So after bidding farewell to Blue Hill we have traveled to stay in Howick with Ruby’s relatives Ken and Alison. The drive took two days, and the landscape and environment is considerably different to what we got used to in the cape. We also saw a lot of new animals on the way here, and Spion Kop, the hill after which the Kop at Anfield was named.
Settling in
We are staying in a really nice residential complex on the outskirts of Howick. There is a communal heated pool, a library, lakes and a range wildlife roaming around. On our first full day here we took a walk round with Ken to see what wildlife we could see. Sometimes the animals are actually feeding on plants in the gardens of the houses themselves, it’s incredible how close they get and how comfortable they are around the residents here.
After taking a swim on Sunday morning I tried to get a picture stood near to a zebra. Amazingly it was really friendly and came right over and have a nibble on my arm! It was a great experience, but we guess that he did it because residents have been feeding him which isn’t good news as it is making him overly habituated with human contact.
FreeMe KZN
On our first day we popped into the local wildlife rehabilitation centre to ask whether they require any help as we will have plenty of free time to spare. They were very happy to take us on and we have spent some time there chopping vegetables for the animals, cleaning cages, assisting with ringing birds before they are released, and even bottle feeding the young Wildebeest! He is pretty adorable and he’s already fairly big. We also got to see the group of jackals being vaccinated for rabies which is very important before they’re released back to the wild.
It’s a great privilege to be able to help out there, we get to see some amazing animals close up, but it’s also sad to see the state that some of them are in. There is a bald ibis in there with a broken beak which has to be tube fed, I’m not sure whether he’ll ever be able to be released.
Bird watching
We took a trip to the nearby Karkloof conservation area to sit in some bird hides and see what popped up. The highlights were seeing two grey crowned crane displaying at each other, and seeing a pair of Wattled Crane thanks to a local farmer who drove us down the road to see them. There are only 300 Wattled Crane left in SA, a very rare bird!
Trip to Durban
We also spent yesterday wandering around the seafront at Durban where we saw some amazing sand art, and the Durban stadium which hosted world cup matches a few years ago.
Lambey in Africa 