Be sure to go to list on right side of screen for day one of Mala Mala. For some reason ( operator error) it posted out of order. There is also more of Africa in the musings post.
This is posted in our rooms. It makes a big impression now
Five layers of clothes will be peeled off one by one until noon when only a light safari shirt is comfortable but now it is gloves and hat cold.
Joe is an excellent photographer and does wonderful work positioning us for great shots. However the guys find his big lens super intimidating.
Cold morning air turns the river into an ethereal scene of swirling mists.
In perfect morning light.
The terrain here is a lot like the hill country of Texas but rougher. So we climb up hills and lurch down inclines. It is really fun ride. Around every bend is a new vista but a few minutes after seeing these two males we rounded a bend and found mom and baby.
Joe is a bit amazed and decided we have rhino luck. (Or he is a great salesman. However I think he is too sincere for that.)
Part of the property is very open plains and here are the big herds. It is fun to see the sweep of all those animals on this grand stage. Very much like the plains of east Africa.
Buffalo and ox pecker at work
Back at the lodge we had safari from the deck. Gary and Charlene won however when they walked out to the pool and saw 18 elephants crossing the river right in front of them.
Youngsters wrestling and playing.
Ready for afternoon game drive. Gun is only for show we hope. We set off looking for leopard but get sidetracked by lions. Well they are sleeping which is pretty much all lions do so Joe is very clever. He pulls out the cooler and we have sundowners watching the lions on the off chance they will wake up.
Mountains in the distance and the big dudes from Nat. Geo. parked by the same lions hoping they will wake up. They are working not sipping wine.
PS two hours later they still were sleep when the pros gave up.
How Joe spotted this chameleon in the total dark is beyond us. He is standing on the hood of the vehicle
in order to pull him down to show us..
Don't ask, I volunteered and he was creepier than I was prepared for. As he is headed rapidly towards my head Joe and buddies spotted a leopard. Jon is trying to take the chameleon off but not too enthusiastically. Finally Joe grabbed him in the nick of time and then back to chasing a leopard in the dark.
Another night spent sitting in the dark but this time we could see impala all around and sort of knew where the leopard was. The impala were tense and giving alarm calls. This is a nightly deadly game of chess. It is cold and dark with the moon is providing a soft light that makes a world of sound and shadow, mostly we listen.
All of sudden Joe turns on the light and lit up the rear of the truck. Right under Charlene was a large hyena. It slunk off immediately but by then she had sucked in most of the oxygen in the area. We are now convinced that she is a hyena witch and Charlene is not thinking this is as funny as all the rest of us do.
The camp at Mala Mala
We all have separate ochre colored rondeles with thatched roofs.
A strangler fig wraps this tree in its deadly embrace. The struggle of life.
Bougainville grows lushly, draping fences and roofs.
Impala crossing the lawn.
A major treat is that we have two bathrooms.
The dining deck overlooking the Sand River where we almost daily see elephant herds. Notice how they wrap the chairs in blankets in the cool night air.
Day two
From that same deck we saw this lovely big hyena walking across the lawn. Charlene is really freaked now.
Joe is looking hard for leopards.
While leopard hunting we got caught in the middle of the large herd of elephants the Shippys had seen yesterday. There are elephants all around us. Coming right at us is this young one.
Right behind him comes trouble. He wants to come visit us but Joe chases him away.
The reason for chasing him off is mom and she is marching right behind. She might not appreciate our interacting with her baby and she is not to be messed with.
Guess who comes by. Get the straight jacket for Mrs.Shippy.
Then the tiny baby wants to play peek a boo. He is 10 to 15 feet from us.
I see you!
Am I the cutest!
Next on the list is a leopard up a tree. Not easy to see.
This is the one eyed leopard, the dominant male of the area and he is laying fully on top of an impala he has killed and dragged up the tree. No one is getting his next meal.
Oh and there was a hyena cruising the area.
Joe had one more treat up his sleeve. The only kill feeding we had seen was that precious leopard cub in the Delta.
The next find of the day was 9 nomad lions feeding on the remains of a young giraffe they had killed. This is not a peaceful feeding. They erupt into a boiling mass of growling furry bodies. There is a frisson of fear that runs into ones stomach watching the primative beastiality of this very natural process and listening to the crunching, gnawing and gnashing of mighty teeth.
For comic relief these two birds are engaged in another natural act in a nearby tree.
Sundowners didn't get finished as a large male elephant came out into the meadow quite a ways from us but contined to make aggressive moves while coming ever closer. We beat feet out of there.
We have a night drive every night after sundowners and see lots of unusual animals but tonight we top it off with 6 large hippos out grazing. They aren't waiting around to have their photo taken. They head back to water at a full run.
The last morning drive was supposed to be a simple ride up to the open plains and take some videos of the large herds. As usual Africa had different plans for us.
We start and end every drive with the dreaded bridge. It is high and has one foot high little concrete things on the side. It frankly is the most terrifying moments of everyday. We are first out this morning and as we get on the bridge, Joe stops, whips out the binos and goes "oh wow". There on the far bank are a pack of wild dogs. We cannot believe it. To get two sightings is really exciting. These Cape Dogs are very endangered with only 400 left in South Africa.
Just to illustrate how close the vehicles are. We often could have reached down and touched the dogs. This pack was really happy and playful. They also had just eaten so they were in a good mood.
One of the animals we wanted to see but hadn't showed up. The jackel.
Coffee in the bush.
We were not going to ride with him over the bridge for sure.
Then a lion walked in front of our vehicle and another and another. Until we were following 8 lions, two young males and six females as they ran down to the river right to the same spot the dogs had been in earlier that morning. This sighting had the professional photographers filming away from on top of the bridge. The first time we had seen them with the camera rolling. The cats on the river bank were really special.
More Africa in the posting on musings.
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