Rich and his guard walk back to my room.
My World Cup reflections don't include photo ops of Landon Donovan or Siphiwe Tshabalala but of construction and renovations of stadiums in South Aftrica a few years ago. The most soccer I witnessed were kids on the street kicking around a ball on a dirt field. I was on an South African safari near Port Elizabeth at a resort that John Travolta and Brad Pitt had stayed...don't think I didn't feel important.
I remember the first time I heard the words South Africa, back in 1966 when surfer/photographer Bruce Brown made the movie “The Endless Summer.” Brown and a couple of surfers went on the perfect safari…or at least it seemed like it to me, a pimply faced surfer who could barely paddle through the shore break,let alone catch and ride a wave. Sitting in the audience at the old Del Mar theater in San Leandro, California, my mouth was wide open in amazement as Brown talked about heading to South Africa in search of the perfect wave and a surf break called Cape Saint Francis. At that time in my life, Mars and South Africa were about the same distance from home.
Flash forward forty-one years and I find myself as a professional photographer assigned to cover a safari in South Africa. Not a surfing safari, but a big game safari in a region of South Africa called Shamwari Game Reserve. It’s in the Eastern Cape about an hours drive from Port Elizabeth. This place is so far off the radar screen that movie stars like Brad Pitt and John Travolta head here to escape from the paparazzi. The game reserve is 49,000 acres inhabited by rhinos, cheetahs, elephants, lions, leopards, hippos and another 500 or so species of wild animals and nearly 300 species of birds.
The reserve has six different types of accommodations spread over the acreage…from luxury tents to ultra modern bungalows. It seems Pitt, Travolta and I have something in common…we all stayed at the Eagles Crag lodge. There are only nine bungalows, each with a private soaking pool, and enough surrounding foliage that even a helicopter couldn't find Brad, John, or even me. Each bungalow has two entire walls of glass, so you can lay back in your king sized bed with 700-count Egyptian sheets and wait for an exotic animal to take a sip of water from your private pool. Forget about electronic entertainment or wi-fi, there’s only one TV and that’s in the lodge. If you’re like me and don't know how to relax, this place is the perfect prescription. Once that medicine kicks in, you may decide to never leave, but at $1000 per night I had second thoughts, unlike my two movie star idols who each spent a week here.
A typical day in the reserve starts at the crack of dawn. To spot wild animals in the bush you need to get up when they eat. I got a little nervous when I saw ranger Ryan load a three inch bullet into the huge rifle he keeps on the dashboard of his Land Rover Defender. When I asked him why he used such a large bullet, he said, “It pays to be safe.” I was still thinking that maybe the rifle was all for show, but when I asked him when he last fired it, he replied, “We train every week.” 
It’s cold that early in the morning but Ryan thoughtfully packed plenty of wool blankets and ponchos. I didn’t care how silly I looked, I wrapped myself in everything I could find just to stay warm. Ranger Ryan told us we were searching for the “big five:” elephants, leopards, lions, rhinos, and buffaloes. Within a few minutes we spotted a family of giraffes, some gazelles and a lion who barely lifted his head to see who we were. It seems cats relish their sleep. Then suddenly the truck came to a complete stop in the middle of the road and ranger Ryan gives the right-away to a giant tortoise and baby crossing the road. Animals like to move through the reserve in packs, much like a family heading to Target for household supplies, so every few minutes or so we’d see another group of animals looking for food, but so far only one of the "big five."
We were ready to head back in when Ranger Ryan took a sharp right turn, and we spotted an elephant eating some tree leaves. My training as a photojournalist kicked in and without thinking, I’m jumping back and forth snapping picture after picture, (did I mention my camera makes a loud noise when the shutter goes off), when the elephant decides to see what all the ruckus is about. Ranger Ryan sternly told me to, “stay still,” but that didn’t stop the elephant from circling our Land Rover. The next thing I see is our ranger with a rifle in his hand, and the other passengers frozen to their seats. There was only eight feet and a canvas door separating me from a couple of ivory tusks, a six-foot long nose, and the biggest eyes and mouth I’ve ever seen. Perhaps he felt like Travolta and Pitt and trying to escape the paparazzi in South Africa, because the next thing I know he’s facing me at the back of the truck, backs up, and does a mini charge. A normal person might have jumped under the seat, but there's something about holding a camera between you and your subject that gives you a false sense of security. The elephant retreated and I remained calm until Ranger Ryan said, “There’s a herd of rhinos heading our way." At that point, reality set in and I was pleased to be headed back to our comfy lodge and a glass of local Shiraz.
My trip to South Africa, part 2, will be up on my International Travel Insights Examiner page tomorrow...check it out. For more on travel to South African, click this link: www.southafrica.net.
For the latest on the World Cup, click this link: www.fifa.com
Video from Atlanta journalist Stan Washington of this elephant scarring the #%^# out of us.
Comments
Great story. Anyone who has not been on an African safari is missing something absolutely fabulous. Go!
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