Where the animals watch the people in South Africa
Author: By Christine Temin, Globe Staff
Date: SUNDAY, December 27, 1998
Page: M6
Section: Travel
MAPUTALAND, South Africa -- On safari at Phinda Forest Lodge, you spend up
to eight hours a day watching and photographing animals, the majestic to the
mundane, the lion to the dung beetle. It seems only fair, then, to give them a
turn watching you. Which may explain why many guests in the glass houses at
Forest Lodge don't bother to draw the curtains. There's little chance of
another human catching a glimpse of you bathing, sleeping, dressing, or
whatever. The 17 glass houses are too far apart for that, each perched on
stilts, standing in splendid isolation in one of the world's last remaining
sand forests. So what if a warthog trots by on those skinny little legs,
trying to keep that huge head up, and sees you standing in the altogether:
He's naked, too, and probably even funnier looking.
Of all the countries I visited in 1998, South Africa was my favorite. And
of all the places I stayed in South Africa, Phinda ranks number one.
``Phinda'' is Zulu for ``return'' -- reference to the return to the wild
bushveld of a property that was once overgrazed ranch land. This part of South
Africa used to be as teeming with wildlife as East Africa's Serengeti. But
farming here drove the animals out; only now are they being coaxed to return.
My visit last month was also a return: I'd stayed at Phinda in 1994, after
South Africa's democratic elections, when the country was bracing for an
influx of foreign tourists. Phinda's owner, Conservation Corporation Africa,
was established in 1990 to offer low-density, high-quality -- and high-priced
-- safari experiences, while working on worthy projects like community
education and relocation of animals, so you don't feel as bad about giving
them all that money.
Phinda has four lodges, each with a distinct personality. Forest and
Mountain lodges are the larger ones, while Rock and Vlei lodges accommodate
only 12 guests each, in splendor that includes private plunge pools and meals
served wherever you want them. (Should your wealthy in-laws offer a family
vacation for next Christmas, suggest they take over all of Rock or Vlei for a
festive and unforgettable reunion.)
Phinda is diverse: seven ecosystems to explore; over 400 species of birds;
cruises on the Mzinene River; scuba diving off Maputaland's coral reefs; bush
walks escorted by an armed ranger; tracking the endangered black rhino on
foot. But the heart of the Phinda experience is the two daily game drives, at
dawn and sunset, when the animals are out. The 5 a.m. wakeup call is as close
to hardship as Phinda comes. The sympathetic staff members inject you with
strong coffee and ply you with home-made rusks flavored with honey and
cinnamon. Thus fortified, you go out to check the animal tracks that are the
morning newspaper, telling you what's happened overnight, which animals have
gone where. (Actually, it's the tracker, perched on a folding chair at the
front of the Land Rover, who spots the pawprints on what looks like a blank
dirt road to the untrained eye.) The game drive can take up to four hours,
depending on your luck, and it's off-road: The Land Rover drives right over
scrubby bushes, and the tracker breaks off branches that might graze against
guests' faces.
The animals seek shelter in the heat of midday, and so do you, napping
after a splendid lunch of, say, ostrich and paw-paw or smoked snoek (it's a
fish).
On arrival at Phinda, you're assigned a ranger who not only runs the game
drives but eats with you, too, unless you choose to eat alone in your little
house. Highly trained, the rangers interpret the landscape and its
inhabitants, some of which you might otherwise not see. You'd no doubt notice
the lions sacked out on the grass, surrounded by the yellow wild hibiscus and
purple morning glories that flourish in the reddish, iron-rich soil. But the
dung beetle? These cute little critters blend right into the ground, but once
you sight them, they're mesmerizing. They're engaged in a Sisyphean task,
rolling balls of poop like you or I would shape a meatball -- only imagine a
meatball bigger than you are.
``Black'' and ``white'' rhinos are actually both mud-colored, my ranger
said, calling the beasts ``the lawn mowers of the wild'' because their poor
digestive systems force them to chomp away at the grass all day long. Watching
animals eat helps boost guests' appetites.
Phinda's flora are as varied as the fauna. Chinese lantern flowers --
fuzzy puffs of pink with fuzzy yellow pendants -- look so unnatural they made
me laugh. So did the salami-like pendants dangling from the ``sausage
trees.''
I am, truth to tell, more interested in architecture than animals, and
Phinda's examples of the former are as entertaining as the latter. The
rectilinear glass boxes at Forest Lodge are part Frank Lloyd Wright, part
Philip Johnson, part Japan. There's great attention to detail: The soap dish
is a piece of rugged stone; instead of a plastic bag to put your laundry in,
there is a handsome wicker basket; soaps, shampoos, conditioners, and lotions
are all in coordinating colors, purple, in the case of my bathroom.
Forest Rock, which I also visited, is in the ``Flintstones'' style of
architecture so prevalent in recent hotel design from the American Southwest
to the Middle East -- no right angles, just organic, fluid forms and
irregularly shaped windows. It's a cradling, humanistic style of building.
Doorknobs at Rock lodge are in the form of metal lizards. Candelabra spew soot
onto white-washed walls, creating instant age. Nighttables are thick tree
trunks topped with irregularly cut chunks of bubbly blue-green glass, on which
rest the remote controls for your air conditioning: You're not here to suffer.
When it was finally time for me to leave my Phinda paradise, I reentered
the real world -- Johannesburg -- in stages. I took Phinda's little private
plane from Phinda's private airstrip and flew to nearby Richard's Bay -- where
the airport has a private Phinda lounge -- one last touch of luxe.
Prices at Phinda range from $280 per person per day at Phinda Mountain and
Phinda Forest in low season, which starts in April, to $500 per person per day
for Phinda Rock and Phinda Vlei, year round. Prices include all food, game
drives, cruises, even laundry. Only drinks are extra. To make reservations,
call the Conservation Corporation in South Africa at 011-27-11-784-7077, or
fax 011-27-11-784-7667.
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