Here’s some footage combined from two different game reserves, Kwandwe in the Eastern Cape, and Madikwe in the North West provence on the border of Botswana, as well as some shots from my day on the Vaal River with competition fly angler Shayne Prinsloo.
Some more notes.
Cape Town is one of the great cities of the world. Geographically, it sits within driving distance of the Cape of Good Hope on the Southwest tip of the continent. The waters surrounging it remain shockingly cold as they are fed by the Benguela current running unimpeded from Antarctica. It has Mediterranean weather, and, physically, it brings to mind a mix of South Beach and Sausalito. It has a laid back beach vibe.
Johannesburg is like New York City in that it is the financial capital of the continent and everyone there is always on the go. But it’s also like Detroit in that everyone fled the city center to the safety of the suburbs. The suburbs, though, look like armed fortresses, with stunning houses surrounded by high walls strewn with barbed wire and electric fences.
Culturally, South Africa is in an interesting stage. Majority rule democracy is still growing since the end of Apartheid in 1994, a subject too complex to deal with in a fly fishing blog that has a junior high reading level. (I will say that touring Robben Island in Cape Town , where Nelson Mandela had been improsined for 18 years, and Soweto in JHB were both sobering experiences.) Anecdotally, depending on whether you talk to a white or a black South African, the biggest thing going is either the Springbok’s recent World Cup Rugby championship or hosting the Soccer World Cup in 2010. (The Giants-Pats Super Bowl ranked as a footnote on the sports pages beneath the African Nations Soccer Cup plus every single cricket, rugby, soccer, cycling, and track & field event in the world.)
On the conservation front, South Africa is incredible, setting aside massively huge tracks of land aside as reserves for the wildlife of the continent, creating a thriving eco-tourism industry. I am not a hunter, but I understand the role hunting plays, believe it or not, in the process. Big Game hunting brings in more conservation funding than all other tourism combined. For instance, obtaining just the permit to hunt a black rhino costs $150,000 US. Add on to that the travel, lodge, and guide fees. The country allows for just five male black rhinos to be hunted a year, and there’s a several year-long waiting list filled with guys from Texas and Michigan. Even the most eco-minded game reserve employees I spoke to said hunting is a necessary function to keep the parks in balance, and that it brings in precious funding to protect the parks against poaching.
For fly fishing, circumstances winnowed my planned three days on the water down to one, but I received an excellent yellowfish education under the guidance of Shayne Prinsloo, who is one of the top ten competion fly anglers in South Africa, and is practicing to earn a chance to compete this year in New Zealand. For more in depth yellowfish reading, go here.
