Birthday, but they were great guys with very limited english. We had to cross the river various times, camp on the sand and trek over the mountains so it was very hard work but an incredible experience. I never realised how hostile ostriches can be – we were stalked by one for a while and had to take evasive action. When we got to Mlilwane we stayed at the Sondzela Backpacker’s on the reserve, which was okay but we all got ill from some bug or another for a few days. There we worked in a local school for about a week, building them a nature pond (which, on reflection probably dried up a week after we left) and painting their toilet buildings (not fun, but ultimately helpful). The kids were amazing, giving each of us names in their language (mine was Nonhle) and the school was really grateful. On our last day there they took us to the barracks of King Mswati III, which was an ultimately surreal experience – soldiers in traditional loin-cloths and beads wearing nike trainers and eating Kentucky Fried Chicken. Women are only allowed to enter the barracks if eligable for marriage, and this resulted in a marriage proposal from a very old guy who had to speak through a translator and had trouble taking no for an answer – his name was Inyonimamnzi and I’ve never been so terrified. From Swaziland, we travelled back to Durban to stay in the Brown Sugar Hostel which had good facilities, a pool, cheap booze and chocolate so i was happy. It’s owned by a pom called Ian who has great local knowledge and was able to direct us to a local church for the sunday service. He offers free transfers to the beach and airport but drives like a complete lunatic. From here we went home for a bacon sandwich and a well-needed shower.

7. Was it difficult?: yes
   Why or why not?
   On the second trek, because i wasn’t amazingly fit and wasn’t eating well (by meal times i was tired and apathetic), plus the difficult terrain, I had a few panic attacks when i felt I couldn’t keep walking. However, the others on my team were great and it only served to heighten my sense of achievement when I got to the top of the mountain.
8. Would you recommend this adventure trip to someone else? Why or Why Not?
   I would recommend it, but not through World Challenge who did little to prepare us for the experience and gave us poor medical advice (re: anti-malaria medication). We were very luck to have such good expedition leaders with us – it was them, not World Challenge who made it work.
9. What do you wish you would have done differently?
   Got fit before hand instead of being a lazy student. Also budgeted better for food and made sure I ate well – I lost about a stone & a half over the trip from plenty of exercise (up to 18k a day) on poor nutrition.
10. What kind of advice can you give to other travellers going on this adventure?
    Check out the latest Coast to Coast Guide, which should be free and lying around in any good hostel in South Africa. It’s written by a groovy couple who just love to backpack around South Africa and is the definitive guide to good budget places to stay. Their website is Coasting Africa. Get fit. Eat well. Plan well and only hitchhike if in a group. The african people are the kindest, most generous I have ever met and though many have nothing, they would give you everything. Get the latest medical advice from your GP. Always camp near running water, NOT STILL (risk of parasites) and purify all water before drinking. Always cover walking boots at night to prevent creatures crawling into them.
11. What type of gear did you bring?
    Usual camping stuff – Tents with mossie nets, water purification kits, camping stoves, 4-season sleeping bag (very cold nights), foam mat, mobile phone (but it didn’t work, except to recieve texts,) good walking boots, 100-litre rucksack with back support strap.
12. Where is your next big adventure? Why?
    Florida – much more mundane. My fiance and I will be honeymooning – taking a fly-drive from Miami, down through the Keys and up though the everglades to Orlando.
13. Did you travel before or after your adventure? If so, where?
    I didn’t travel before, but on getting back i had three days at home, got my A-level results and they flew out to California for a camping tour of the western states.
14. On your adventure, what person did you most identify with?
    Indiana Jones

In BootsnAll’s adventure section, we are highlighting different people’s adventures around the world. We need your help. Have you ever done a great rafting trip? Climbed a huge (or small) peak? Or done an amazing adventure that you wouldn’t mind sharing with others? It could even be something random like finding a cool remote village, snow shoeing, riding a motorcycle through a country – anything that has a little taste of adventure.

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