December 10- Tswalu

Sunrise farewell to Namiri Plains, Serengeti

I’m writing this in blissful quiet. It’s 7am and the rain is pouring down so we have a respite, and very welcome it is. We are now in Tswalu, a camp and conservation property in the far north-west of South Africa in the Kalahari desert. We were here during our first trip to Africa in 2012 and I have wanted to return since then but our itineraries could never quite work.

The property is owned by the SA diamond family, the Oppenheimers, who have spared no expense on both the guest and the conservation side to create a place that is ideal for the animals and the guests, in that order. I say that without irony or criticism. The property contains a Research Centre where visiting researchers can carry out long term studies on habitat sustainability and there are programs in place to re-build a number of animal populations, most notably, those of cheetahs and black rhinos.

Sad I know, but leopards have to eat

The property is spectacularly beautiful, it’s temperate savannah, so while the red Kalahari desert sand is never far from the surface, it’s largely covered by grasslands and is a region of rolling hills and wide grassy plains.

We arrived here after one of those trips that are planned in nightmares and shares with a nightmare the knowledge that there is nothing that one can do to change it. As previously journaled we flew into the Kilimanjaro airport in Tanzania in a wind and sand storm that prevented us landing so required us to re-route to Nairobi. We did finally manage to land in Kili and our time at the Namiri Plains camp was magic but getting up at 5:30 every morning for our game drives and being out on the land until past dark at 6:30-7:00 made for very long days and prevented us from ever really catching up on rest.

On our final morning at camp we had the blissful pleasure of sleeping until 6am before loading our vehicle and leaving at 7:30 for the bone bruising Land Rover ride back to our little dirt air-strip. It’s about a 2 hour drive to the airstrip, a measure of how far removed we were at our camp, we only saw one other vehicle during our week at Namiri. We then boarded a small single engined Cessna which carries about 8 people, for our ride back to Kili. That ride, bumpy though it was, was also magical for a couple of reasons. We flew directly over the Ngorongoro Crater, a place we have always wanted to visit, and fabulous to see from the plane. We then landed on another desert airstrip along the way to drop off a couple of passengers. As we came to the end of the runway on our takeoff, about 100 metres past the end of the runway, and as we began to climb, the land suddenly dropped away hundreds of metres deeper than the edge of runway, we had flown over the edge of the Great Rift Valley. I’m sure everyone remembers high school geography and learning about the Great Rift Valley and how at the fault line of two tectonic plates, the land suddenly dropped hundreds of metres, along a length of hundreds of kilometres. It was staggering to be suddenly confronted by this unexpected view from the window of a small plane.

Tswalu, spotted eagle owl against the setting sun

We landed in Kili and were then required to wait for 5 hours for our Ethiopian Airlines flight to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. Why, you ask, are we flying due north for 3 hours in order to go due south to Johannesburg? They subtleties of inter-country political relationships do not allow any direct flights from Tanzania to SA so one of the only ways to get to SA from Tanzania is to fly to Addis or Nairobi and then pick up a flight to SA. The Nairobi connection was our first choice but since there was only an hour between the daily flights and we had to change airlines this was definitely a non-starter. So off to Addis where we then spent another 4 hours waiting for our midnight flight. We arrived in Jo’burg at 4am and walked to the Intercontinental Hotel, attached to the airport terminal and one of our favourites, and waited in the lobby for early check-in at 8am. It had been 24 plus hours since we left Namiri Plains and we were weary.

Pygmy falcon being banded by a researcher, Tswalu

We spent a relaxing day, recharging batteries, technical and internal, and prepared for our flight to Tswalu the following day. While our day went a long way toward ‘knit(ting)up the raveled sleave of care’ there were still lots of hanging threads that needed more attention.

Our Tswalu flight, as different, as my mother would have said, as chalk from cheese, was a pleasure and a delight. The two of us were picked up at the Intercon by a BMW SUV and uniformed driver and taken to a private terminal and hanger adjacent to the main OR Tambo Airport runway. It is very much gave the appearance of place used by people whose private jets needed new spark plugs and so were not immediately available or by children of those parents when Dad had taken the big plane. I’m not disparaging it even slightly, it was immensely pleasurable and in reality used by senior corporate and business leaders. The private terminal is two stories of glass and steel and we were met by uniformed attendants who took us to a second floor waiting area and to a chef in whites who brought us platters of fruit, cheeses and charcuterie. The terminal also has a gym, a spa and a very good kitchen to while away the pleasant hours while waiting for your plane.

Three tiny meerkat kits, copying their parents’ “on guard “stance, Tswalu

In moments we were taken to our plane along with another couple we had just met and who were joining us on our ride to Tswalu.

If all of our previous African small-plane flights were in aging, tired but well-maintained VW buses, our Tswalu flight was in a relatively new Audi A6. The plane was a twin-engined turbo-prop with 6 glove-soft leather covered chairs and a couple of small leather sofas. We taxied away from our terminal, through a wide, very guarded gate in the high chain link fence surrounding our terminal and onto the main runways of OR Tambo International airport.

The flight was smooth, easy and quiet as we cruised at 19,00 feet and an hour and a half later landed on a paved, private air strip, a short cross-country drive away from Tswalu. To set context, the fact that it was a paved runway is significant. All the air strips in all the camps where we have stayed are scraped dirt and rocky and in order for us to land, often need someone to chase grazing animals off the runway. In addition to the paved runway, by the side of of the small open building which serves as a terminal, were 4 firemen, fully dressed in heavy firefighting gear in the 34 degree sun along with their fire truck. Their skills have apparently never been required but they are always there for every flight, as a precaution.

A section of the Tswalu landscape

After 10 years away, arriving at Tswalu felt like coming home.

Some of my readers I know will be asking why I go to such lengths to describe the fine details of our travels. It’s simple, because I’m able to. The writing process allows me to tell my story at my own pace without concern that someone will cut me off in mid-sentence to say, “If you think that’s bad, let me tell you about the time that I…..” It’s nice to have a polite audience!

in my next post I’ll talk a little more about Tsawalu and a day in the life of a safari camp.

More to come!

White rhino, Tswalu