6. - 12 Dec.: Game drives and walks at Schotia Game Reserve

This morning our driver is Justin, son of owner of Schotia who is going to take over at some point.  He is very passionate about the reserve and his job and shows both affection and authority while is leading our tour. A close up encounter with a lone male lion soon after breakfast is just what we need to wake up.

Readying a hot bath

After lunch we rest a bit and then go for a walking safari around our tented camp. We run into a family of giraffe who let us come pretty close.It is warm and sunny, an ideal afternoon for a leisurly walk in the wild. I take the opportunity of our stop at the camp to add more wood to the water heating furnace.

Later on we keep on driving and share car with a couple from Washington state. He is cool and easy she is a bit paranoid about the animals and diseases. I wonder why she came to Africa in the first place.

In the evening, after another filling and tasty meat buffet by the fire, we welcome the night by driving out again in search for the lion, whom this time we meet as he is lying in the open grass.

But the most frightening encounter of the day is yet to come: it's about 11pm and we are making our way home when our good old friend Old Boss who is not yet ready for a good night sleep. He is in musth and when Justin tries to drive on the way to our tents he seems to have alrady lost his sense of humor.

Old Boss is not ready for sleep

The day ends with a candle-lit hot bath in our large tatch-covered tub house. I add more wood to the furnace and the water is nice and hot, a pleasant contrast to the moonlit chilly evening outside.

5. - 11 Dec.: Lalibela Lodge to Schotia Safari Game Reserve

Funny how these two private game reserves have names coming from different parts of the world, very far from South Africa.

In the morning another early game drive and then an easy move a few km to the west to Schotia Safari Game Reserve . This is a very different type of reserve: not luxury and in fact in part a tented camp. Our tent is quite big and it is raised from the floor by a system of stilts.

Quite a romantic bathroom too: water is heated by wood, and one of the first things I must learn is how to add wood to the furnace just outside the bathroom, next to the shower.

Male elephant

Our ranger for the afternoon drive is Leandi, a petite and seemingly fragile blond girl in her late twenties. (OK Leandi if you are reading this by any chace please don't be upset if I got it wrong, I am always wrong with ladies' age.) Yan asks about the meaning of her name and the answer is quite unique: her mother had six sisters and L.E.A.N.D.I. are the initials of their names. I forgot the sisters' names, but the ethimology stuck in my mind.

Bull chasing jeep

Leandi drives better than I have seen any man drive, especially when shifting our big 12 seater 4x4 into reverse and backing off in the mud from a charging elephant bull in chase. She also knows quite a bit and gives us comprehensive explanations about the fauna and the flora we see.

Dinner buffet by the fire, just next to the croc and hippo pond. Then a night drive during which, with the help of a big halogen light, we see a lone male lion resting in a bush. Can't really see much of him but enough to get some adrenaline pumping.The best sight though is a majestic male kudu who passes nonchalantly by as we drive home.

Male kudu, my fav antilope

4. - 10 Dec.: Game drives and night safari

In the cold afternoon drizzle we again brave the elements but are rewarded when we meet the resident cheetahs with a recent kill. The mother and 4 cubs rest, stomachs full, next to the carcass of a springbok. They sit atop a hill, with clear visibility in all directions, and are probably waiting to finish off what flesh is left on the bones of the antilope before the hyenas home in at night.

Cheetah meal leftover

A number of other sightings, including a large family of elephants who block the road and force us to wait a good half an hour, make the discomfort worthwhile after all. It's dusk and we are making our way back to the lodge, we meet a matriarch elephant leading her herd through the thick forest and into a green expanse. They are obviously used to cars and can't be bothered by our presence.

After dinner we go for a night safari, it is my first ever. Yuan is driving with one hand and brandishing a powerful halogen lamp with the other. He only points it at nocturnal animals, who can quickly adjust to it, and avoids shining it into the face of diurnal animals who could easily be blinded and scared away.

We go by our cheetas and they are still there, no signs of hyenas. Yuan explains that normally they would have gone to hide by now but evidently can't afford to leave all that meat behind. 

After a little while we run into  our elephants again, and the matriarchal female moves very close to us to show who is in charge. Yuan is slightly worried, shifts into reverse and backs off. I am a bit disappointed as I would have liked to see the animal closer, even more so when he says he would have let her come and touch the car had he been alone. Still, a magical moment to share with these gentlr beasts under a soft moonlight.

3. - 9 Dec.: Lalibela game drives and walks

Yuan and vehicle

Game drives and walks all day. The weather is not our best friend, it is drizzling and rather chilly, unexpected. I have not taken much warm clothing along, but make good use of a couple of sweaters. Yuan provides us with warm blankets that help moderate the wind chill in our oper vehicles. My major problem is keeping my cameras dry, and Yan her binoculars.

In the afternoon we do a walking safari with Jill, a lady who is the head ranger here. Don't meet much in terms of big animals, or even small animals for that matter. A bit disappointed as I did not come here to see small flowers and footprints. Our guide does not allow us to get closer to  hippos than about 250 meters with a pond between us. Ok safety first but this seems a bit excessive to me.

End of the day with another spectacular game drive with Yuan. This time it is cheetahs who keep us company.

To cap an exhilarating drive, a lone white rhino happens to be on our way but keeps grazing carelessly as we drive by.

Great meals as usual in the Lalibela lodge, and enjoyable evening by the fireplace backing up pictures to my hard drives and talking to Yuan about his country and his life. All he wants is a peaceful South Africa, he is too young to even remember apartheid anyway. He says his parents tought differently, but they belong to a different era, that seems almost inconceivable now. Of course.

2. - 8 Dec.: Port Elizabeth to Lalibela and first game drive

Get up at 8:30 and leisurly breakfast in the terrace of our Bed and Breakfast "Admiralty house". It's run by a friendly couple and we share the buffet with patrons of all races and colors, something that won't be happening too often over the next several weeks, where I will witness almost exclusively white tourists monopolize the tables of my hotels.

After breakfast I go sim card hunting again. Can't find any Vodacom store but the lady at the reception recommends to get a MTN, which is supposedly better anyway. They have a store at a little shopping mall nearby, and they are open on Sunday, at least in the morning. If I hurry after the long breakfast I can make it. And I do: before noon I become the proud owner of a South African phone number. The mall is a small affair, perhaps a couple of dozen smallish stores dominated by the ubiquitous Pick n Pay supermarket.

Armed with a data plan I can now install my sim card on my Samsung and confidently place it in the suction cradle I brought with me from Europe. A charge cable ensure a sufficient flow of energy and we are off for an easy drive.

Despite a couple of unnecessary detours owed to my talking too much while I am driving (when I drive I am the living proof of the theory that men can do only one thing at a time) which made me miss a turn or two, we are accurately steered by Google maps to the Lalibela lodge. We arrive at Lalibela in the early afternoon and settle in our beautiful thatched house. A few minutes to drop our stuff and grab a bite to eat and get ready for the first game drive of this trip. It's been a few years since my last one, in Tanzania, in 2005.

The name Lalibela surprises me, it turns out the owners Rick and Sue van Zyl visited the famous town in Ethiopia a while back and loved the name and the meaning behind it: "for whom the bees have foretold greatness". An Ethiopian legend has it that if a swarm of bees buzz around a baby's head, the child is destined to become king. I am not sure I would try on my baby but Sue loved it and the name Lalibela stuck in her mind, only to resurface when it came to name their newly opened business in 2002. It was the coronation of a longstanding plan to transform their earlier farm "Hillside" into a game reserve.

Our ranger is Juan, a 22 year-old enthusiastic nature lover who loves being in the bush and driving his 4x4 open safari "vehicle" as he calls it. He'd be on the road all the time. Rain shine day night he'd be looking for wild life if he did not have to take his guests back for their meals. His favorite words, as he passionately and methodically explains everything from geology to biology, are "basically" and "specifically". It's chilly and it rains intermittently but we are rewarded with a bounty of lions, cheetas and countless antilopes.

This evening is Yan's birthday and the manager has prepared a romantic candle-lit setup in the garden, with a small buffet all for the two of us and a slurpy cake with candles and birthday song at the end. The folk dance at the end is also quite well done and a pleasant, if a bit predictable, end of this first day in the bush. We enjoy the end of the evening with drinks by the fire in the company of a few other guests.

1. - 7 December 2013: Arrival in South Africa and tour of Port Elizabeth

Upon arrival in South Africa customs must be cleared at the first port of entry, in my case in Johannesburg. It's a pain to have to collect my bags and go through customs (no one pays any attention anyway) only to have to check them in again.

As I walk to my check-in counter I notice that everyone wraps their luggage in plastic wrap. For 60 r (4 euro) at least a dozen station will wrap your bags. Maybe it helps, and I d ecide to do it, as Johannesburg has a reputation for theft from transiting bags.

Arrive in Post Elizabeth. I live in the XXI century and decide to do first things first: get online with my smartphone. I try to buy a Vodacom sim card with a data plan but meet no success. I need a mini sim for my Samsung but those in stock at the Vodacom airport shop don't work. The salesman can't complete the required installation online. He also has "normal" (old) regular size sim cards, that can be cut to fir mini sim phones. Try and cut a big one but no success: no connection. They only have micro sim but they are no good for my samsung. Give up.

I proceed to pick up my rental car but not before I am persuaded to upgrade to a larger model. We have lots of bags...

First tour of the town. The former president, larger than life Nelson Mandela, the liberator of the country, died the day before yesterday and the country is in mourning. It is moving to see the lowering of the huge flag that is flying at half mast on the hill overlooking the town. Only a few foreign tourists look on while a military detachment performs the procedure as the commanding officer yells out a succession of orders.

I have reviews a movie about a life defining episode of Mandela's life here on this blog.

Nelson Mandela

Itinerary of trip to South Africa - December 2013 / January 2014

Itinerary - South Africa December 2013 – January 2014 (click on a date or a daily itinerary to link to related post)
Day	Dec.	Daily itinerary	Night	Km
1	7	Arrival in South Africa and tour of Port Elizabeth	P.E.	25
2	8	Port Elizabeth to Lalibela and first game drive	Lalibela	90
3	9	Lalibela game drives and walks	Lalibela	50
4	10	Game drives and night safari	Lalibela	50
5	11	Lalibela Lodge to Schotia Safari Game Reserve	Schotia	60
6	12	Game drives and walks at Schotia Game Reserve	Schotia	40
7	13	Schotia to Knysna, via Elephant Back Ride Safari	Knysna	275
8	14	Knysna golf and tour	Knysna	10
9	15	Knysna golf and spa	Knysna	10
10	16	Knysna golf and dining	Knysna	10
11	17	Knysna properties and drive through the mountains to Swellendam	Swellendam	200
12	18	Swellendam kayak and sherry	Swellendam	50
13	19	Swellendam to Cape Town, through Stellenbosch	Cape Town	160
14	20	Cape Town tour and music	Cape Town	60
15	21	Cape Town to Franschhoek	Franschhoek	75
16	22	Franschhoek	Franschhoek	0
17	23	Wine tasting in Stellenbosch and Paarl	Franschhoek	50
18	24	Paarl wine tasting for Christmas eve	Franschhoek	60
19	25	From wineland to Johannesburg	Johannesburg	75
20	26	City tour of Johannesburg	Johannesburg	80
21	27	Soweto and drive to Mabhoko Ndebele village	Mabhoko	280
22	28	Models and billiard at Mabhoko Ndebele village	Mabhoko	0
23	29	Mbahoko Ndebele village to Kruger National Park	Kruger	450
24	30	Alarms and mating lions at the Kruger National Park	Kruger	60
25	31	Kruger through Swaziland to S. Lucia	S. Lucia	650
	Jan.
26	1	New Year's day at Saint Lucia	S. Lucia	0
27	2	Drive to Durban and flight to Port Elizabeth	P.E.	250
28	3	Port Elizabeth - Seaview - Jeffrey bay	Jeffrey Bay	80
29	4	Knysna township	Mossel Bay	325
30	5	Bartolomeu Dias, Indian food and vintage music at Mossel Bay	Mossel Bay	40
31	6	Mossel Bay to Hermanus	Hermanus	320
32	7	Hermanus to Cape Town via Boulders Park and Good Hope	Cape Town	175
33	8	Cape Town wine tasting and Langa, Khayelitsha and Gugulethu townships	Cape Town	150
34	9	Cape Town slaves, cannons and jazz	Cape Town	40
35	10	Ending with a big bang, see you soon again South Africa	airplane	25
		TOTAL	KM	4275

Recensione: 700 ore in India - sulla scomoda sella di una Royal Enfield 500 (2013), di Giuseppe Santucci, *****

Sinossi

Questo libro parla di un viaggio. In India. Da solo. In motocicletta. Una Royal Enfield 500 Bullet Machismo. Monocilindrica. Tremila chilometri, divisi tra la parte sud ovest della catena dell’Himalaya (la zona in cui scorrono le sorgenti del Gange) e i deserti del Rajasthan. Conditi da duecentocinquantamila colpi di clacson (circa). L'autore Giuseppe Santucci è professore associato all' Università degli studi di Roma “La Sapienza” e tiene corsi di Ingegneria Informatica. Questo è il suo secondo libro che non ha nulla a vedere con il suo lavoro. Né con il suo primo libro.

Recensione

Breve ma emozionante libro che racconta un viaggio in moto. L'autore prende per mano il lettore, se lo carica sulla motocicletta e lo porta in giro per l'India per tre settimane. La narrativa è coinvolgente al punto che l'autore, contrariamente a quanto scrive ripetutamente, non viaggia più da solo ma fa sentire il lettore come se fosse seduto sulla sella, dietro di lui, a cavalcare le buche delle strade indiane.

Questo libro non è, e non pretende di essere, un saggio analitico sul paese e neanche una guida su come visitarlo in moto. Riesce però a trasmettere un'esperienza, con dovizia di particolari, che ti far venir voglia di partire. Ho visitato personalmente, in vari viaggi intrapresi negli anni passati, tutti i luoghi percorsi da Santucci con la sua Enfield e mi ci sono ritrovato. Ad ogni curva ho rivissuto la mia esperienza (in auto, iin treno, a piedi) e posso garantire l'autenticità delle descrizioni.

Il libro centra dunque l'obiettivo che si è prefissato: raccontare un viaggio. Un viaggio difficile, che avrebbe potuto essere diverso e che sarebbe sicuramente diverso per chi decidesse di intraprenderlo. Ma questa è la differenza tra un saggio analitico ed un racconto. Ho letto questo volume in poche ore, è difficile metterlo giù, vien quasi paura che la moto non riparta! Consigliatissimo a chi conosce l'India ma anche a chi, non potendoci andare di persona, ha voglia di assaggiarla restando seduto a casa.

Recensione film: La Guerra dei Fiori Rossi (2006) di Zhang Yuan, ****

Il piccolo grande Qiang!

Sinossi

Nella Cina post-rivoluzionaria degli anni '50, il piccolo Qiang viene mandato all'asilo a tempo pieno. A soli quattro anni ha già sviluppato un'indole ribelle e fatica ad abituarsi alla vita in comune con gli altri bambini. Nonostante tutto, però, cerca di fare del suo meglio per ottenere i tanto desiderati fiori rossi che le maestre danno in premio agli alunni più meritevoli, anche se lui fallisce in ogni occasione.

Qiang comunque ha ottenuto il rispetto dei suoi compagni ed è riuscito a convincerli che la direttrice è un mostro mangia bambini che deve essere assolutamente catturato, ma quando il piano per prendere prigioniera la donna fallisce, Qiang si ritrova solo e abbandonato.

Film cinese con montatore e colonna sonora italiani. Ottima la musica di Carlo Crivelli.


Recensione

Storia di bambini in Cina, ma non solo. Il film non ha una vera trama, ma è un flusso continuo di circostanze

Appare una non tanto sottile critica politica quando appare nel film un funzionario del comitato centrale del Partito Comunista, il padre di un bambino. Suo figlio studia poco e per questo ha ricevuto pochi fiori rossi, che sono dati in premio ogni giorno a chi studia e si comporta bene. Il padre se ne rammarica e le maestre, preoccupatissime, si affrettano a sottolineare che suo figlio sta migliorando molto e per non rischiare di irritarlo si inventano che proprio quel giorno si era meritato un fiore rosso che non gli avevano ancora dato.

Una lettura del film potrebbe essere di approvazione alla ribellione contro l'oppressore, rappresentato dalle arcigne mastre. Io però non credo l'autore sostenga che Qiang fa bene. La sua ribellione non è premiata e non porta a nulla. Credo piuttosto che il messaggio ponga più domande che risposte: le maestre sono rigide e perfino un po' ottuse, ma non del tutto irragionevoli e con punti di vista diversi tra di loro. Il bambino si ribella ma non è ovviamente in grado di proporre un'alternativa a quello che contesta. La situazione in cui si trovano spesso i paladini della libertà in contesti autoritari.

Negli extra appare Marco Mueller, che ci racconta la storia della produzione del film e le difficoltà a fargli passare la censura cinese. Cosa che alla fine riesce, ma non prima che il regista sia costretto a tagliare la scena finale, nella quale il ribelle Qiang fa la pipì di fronte ad una parata di lavoratori modello che vengono premiati.

Interessante che il film abbia ricevuto il premio Bresson, amministrato dal Vaticano. La cosa è stata vista da alcuni come un segnale di distensione nei rapporti tra i due stati, in mancanza di relazioni diplomatiche. (Il Vaticano è uno dei pochi stati, e l'unico in Europa, che a tutt'oggi riconosce il governo di Taiwan come il leggittimo governo cinese!)

Puoi vedere un trailer del film qui su Mymovies. Ed una scheda in inglese qui su IMDb.

Compre il DVD qui

Film review/recensione: The lover /L'amante (1992), by Jean-Jacques Annaud, *****

testo italiano di seguito

Synopsis

The Lover is director Jean-Jacques Annaud's adaptation of Marguerite Duras' minimalist 1984 novel. Set in French Indochina in 1929, the film explores the erotic charge of forbidden love. Jane March plays a French teenager sent to a Saigon boarding school, while Tony Leung is a 32-year Chinese aristocrat. They look at each and they both see a blinding white flash; it's kismet. He offers her a ride in his limousine and soon they meet in his "bachelor room" where they revel in a wide variety of creative sexual encounters. However, they both realize their love is doomed.

She comes from a troubled family that includes a mentally-disturbed mother (Frederique Meininger) and drug-addicted brother (Arnaud Giovaninetti). It also appears that her family would not approve of an interracial tryst. But then neither would his family, since in order to inherit his father's wealth, he must not break from a traditional Chinese arranged marriage.


Review

A high-quality erotic movie, of course, and a deeply romantic one. Deep passion intertwined with surrepetitiousness and sin. Very exciting.

But for me the main picture was that of colonian life in Vietnam in the French colonial time. Here we see as Asian man in control of a beautiful European lady. He is Chinese, not the colonized Vietnamese, but still an "Asian". Despite his wealth and sophistication he is still considered a second tier person by the white colonizers. But here he is in control. And she, too, frees herself from the constraint of her condition as a white lady at a boarding school, and takes her liberties with the man she loves. Or maybe does not love, but desires.

Duras said her book was partly autobiographical, which adds interest and lends credibility to the story.




Sinossi

Sul finire degli anni venti, in Indocina una ragazza di quindici anni, figlia di una donna povera, conosce l'uomo piu' ricco della regione. Fra i due nasce una grande passione, ma le rigide convenzioni sociali finiranno per prevalere sull'amore.

Recensione

L'Amante è un film di grande sensualità ed intensità emotiva. Passione e trasgressione si mischiano per creare una miscela esplosiva. Molto eccitante. Questo è il primo messaggio che recepiamo dal film.

Tuttavia per me il secondo, e forse più importante, messaggio è quello di farci vedere la vita nell'Indocina colonizzata dai francesi negli anni venti del XX secolo. Vediamo un uomo asiatico (un cinese, non un vietnamita colonizzato) che controlla una bella donna bianca del paese colonizzatore. Nonostante la sua ricchezza e la sua sofisticata classe, egli è pur sempre un asiatico e come tale considerato una persona di seconda categoria. Ma qui è lui che domina la situazione. Ma anche la ragazza si libera delle costrizioni imposte dalla sua condizione di bianca e si prende le sue libertà con l'uomo che ama. O forse che non ama, ma che vuole.

Duras ha scritto che il suo libro è in parte autobiografico, il che accresce la credibilità e l'interesse per la storia qui esposta.

Versione italiana del DVD