A sense of place

A WORD TO THE WISE: follow the directions supplied and don’t trust Google Maps. Especially when it comes to places you don’t know in deep, rural Zululand. Once you are finally winding your way up the rolling KwaZulu-Natal hills, you start seeing little rondawels dotting the hillside and kids in school uniforms making their way home. And then: the wild, unspoilt bush. The Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, the oldest game reserve in Africa, is home to the largest concentrations of white and black rhinos, elephants and lions in the country. Recently, tracts of tribal land of 6 000 hectares were incorporated into the main reserve. This private reserve, uMfolozi Big Five, is set within the valleys where King Shaka of the Zulus pioneered a culture of conservation by proclaiming this area his royal hunting ground.