Day 6: Transfer to Mala Mala and Start of Our Safari

I am now back with the living, but I passed on poached eggs this morning.  Clive and Godfrey picked us up on yet another beautiful morning in Cape Town (I think they tell all the tourists that they are lucky with the weather, but it really is gorgeous all the time).  At this point, I would like to put in a good word for Clive de Bruyne and his company, The Cape Town Tour Guide Co. (www.capetowntourguide.com, tours@capetowntourguide.co).  He was amazing.  All of his arrangements were spot on, he listened to our requests and accommodated us perfectly.  In addition to making all the arrangements, he accompanied us on all the hikes and the cycling, and he and Godfrey took care of getting us through the airport right up until security. All six of us felt that if you are visiting Cape Town, you MUST first call Clive.

Our flight to Nelspruit/Kruger was about 2 1/2 hours and very uneventful.  We were met at the airport by a driver arranged for us by Boundless Journeys and then took the "short"  2 1/2 hour drive to our camp, Mala Mala.  The drive was over some pretty bad roads to start and end with, getting our bodies ready for our safari game drives.  When we exited the main road, we entered s gste to Sabi Sands game reserve on the edge of Kruger National Park.  We though we were there.  Next we saw a sign for Mala Mala- 20 km!, at least another 45 minutes. Fortunately, we were kept very busy for the ride.  Our fist sighting was a kudu, one of the many ruminants that are found in the area, this was followed soon after by a heard of giraffe, amazingly graceful animals given their ungainly legs and necks.  As we got closer to the camp, we ran into several groups of impalas that seemed not even to notice our presence.  We finally reached our destination, Mala, Mala.  The first thing we saw as we drove up was Molly waving. It was great to see Molly and Dave and have them join us for the rest of the trip.  (Don't tell anybody in our group that i said this,  but they are all really great to travel with-easy going, though all of us are type A+ at home,  and a lot of fun).   They had been patiently waiting for us so we could take our evening game drive.  Our guide for the next three days, Morne (pronounced "Mornay"), met us and gave an introduction to the camp and a quick briefing.

Mala Mala is not your typical camp.  The area is consists of several stone units with thatched peak roofs and an indoor and outdoor dining area that overlooks a river allowing for animal viewing any time.  This is the same view that we have from our enormous duplex we share with Harriet and Rick.  Our unit has 2 self contained areas that consist of a huge bedroom with sliders to a patio facing the river (on which I am presently sitting and watching 2 elephants), 2 full bathrooms (his and hers), and a giant walk in closet/dressing room. Rick and Harriet's unit was the same, and then we shared a common area/living room that was gigantic.  After having visited the hostels in Langa 3 days ago, we are reminded yet again, as to how lucky we are.  The camp also has an exercise room, sauna, and nice gift shop.  As you enter the camp proper, there is a stutue of multiple warthogs of varying sizes, and the grounds are landscaped beautifully.  There is also a BOMA (British Officers' Meeting Area a hold over from the Boer war in the 1800's when British officers would meet after a day's fighting to drink and schmooze around a campfire).  This was where our evening meal was served after our evening game drive.

We quickly unpacked, grabbed our gear, and hightailed it to the meeting area.  Morne told us the rules- no standing, and NO TOUCHING HIS GUN. Otherwise, have a great time.  Our vehicle for the next three days was a specially modified opened truck with four rows of stadium seating, allowing excellent viewing for everyone.

Off we went, leaving at about 3:30pm.  The advantage of staying at a private reserve compared to Kruger which is owned by the South African government, is that there are no rules about when and where you take you vehicles.  We were allowed to be out at night which is when there is an abundance of activity, as well as drive off road which we all were to find was great fun. There were reports of a pair of leopards roaming about, so off we went to check this out.  Along the way, we found gobs of fresh elephant dung and urine,  and then, guess what, elephants, loads of them with several very young (Morne estimated 3 months old), juveniles, and adults.

The excitement over the elephants soon merged with our next find, the leopards.  We were starting to lose the light for photography, but I did manage to get a few bizillion pictures.  Unfortunately (or fortunately if we were the prey), they weren't too interested in hunting right then.

We couldn't believe our luck, because next up was a pride of lions with a female cub.  I actually heard them before seeing them.  We had stopped for a quick bathroom break, and as a stood there contemplating how clean the facilities were, I was sure I heard what I thought was a low lion's grumble.  No one else believed me until a few seconds later, when we were back in the truck, and rounded the first bend not 50 yds from our bathroom au naturel, we spotted the group of 9 lions. They were lounging on a dried riverbed enjoying the cool of the evening. There wer 2 males, a cub and the remainder females. Two other cubs had been killed, the last one last week by a male lion.  Another of the lions was an old female who because of poor dentition, was going to die soon.  Her teeth were severely worn and some lost.  Though there was very little light, the guides have strong spots that do a great job of illuminating the wildlife, and photographs were doable but not easy.  They try very hard not to shine light on prey, since this will blind them for a bit and make them more easily a dinner.

After a successful night's viewing, we headed back to camp for a wonderful dinner in the BOMA with a campfire and a canopy comprised of trees and stars.  The night sky here is amazing with virtually no light pollution, a small crescent moon, and great air quality, you feel like you can reach out and touch the Milky Way.  Tomorrow I hope to have time to get some night sky pictures for you.

More to come.