I'm standing on a commanding hilltop in Zululand overlooking the wilderness section of Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park (HIP). It’s a vast primeval area - only Kruger Park has a wider expanse untouched by the human hand. As the morning sun gathers strength, the land, treedense and mountainous, reveals its charms.
The glittering White Umfolozi River, bloated with hippos and crocodiles, carves through the picturesque scene, its banks a favoured patrol route of local lion prides. Somewhere in that green jumble of thicket and snorting black rhinos, the White Umfolozi River meets the Black Umfolozi, creating a natural cul-desac where Shaka’s warriors used to funnel antelope into their spiked death pits.
This was also the stomping ground of famed conservationists Dr Ian Player and Magqubu Ntombela, who famously rescued the white rhino from the brink of extinction through their remarkable efforts in the ’50s and ’60s. Mthembu Lodge, where I’m staying, is built next to the stables where the pair would camp, do their research, keep their horses and conjure up their rhino rescue plans.
In the '70s, Dr Player and Magqubu began guiding primitive walking trails on the land. The idea behind this was
