When Kaya FM breakfast host Bob Mabena visited the Kruger Park, he thought he would be won over by the roar of lions or the speed of a cheetah. But it was birds that held his attention most.
‘I found the birds very interesting. I have never seen birds like that in my life. It is pity that I cannot remember their names, but I certainly remember how they look,” he says. ‘And you know what, I never thought I could go birdwatching. It is very funny, but I quite enjoyed it.”
Last year, Mabena visited a national park for the first time in his life. It took an invitation from a Kruger Park concessionaire, Three Cities, to get Mabena to the bush. But the experience won him over and he is already contemplating his next trip to one of South Africa’s national parks.
He visited Hamilton’s Tented Camp, Hoyo-Hoyo Tsonga Lodge and Imbali Safari Lodge and was amazed not only by the exuberant hospitality but also by the sereneness of the bush and the uniqueness of each animal.
‘I now wonder why I had not done this before,” he laughs. ‘I must be honest; I am not a jungle person. I enjoyed myself simply because it is not what you think it is. The bush hospitality made it special, but the peacefulness of the bush sealed it.”
He adds that, previously, he felt that as a black man he had grown up in the wild anyway and therefore did not need to go to any national park to find the wild man within himself. But it turned out to be an altogether different experience to what he had anticipated.
‘It was absolutely mind-blowing. The park is very impressive to me,” he says. ‘I can understand why the tourists are obsessive about it and why it is the one thing they want to see. You could wake up at four o’clock and go watch a kill, you see baby hyenas with their mother. It is all such special and different stuff.”
He recalls the unusual and often small things on a game drive that amused him for hours on end. ‘It is the rare things that you see, that you never thought you would be interested in. It is not just about trees and watching elephants.”
Elephants are an issue with Bob. ‘I like all the animals except elephants,” he says. ‘I mean, you see them all the time. You’ve seen an elephant eat grass, and you say to yourself, not another one, let’s move on. You see elephants on TV, everywhere, so there is nothing special about elephants. Besides, you have got too many of them and they are destroying the eco-system anyway. Ja, for me the elephant is the one I least would want to watch.”
But watching the wild dogs, seeing a pride of lions basking in the sun and spotting an unusual bird up close and personal is something else, he says in a dreamy voice. ‘The rest are very interesting animals, not as boring as elephants,” he says.
He got up very early every morning for the four o’clock drive, something that was not too difficult for him as he is used to the early hours a breakfast host keeps. ‘And then, of course, I was rewarded by some amazing scenes.”
Mabena’s first visit was also enhanced because he could share his bush experience with his friends. ‘The first time there was with a whole lot of friends such as Ed Jordan and David O’Sullivan,” he says. ‘I think it was a friendship thing and we got together, enjoying the wild, just having a wonderful time.
‘I went to the lodges with my wife and we met the CEO of SANParks at that time, Mavuso Msimang. It was great to talk to him about the inner workings of the park.”
The most special thing for Mabena, something he never thought to find in a national park, was being able to unload all his stress and tension and watch it evaporate like mist before the sun.
The Kaya FM host works three jobs into his business schedule; something he declares is very stressful to him. ‘I have a radio job, I have a promotions company that I run on my own, then I have an investing company that I am a partner in. By the time the week is out, I am finished. But the bush atmosphere, it takes you away from everything. You just do not want to leave.”
He says the park takes away the city. ‘It just blacks out the city 100%, the hustle and bustle. And most importantly, it takes away that awful city smell. That Johannesburg smog, foul smelling air, not having to inhale it, was absolutely special.
‘I know how stressed people are. I know how so many of us do so much and we do not have time to be still. Once you are in a national park, you are still. And you know why there is a God. His creations are out there, the tranquillity humbles you.”
He says he did not go on all the afternoon drives, just so he could experience the tranquillity of the bush while relaxing near the waterhole. ‘I was the only one who stayed behind. I had some port and I put my feet up on the porch and just watched as the animals came in to drink with the sun setting. Ah, it was spectacular. It was out of this world!”
He was amused at times at how his fellow city slickers brought technology into the bush in the most unexpected ways. ‘A guy from Nashua falling over a buck at night cracked me up,” he says, breaking into a fit of giggles. ‘After that he switched on his cellphone and found his way with the light of the LCD screen. That stands out for me, that is true technology in the bush.”
At night, the atmosphere around the campfire left him awed. ‘You could hear the night sounds and suddenly every bad thought I ever had evaporated,” he says. ‘Just thinking about it gives me the shivers. I cannot wait till I can go again.”