SPOILT FOR LIFE in 5 days at MALA MALA

DAY 1 – first impressions

I am a photographer. I love coming to Mala Mala. This time I am bringing my friend Susi, she’s never been to Africa before. I am pretty sure that after this experience she will love Africa and love going on safari. The one down thing: she’ll be spoilt for life.

I don’t know which of us is more nervous, she or me. Did I, in my enthusiasm, overdo it with all my stories of this wonderful place? All turns out well, she loves the plane ride from Johannesburg, and already wants to photograph the impala at the airstrip, through the planes window! I barely managed to stop her, and this only after I promised her loads of them, at very close range. Which wasn’t a very hard promise to keep.

 

After tea we leave for our very first afternoon game drive. We are teamed up with two couples from the USA, which are as delighted as we are at every animal we see. And we see a lot! A giraffe, totally unimpressed by our presence, then two black billed stork in the riverbed, posing for us. We get lovely pictures, their black & white feathers and black & red beaks contrasting with the sand and green background. A cheetah pops in over the western boundary, we get some nice shots of him, unfortunately he moves rather quickly and disappears into dense bush. That is one thing that will happen to us more than once this trip. All in all, not a bad start at all!

Today’s highlight for me is an elephant family crossing the riverbed. They walk a mere 5m past our jeep and Susi almost falls of in amazement. Just wait till the lions and leopards do that, can’t wait to see the look on her face when that happens. At sundown we head for Matshapiri dam where we find a female leopard which likes to fish the catfish there. She’s all muddy, but we get some wonderful close up shots of her with use of the spotlight.

Susi’s comment: I am so happy to be here! Well, I am too!

DAY 2 – high hopes

Up at 06:00 and after a great coffee to wake us up, we are in the jeep by 06:30, let’s go. We head straight for the wild dogs den site, can’t wait to get there. On the way there we already see elephants and a small dazzle of zebra walking towards us on the road decide to stare us out. We lose. Unfortunately we only get a very brief glimpse of one pup and the alpha female at the wild dog den, they disappear, we hear the pups playing on the other side of the termite mound but can’t see. We’ll come back tomorrow.

The rest of the morning is rather “unspectacular”, we see kudu, impala (as I had promised), zebra, wart hogs and elephants. We watch another elephant crossing, as always the little ones steal everyone’s hearts, they roll and play in the sand like little kids on a beach holiday.

In the afternoon we find a pride of lions. Once they stop sleeping it gets more interesting, we follow them as they move along, hoping to witness a kill. They disappear in dense bush, too bad but they will have their dinner without us. This afternoon wasn’t as spectacular as yesterdays, but still, Susi is only one buffalo away from her BIG 7 (which is BIG 5 plus wild dog and cheetah). And guess what, the lions walked right across the lawn as we were having dinner!

Susi’s comment: We have seen so much already, I must buy a book so I can study all these animals and know what I am looking at. Boy, I’m impressed. That is motivation!

DAY 3 – our luck ran out

Same routine as yesterday, well almost. I get quite a shock as Susi asks me, at 06:10 in the morning, if I know the difference between a steenbok and klipspringer? Shit, she’s been studying her book. Would you know? I somehow talk my way out… Right outside camp we find a leopard on the riverbank. The first rays of sun light the scene and we get some wonderful photos.

From there it’s a lioness, zebra, giraffes, another leopard. Then elephants, about to cross the river. We park a little bit into the river to get a nice side angle, the river only has about 10cm of water in it, no problem. Upon leaving it is a little hard to get out of the river, so we proceed to plan B, don’t back out, go straight head and cross.

The afternoon it’s just the four of us, and it’s a disaster. We see nothing. First vultures, there must be a kill somewhere. We search for an hour then give up. The wild dog den site, nobody home. We sit and wait, have our sundowners in the car, wait some more, it gets dark, still nothing. We give up. Well see the positive side: we finally got our sundowners (missed out on those the nights before because we were too busy watching wildlife), and watched an amazing sunset, plus simultaneously at 180° in the other direction a beautiful moonrise. There is always something to photograph.

Susi’s comment: I’ve had it with these dogs, do we have to go again tomorrow? Yes we do! Seeing wild dogs, with pups, is like winning the lottery!

DAY 4 – lots of lions and the big 7

Susi gets quite a scare as the lady bringing our morning coffee shows up in a winter coat, beanie and with gloves on. We better dress warm, a cold front has arrived! With the blankets and warm water bottles it isn’t too bad. Barely out of camp we see a pride of seven lions which follow for a long time. They walked right by the back side of camp, and then the best thing happened, three of the younger ones started to climb a tree! We couldn’t believe our eyes! The going up looked like fun, the going down less so. Especially one young male which climbed up really high was not so very happy with his situation, took him ages to get down. I don’t think he will do that again in the near future.

We guessed they might be going for a drink and got there just in time to watch them cross. More great photo opportunities. After our bush breakfast we ran into them again, no more action now, they did what lions do best: sleep. We saw a herd of at least 100 impala in the riverbed and watched another elephant crossing before it was time to go back.

After a lovely lunch we meet our new jeep mates at 15:00 for the next afternoon drive. Hope they will bring us more good luck. It is their first time in Africa too. So more gasps and exited exclamations from the back seat at every animal we see as we move along. It made me smile, it is always a delight to see how people can get such joy out of watching wildlife, seeing their first “live” elephant, giraffe or lion.

We see giraffe, impala, kudu, elephant and at last four old buffalos, in doing so completing Susi’s (and my) BIG 7. At sunset we found lions again, followed them again, and lost them again…. Time to get back to camp and have another great dinner in the boma.

Susi’s comment: Mornings are my favourites, we always see so much! Believe me, that is not always the case, but at the moment she’s dead right.

DAY 5 – and we thought it couldn’t get better

Turns out Susi was right about the mornings. Just after crossing the river we see a rhino. Following leopards tracks we suddenly hear lions roar. Change of plan, let’s go find them! It all turns out a little different. In the riverbed we see a leopard, decide to follow him. At one point he starts jogging, he’s smelled something. In a tree up ahead is a female leopard with a kill. What will happen? He rushes up the tree, we see branches move, the whole tree shakes, the kill drops down, lots of roaring, hissing and growling! In the end the female rushes down and Mr. Treehouse enjoys a free meal.

On our way to the wild dog den our ranger suddenly turns the car and starts speeding. This is a sign something special has been sighted, he won’t tell us what. So the bets in the back seats are on male lions, cheetah, female leopard or lion with cubs, a kill….. it turns out to be a cheetah. Once again an incredible morning! Our new jeep mates aren’t doing too bad either, they’ve seen the BIG 5 in their first 24 hours and we’re not even trying!

This afternoon we head south, see elephants by the roadside, follow up on leopard tracks, watch another elephant crossing and when it’s almost dark we see three wild dogs on a kill. They leave, a hyena shows up and finishes what is left. He doesn’t like us being around and runs off with the last few scraps. We drive by an old kill, the two young male lions are gone, a big male lion is lying beside his prize and sleepily lifts an eyelid to look at us before he dozes off again. From here it is still a long way back to camp, and we are held up once again. An immense herd of buffalo blocks the road, they are just everywhere, buffalo as far as we can see in any direction. Our estimated guess is 372. Admit it Susi, afternoons are not so bad either!

Susi’s comment: It’s incredible, you think you’ve seen it all, but every day brings new surprises, new and different action. My favourite today was the big male lion with the kill. Mine was the elephants in the river, turns out every one of us had a different favourite, but we are all happy!

DAY 6 – the icing on the cake

Our last game drive, time went so fast! Just 100m out of camp a leopard beside the road, we follow him through the bushes, suddenly a loud hissing sound… flat tyre. We drive away from the leopard to a scenic spot on the riverbank and whilst we enjoy breakfast Piet changes the tyre. We cross the river and move on. Good thing we have the kids in the back, from their elevated position and with great eyesight they are sensational spotters. They see the two rhinos before any of us do, well done! We ae so lucky to see them, who knows how much longer we will be able to show our kids these wonderful, peaceful, prehistoric looking animals.

Back to the riverbed where there is a mating couple. We decide to sit it out, they will soon be at it again. As we are waiting another lion and lioness show up, they are the brother and sister of this male. The lioness walks up and greats her brother, but then when the male comes… they fight! In broad daylight, in the sand, nothing to obstruct them from our view, just 20m in front of or jeep, we have first row seats and it is spectacular! Plus I got it all on camera, yes, yes yes! That was so amazing! I was hoping for an elephant crossing but this is 100x more spectacular, what a way to end the day! (more photos of the fight in the gallery) Just when you think it can’t get better, something like his happens. Oh and by the way, we didn’t get to see the wild dog pups, they decided to move their den site just as we were visiting. We’ll just have to come again.

After lunch we fly to Johannesburg and from there home.

Susi’s comment: I must come again, I definitely want to see more. I need a bigger lens, will study my book and take English lessons so I understand more. One more victim…

I’d say the Africa bug has bitten her !

To see the best photos Go to gallery

Copyright text and photo by Astrid Bluemel for bluemelphoto.ch