I’d never played hide-and-seek with an elephant before and, to be honest, I’m not sure I’ll make a habit of it. Tracking elephant on foot is something one approaches with care, forethought and preparation. Unfortunately, we’d been looking for tracks in the mud at the waterhole and hadn’t expected a grumpy young bull to be down there having a drink. Neither did he, it seems, expect to have four humans interrupt his afternoon mud bath.
As we ducked low and crab-walked through the undergrowth to the other side of the water, hoping to put some space between us and the cantankerous pachyderm, I was reminded of what British travel writer AA Gill said about elephants on his first safari foray:
“Elephants in musth are best left alone. In fact, elephants on valium doing yoga are best left alone.”
I couldn’t agree more, and although our big boy may not have been in musth, he was certainly keen to come and have a word up close. We rounded the dam, he rounded the dam. We laboured through a donga to get to the other side, he simply walked through the water to pop out 20 metres ahead of us. We zigged, he zagged.
In the end I’d love to say it was my innate understanding of elephant and deeply ingrained bush knowledge that got us out of there. But truth be told, it was really down to Grant and Sifiso.
They were our guide and tracker for four days of bush training so that, in theory, we could have got ourselves out of there unscathed. The Bush Skills course is a fantastic initiative offered by Phinda Private Game Reserve, an &Beyond reserve in northern Zululand an hour or so from Richard’s Bay. This is where &Beyond trains its own rangers, so there are few better places to learn the ways of the bushveld.
The course is designed for the safari tourist who’s ticked the Big Five off their list, done time on the back of a safari vehicle… and now wants something more. Wants to understand the bush, not just be told about it. To know what it’s like to spot tracks from the chair on the bonnet. To fire the rifle that always sits silently on the dashboard. To drive a two-ton 4x4 over rough ground, all the while chatting amiably with guests behind you and identifying that brown splodge a hundred metres off as a young Nyala. And let me tell you, it’s not as easy as it looks.
The word ‘course’ conjures images of days spent in dreary boardrooms, making endless notes while someone drones on up at the front… but this couldn’t be further from the truth.
The bushveld is your boardroom for this course, where notes are jotted in the dusty soil and the agenda can be interrupted at a moment’s notice when a grumpy elephant gets in the way.
The four-days are flexible according to what the group is interested in, and your specialist ranger will tailor the day’s activities accordingly. If all you want is to track animals on foot, no problem. Want to hone your 4x4 skills; here are the keys.
However, for a little taste of everything it’s best to let your ranger and tracker set the pace. Tracking is the basis of being in the bush though, so you’ll spend a fair bit of time looking down, not up, for animals.
“See how the edges of the track are slightly rounded?” says Grant. “That tells us this track is old; the wind has blown across here and taken away the detail. Look at the grass too; it’s dried out and dead, so was trampled some time ago.”
At first they might as well be speaking Ancient Greek, but after a while you learn the language of the bush and the landscape starts to talk. Crumpled grass is no longer just crumpled; it’s where rhino have trundled through. That smooth depression in the sand? Lion have been sleeping here in the heat of the day; they left a tuft of fur on that thorn tree. The genet was here after the elephant… see how the claw marks are on top of the flattened toe-prints?
“Tracking is not just footprints in the sand though, you need to use all five senses,” says Grant over the roar of the Land Cruiser. “It’s a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, you just need to fit all the pieces together.”
They’re tiny, whispered clues to what was here before you, but piece them all together and a clear picture of the landscape emerges; animals moving from grazing to waterhole, and on to a warm spot for the night; rhino marking their territory and cats looking for their next meal.
Now spot and identify all of these while zipping along at 25km/h and you’ll have some idea of the incredible skills of the tracker and guide on your safari vehicle. You certainly won’t master them all in just four days, but you’ll certainly start to become an active part of your game drive, not a passive safari tourist.
And after a hard day on the course? Well, you have splendid accommodation to return to. During the course you’ll stay at one of Phinda’s luxurious lodges scattered throughout the reserve: Mountain Lodge (25 suites with wraparound views of the mountains), Rock Lodge (six intimate stone and adobe suites), Forest Lodge (16 suites set deep in the rare Sand Forest) and Vlei Lodge (six elegant thatched suites with private plunge pools).
The fine views from Phinda’s Mountain Lodge are where I choose to enjoy my last G&T (they’re obligatory, you know) of the trip, gazing north towards the wonderful Sand Forest where we’d earlier spotted the colourful Narina Trogon.
That rare feathered beauty had sat there silently, but the bush had seemed alive with chatter. Talking in muted tones and whispered clues; the language of the bushveld, a tongue I was just beginning to understand.
For more information on the Bish Skills course at Phinda Private Game reserve, visit www.andbeyond.com or call 011 809 4300.
Originally published in Indwe magazine, the in-flight mag of SA Express.
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