Tembe
Elephant Park:
November
2013 Visit
Tembe
Elephant Park is located in the extreme northeast part of South Africa in
Maputaland of the KwaZulu-Natal province, bordering Mozambique, along the Old
Ivory Route, an ancient African migratory path and lucrative trading trail.
Created
in October 1983, the Park was opened in 1991 as a collaborative community
effort between the ancient ancestral custodians represented by the Tembe Tribal Authority under Inkosi (i.e.,
"Chief, who lit the fire") Israel Mabhudu Tembe since March 2001, and the
Royal Council located in Manguzi and Ezemvelo
KZN Wildlife,
the provincial government's conservation service. Their goal of biodiversity conservation is to
be achieved through managed intervention. The long-term vision is to join into
a hoped-for Usuthu-Tembe-Futi Transfrontier
Conservation Area
to promote a return to animal migration.
The Park has achieved its short-term objective, which was to preserve
one of the only three original elephant herds in South Africa.
A
300 square kilometer (70,000 acres) fenced area (in 1989 the northern boundary
was closed, bringing an end to animal migration) to exclude human intrusion
into this area for natural resources such as pastures, agricultural planting of
yams, the harvesting of ilala palm (for wine and baskets) as well as elephant
ivory and, moreover, to protect the original elephants and the reintroduced
lions. An internal, but highly permeable
perimeter fence (see note below) surrounds nine full-board unit accommodations
in fourteen upscale tent cabins with tap water and outdoor showers, wireless
internet with a web camera in the reception area and a
small communal pool. The enterprise
provides needed employment opportunities for local people as knowledgeable
guides/drivers and spotters/trackers, armed anti-poaching rangers, road
inspection crews, security personnel, and resort support staff (Tom
Mahamba,
tourist manager and Ernest Robbertse, CEO) in an otherwise high
unemployment region.
The
park consists of a rare, dense sand forest ecosystem and a mixed woodland
ecosystem, along with an open to closed grasslands ecosystem with some swamp
(and pans. The dominant indicator
species is Newtonia
hildebrandtii for sand forests. One
will see other trees such as black monkey tree orange
Driving
along double-track, two-way, sandy trails, the Park offers daily early morning
and late afternoon game drives (three hours long with tea time breaks) to see
the park (in other words, one is back in time for second breakfast at 9AM and
then lunch at 2PM before going out for the second drive). Note the highly worthwhile Mahlasela Pan Hide option between breakfast and
lunch. Although occasionally billed as a
trophy hunter's Big Five park, which raises high expectations, but may only
deliver false hopes or promises (since we didn’t see a leopard), there is a lot
to see including: roan antelope, antlions, dung beetles, thick-tailed bush
babies (around the camp), cape buffalo, bushbuck, chameleons, common as well as
the red duiker, elephants, giraffe, iguana, impala, kudu, lions, lizards,
vervet monkeys, slender mongoose, Nyala, ticks, white rhinoceros, warthogs,
blue wildebeests, and Burchell’s zebra plus 63 species of birds. We also saw a rat and gray tree squirrels
(imported from America by Cecil John Rhodes) in the Company Park in Cape Town
and elsewhere in the Cape, angulate tortoise, rock dassies, baboons, and
African (aka jackass) penguins.
These
indigenous species can be distributed into five categories: common (such as Impala and Nyala as well as the "free
ranging" and last indigenous African elephant herd which includes some
large tuskers, notably 65 year old Isilo); frequent (any of the hooved
creatures already named); occasional (leopard tortoise); infrequent (4 lion, 2 males and 2 females,
reintroduced in 2002),
and rare (suni, 14 critically endangered wild dogs reintroduced in January 2011
but which have declined to 9 by 2013 and the red chested cuckoo).
Observed
interspecies interactions: 1) impala, Nyala, and waterbucks mixing in forest
and at water holes; 2) oxpeckers on impala, zebra; 3) car crushed by elephant;
4) cattle egrets with cape buffalo
Observed
intraspecies interaction: 1) two male Nyala licking heads and necks and then
locking horns, 2)
Note on secure parking area: if you don’t have a four-wheel
drive (and high clearance) vehicle, you are required to park in the “secure”
parking area. Sometime during our stay,
an elephant reaching for the fruit of a black monkey orange tree, leaned into
our car, crushing the left front fender.
We have insurance and, so, usually don’t take the additional coverage. In South Africa, it may be a wise idea to do
so, since the rental agent said: “elephant? Happens all the time…”
NOTE
ON GPS NAVIGATION
(using Travel Maps’ South
Africa GPS Map,
v1.2 of September 2013 for
Garman Devices):
Mega
Fail! We bought it primarily to
navigate to Tembe Elephant Park Lodge (instead, it took us to Tembe Masizwane
Lodge, their competitor’s camp, many kilometers away) and around Johannesburg
(it doesn’t even have the Apartheid Museum among its attractions, and which is
notorious hard to locate—all the guide books says you will get lost).
After staying at Tembe, we tried to use it to navigate to Sowano Bay; we
arrived, but the GPS indicated another 1.7 kilometers of road.
And,
we tried to use it in the Western Cape of South Africa as well. When it does
work it provides useless instructions like "continue on road" without
indicating the road you are on (which would be reassuring to know you are on
the right route). When it does say “Continue on Highway N2,” we were actually
on R326. Again, on R44 to Capetown via Gordon’s Bay, it will say
“Continue on Main Road.” And, even worse is at perpendicular
t-intersections, it will advise “Continue on road.” If it was a slant
t-intersection, I would understand.
Among
its other major failures was one afternoon—totally wrong directions to the town
of Oudtshoorn, which had us arriving late, late at night. Furthermore, if
you want to drive the AA’s recommended Garden Route, it doesn't know the town
of Mossel Bay and when you do arrive there try asking for food and it lists
local places as being in Krysna (another town nearby) when they are clearly in
Mossel Bay.
The
biggest software glitch occurred after plotting in a trip, already on the N2
west to Heidelberg. Part way there it got stuck in a recalculating loop which I
perversely let go for 20 times. Then I turned it off.
I
think you can understand our intense frustration, trying to use this product
References
James
Percy FitzPatrick, Jock of the Bushveld (Cape Town: New Holland
Publishing Pty Ltd., 1991). –Written
about the late 19th century sub-tropical woodland ecosystem, it is
also a wonderful dog story.
Johan
Marais and Alan Ainslie, In Search of Africa's Great Tuskers (Johannesburg:
Penguin, 2010). –Features several of Tembe Elephant Park residents.
Alan
Patton, Cry the Beloved Country: A Story of Comfort in Desolation (New
York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948). –A
must read to understand the socio-political aspects of SA.
Tembe
Elephant Park, Annexure VI: Executive Summary of Integrated Management Plan
2007-2012. –To understand the vision, mission, and goals.
APAAT Tembe Protected Area
Report (28
October 2010). –To understand the mission and goals.
Roelf J. Kloppers, "The History and the
Representation of the History of the Mabudu Tembe," MA Thesis, University
of Stellenbosch, 2003. –Best discussion of the history of this area.
Fr.
Mayr, "Zulu proverbs,” Anthropos 7 (no. 4,
1912): 957-963. –You will hear various
sayings from your guides.
Revised: 26 January 2014; created: 23 November 2013.