RETURN TO MALA MALA

RETURN TO MALA MALA

Honest, how crazy can you get ? Here I am, sitting in the train, on my way to the airport. This morning I was at work, normal, easy, everyday routine, just another Friday. Now, I’m about to board a plane to South Africa, me, just me, on my way to Africa  ! I had the choice, 5 days Africa or spend an lazy week on the beach in Greece… easy choice for me !  I just had to go back to Africa. Photography, wildlife, Mala Mala, driving the bush with my favourite ranger again. Let’s go !

SEPT 28^th

The flight was alright, even slept for about 6 hours which is good. Got through customs in barely 30 minutes, must be a new record ! The guy from FED AIR, the small airplane that will take me to Mala Mala, was smack in the middle of a whole load of people waving signs. Just the sign was so BIG, and BLUEMEL written in such huge letters, that I missed him. I slowly walked by the whole group again, and saw him. I had honestly expected a little, or should I say normal sized, sign which read Fed Air and below it even smaller Bluemel. Did I feel stupid ! Boy, they probably expected a really old, blind, elderly woman. The van took us to the VIP lounge, very nice ! Very good coffee too, and yummy sandwiches. I think I like being a VIP !

Only 1 hour more to go. We left an hour late, made 2 stops on the way, it was a little bumpy, but I made it. Got picked up at the airstrip by Matt, another one of the really nice rangers here. Arriving in camp I recognised a pair of very skinny legs before I recognised the owner. Pieter, now with beard, which was why I hardly recognised him, was waiting, waving a big bag full of tennis biscuits !

A big hug and a bag full of tennis biscuits, now that really made my day, nothing can go wrong now. The best news was yet to come :

I’m having a private jeep today and tomorrow morning, wow ! This is an ultra super privilege ! Lunch is in 5 minutes so I quickly change and head for the main deck. Since it’s just the two of us we can leave whenever we want, for me that’s the sooner the better. Can’t wait to get on that jeep and out in the bush again. Did I mention the lions on the riverbank in front of my room ? And the herd of elephants 100m beside them, almost on the lawn, during our lunch. I was sitting there just being happy, happy, happy, and the game drives haven’t even started yet !

I’m real happy I can drive with Pieter. Sometimes you just meet someone and really like them, get on well, share the same likes and dislikes, the same intrests, you can talk for ages, or sit and not talk and it doesn’t feel akward. Here in Switzerland we say : “on the same wavelenght”. Thats what Pieter is to me.  Beside that he’s a terrific ranger, (  my former favourite:  Derek Shenton of Kaingo is now on rank Nr.2. ) and a really nice guy. Okay I admit,  I also do envy him for his very cool life in the bush. We leave as planned right after lunch. Elephants in front of camp, photo, some impala, photo, check out the lions.

They have very young cubs, which they usually hide for the first 2 months. Pieter is desperate to find them, find them first ! So if the lions move, we follow. They don’t…

So we move on, a leopard, the one with the hurt eye. Here he is says Piet, I don’t see him, where, where ? To my defence, I was scanning the bushes on the left hand side, the leopard was on the right, and Pieter has a really big hat which blocked my view. Okay, the leopard is about 5m beside the car…on the right. Nice start of a game drive, blind leopard, blind tourist ! Poor Pieter… As we move on and drive by a termite mound a tiny head pops out, and another, and yet another. We stop, move the jeep away just a little further, and one after the other the little dwarf mongoose come out, in the end there were 12 of them. Suddenly a giant plated lizard shows up beside them, a rather unusual combination, but neither seems to take much notice of the other. We sit and watch for quite a while.

A rhino on the way back, he’s walking towards us, we are perfectly positioned ( that’s why I wanted to drive with Pieter ),

here comes my rhino-walking-towards-me shot…

Another jeep shows up, the rhino changes direction and jogs away, damn, end of super shot ! We have sundowners in the jeep watching the lions, nothing moves. We sit and talk, in the end I feel like I know his whole family, the big box of popcorn is empty, but the lions haven’t moved an inch. Just realised I almost saw the BIG 5 on my first game drive, only the buffalo was missing ! Back at the lodge by 19:00, shower and change for dinner, which was great as expected. Had dinner with 3 rangers, Pieter, Daniel and Jonathan, which was good fun, the three of them having a lot of stories to tell. Being Pieter’s friend is cool, and the advantage is that everybody loosens up, treats me as a friend, just a little more relaxed and personal, not just another guest. I love this place anyway, but now it’s even better. Pieter takes me back to my room, then he’s off to bed, poor guy has the flu, hope he feels better tomorrow.

I have to go back to the lounge, my IPAD is not working, no connection. As I sit in peace, in the by now totally deserted lounge Brendan, the barkeeper shows up and is very worried. What am I doing here all alone ? I shouldn’t walk around in camp alone, especially not in the dark. Well, what would he do , fight the leopard with his bare hands ? Okay I promise not to do it again. He waits till I finish my mail, and accompanies me to my room. Not bad, two nice young men taking me to my room in one day ! The bad news : the weather for tomorrow says rain, the good news : we’ll find the cubs, I just know we will !

SEPT 29^th

Woke at 4:00, a mosquito is buzzing in my ear, driving me mad, his life ends as a big blood smear on the white wall, oops. Sleep some more till I get the wake-up call at 05:30. The weather is horrible, grey, cold, drizzle, wah ! We leave at 6:00, there’s only one other jeep leaving as well. I sit in the front seat, rain poncho on and the heater set on high, crazy ! Sightings are rare in this weather, the animals hide from the rain as we do. So we search for the cubs, a “Piet-special” bush drive day.

In his quest for the cubs he goes so far we finally do get stuck, something I never expected, he’s such a good driver.

It really was an impossible route, going down a ditch so steep and narrow you had to get stuck when trying to go up the other side, but he was determined, I want it, I’m going there, try again and again, and then we were stuck. As a woman driver I wisely kept my mouth shut… Luckily another jeep is close by and with a little push from behind we get loose again and continue.

In spite of the rain I got a few nice shots, kudu, nyala, klipspringer, not much else around and it’s bloody cold and in the meantime very wet also. We find lots of prints but no lions. Back in camp by 10:30, almost too late for breakfast, we’re the only two people in the breakfast room. Well, people are getting to know me, fastest returning guest, last one in from the bar ( okay, but only because my IPAD didn’t work in my room ), last home from the game drive and soaking wet. Poor Pieter, his hands are freezing off, at least I could hold mine in front of the heater whilst he has to hold the steering wheel. A warm shower is sooo good ! Used the hair dryer to dry my clothes… I bought a sweater and sat in the lounge in front of the fire for an hour, at last I am feeling very warm again. Lunch was very good and Pieter got me going again at 14:30, a very early departure considering the still ghastly weather. I wanted to go, right ? Okay, don’t challenge me pal, I happen to have a new, and very warm sweater, let’s go !

Bad idea, it was even worse than this morning, constant rain and even colder. We even stopped to take photos of a herd of impala, even Pieter took some. Yes, you heard correctly, Pieter who’s favourite phrase about impala is : they only look good in a leopards mouth !

We tried to get a shot of an impala shaking off the rain, drops flying round and so. Will look impressive…

Didn’t go well at all, it was always the one we were not focussing on that shook itself.

So even we give up and decide to return to the lodge. Almost at camp we got a radio message leopard’s been sighted. If I would like to go ? I hardly dare say yes, poor Piet wearing winter gloves and a beanie, coughing and sneezing away. But he says he’s fine, so we go. It’s the West Street male, the one he wrote about in the blog. Almost dark and rain, I hate low light. The other jeep puts a spotlight on the leopard, that’s better. Bad angle for us, Piet repositions our jeep, we drive down to the river, then up the bank again on the leopards other side, much better !  By now we are parked in such an impossible position I’m afraid the jeep will tilt, ofcourse it doesn’t.  Just as we take our cameras out of the dry bags, the other jeep drives off. Dark again !  Time to go home.  As I enter the boma for dinner one rangers says : wow, haven’t seen you this dry all day ! Now was that a compliment ? At dinner we are joined by an American couple who couldn’t leave because their flight out was cancelled due to bad weather. That should happen to me !  Wouldn’t mind staying extra long !

Tomorrow I’ll have to share the jeep again, new guests coming. I’ll still have the private morning drive, because of this lousy weather I got 4 instead of just 2, lucky me ! Please let the sun come out tomorrow !

SEPT 30^th

Shit, it’s pouring. Not just a drizzle like yesterday, this is much worse. Pieter calls at 5:30, we’re not going out, he’ll call later. We meet for breakfast at 8:30 and an hour later Piet says , well, we have to go now, I hadn’t even noticed it  stopped raining, looks like at last it will clear. I was counting on just one game drive in the afternoon, hurray, we’re going now ! Our search for the cubs is a no success story once again, but I get a few nice impala shots and a bushbuck with baby, very young, only a few days old, so cute. They’ve found lions. We have to wait, only 3 jeeps per sighting, so we stop in the middle of no-where for coffee and muffins, I love those muffins ! There are 4 lions, we get close to one female, nice background, I’m happy again. The 3 others come towards us. Lions on the move is always good.

As our female starts to move, we do too. We follow her to a kill, it’s in a gulley, guess who gets prime photo position !

More and more lions show up, there’s 6 or 7 there now, taking turns to eat their share. As I see what they are eating I’m not so happy anymore. I’m in prime photo position witnessing a baby rhino being eaten. I so badly wanted to see a baby rhino, maybe even the little one we saw in July, but alive ! I was told the poor thing died of natural cause. How natural I would find out later that day, and it made me very unhappy. A jeep pulls up beside us and now the most amazing part. The ranger gets out and starts walking towards the feeding lions. They run off, like at home when you chase away the neighbour’s cat which is pissing in your garden ! He starts cutting at the carcass, huh ? The moment he turns his back  the first lioness shows up again. He gets back to the jeep and shows us something in his hand.

In his hand is a tiny rhino horn, about half the size of his hand, cut off so the poachers don’t get it. I’ve never seen cut off rhino horn before, and I never want to see it again.

I bet this was the little guy we saw in June, he’s about the right age and size…  I hoped to see him again, but alive !  This is so sad ! I’ve seen enough, we go back to camp.

Lunchtime, great food again, this is bad, we’re having quiche and Malay chicken, my two favourites, how am I supposed to choose ?  I’ll just eat both.  I’m so full, I will only eat very little dinner today, promise. Tea at 15:00, just tea, no more muffins please, and from there to the afternoon game drive with my four new jeep mates. Elephants fighting just across from camp, buffalo, the lion mum from the marthly pride ( without cubs ) plus the one without a tail. More buffalo, giraffe, a roller, the first I’ve seen this time, in July they were all over the place. Back to the lions feeding on the carcass. Not much left by now. The lions are all well fed, like me after lunch… From there to a tree full of vultures, Pieter warns us, where we are going there will be many more. The reason for all these vultures is another carcass, a dead rhino. The little one died of natural cause, this one by a lead bullet. Shit, the poachers have found this place too. All becomes clear, sure baby died of natural cause, mum dead, no food, stress, I would die too. This is the first rhino killed on Mala Mala since 1962 or so. Not something you happily witness. I would gladly kill the bastard who did this.

Admittedly I got some wonderful photos of a lioness chasing of the vultures, vultures in flight, a new lion showing up. Would gladly have missed it if this rhino could still be alive. The new lion is the most beautiful lion I’ve seen here so far, white chin and legs, very pale colour, no scars, his mane is bushy and clean, no dirt or so in it, like freshly groomed. We sit and wait, and hope he will go to the female. Nothing happens. Back in camp by 19:00, we heard later the male went to the female and just laid down beside her, no fight or so, so we didn’t miss out on any action.

My jeep mates are getting nicer and nicer, had quite a good time with them at dinner. When they go to bed the guy at my other side starts talking… he saw me this morning at the kill, the lady in the private jeep with the big lens ! Well that’s over now, it’s nice with other people on the jeep too, and offers some great conversation at lunch and dinner. Pieter leaves too, has to go and party, Yuri, one of the rangers is leaving for Australia tomorrow, big farewell party for him tonight. I’m off to bed, no time to write mails home, I’m too busy and much to tired !

OKT 1^st

I wake at 5:00, all curtains are open so I can see outside, clear skies ! According to Pieter rain at 10:00, from there on sunny and getting better and better, great ! A quick coffee before we leave. All rangers look rather tired and pale, must have been a good party. Poor Piet is coughing like a leopard. The search for the cubs is fruitless as in the days before. We see klipspringer, bushbuck, kudu and impala. We see herd of elephants with a very tiny one, so cute. The poor thing doesn’t seem to know what to do with that long thing in its face, swirls its trunk around and almost ties a knot in it.

We go to the dead rhino site again.

Lots of vultures there, when the sun comes out they stand and spread their wings to dry them, looks nice. Well, as nice as a vulture can get.

Matt was here before us and tells Piet to follow his tracks behind the next bush. A leopard, the Gowrie male, with a piece of rhino skin. It has a thick layer of fat on it which he seems to like, but it must be real tough and hard to eat, we hear his teeth scrape over it and the piece doesn’t really get any smaller. We are only about 2m away but he doesn’t seem to care. Only as Pieter puts his cane in the long grass, just this little sound, does he lift his head. Got some great shots, and so close !

After that we practise on approaching and landing vultures, from there back to camp for breakfast. No time to rest , at 11:00 we leave for a bush walk. I love walking in the bush. We only saw a kudu and a leopard tortoise but who cares. Soon after lunch we leave for the next game drive. Driving south we spot 2 vultures, let’s check it out. We find 9 lions, 3 females and 6 sub adults. They are resting, not much to photograph, twigs and branches in the way, bad light. But then…  The buffalo herd of 300-400 animals arrived and we watched a buffalo-lion encounter. The first buffalo got closer and closer, so close that we feared for his life, he was only a few metres in front of the lions. Okay, with 400 friends in back-up you can be a little bolder, but this guy actually charged the lions, and they went running !

Shortly after the lions charged the first few buffalo, they backed off, then the buffalo charged again, this time three or four together. Amazing ! The lions were definitely not hungry, they moved to the other side of the road, the buffalo drove them even further on, the lions laid down, unfortunately in the shade again, no good pictures to be taken, so we moved on. Pieter got a message, female leopard with cub, on the other end of the reserve. Remembered me of the wild dogs last time we were here, I knew what was about to come. Pieter asked if we would like to see her, it would involve him driving south rather fast…. of course we would. So Piet raced south, we held on tight. The leopard started moving when we arrived. We followed her through dense bush as well as we could. Never really got to take a good photo, but it was great to watch the two of them on the move. As they went into the riverbed we followed, rather steep down, almost got stuck again but Pieter managed to “rock” us out. The leopards were gone, no problem, time for sundowners anyway.

Driving back we saw a rhino family, mum, dad and baby. The little one was already so big it had to kneel down to suckle. It made tiny mewing sounds, like a small kitten.

Piet says even the big ones don’t get much louder, incredible, so big and it sounds like something really really tiny ! It was too dark for photos and no flash allowed on them, so we sat and watched in the near dark, it was such an amazing experience to watch this peaceful family scene, I will never forget it.

OKT 2^nd

All my curtains open as usual. I wake at 5:00, baboons across the river are making a hell of a noise, who cares, I’ll have to get up anyway. We leave 5:20 as planned for our sunrise in the bush. We stop at a ridge overlooking the river, there is not a cloud in sight and the sky is a beautiful red-orange colour. I believe I’ve had enough muffins now. We do a few group photos. The bad thing of being the one with the camera is that you are never on the picture yourself, now I got some. We leave to find yesterdays lions, the Eyrefield pride. See if they made a kill during the night. Instead we find a rhino with calf, so great !

I could watch them all day. At first they run off, we follow. They run to the big buffalo herd we saw yesterday and seem to feel safe in their company, they stand still. I get a whole lot of shots. Not as brilliant as with Greg last time, the light is much brighter and harsher, and the bush colours are not as pretty, but still good, I’m happy ! After that it’s rather quiet. Back home we have breakfast and then it’s time to pack. My bag is so full ! What you wear you don’t have to carry, so I’ll wear two sweaters and my jacket, have to have room for my tennis biscuits ! Damn, the plane is early.

I already cry when I say goodbye to Ayanda at reception, you can imagine me at the airstrip. Tears, tears, tears, hugs, hugs, hugs. Pieter probably thinks I’m a real nutcase ! I hate to leave, would love to stay another week or so, but I have to go home now.

And you know what the worst thing was ? The next morning they saw the cubs for the first time. I missed them by a mere 17 hours ! I’ll just have to come back and try again !

In April 2014 Pieter left Mala Mala, I will probably never drive with my favourite ranger again, and believe me, this really bugs me.

Thank you Pete, you will always have a special place in my heart !

Pete I wish you all the best for the future, and I hope you’ll stay in the bush for that is where you belong, like a fish belongs in the ocean !

I shall forever be grateful for the wonderful times I had, and all the amazing photos I could take because of your guiding, driving and tracking. I thank you for showing me your Africa, the wildlife which you are so passionate about, and for teaching me not just to look, but really see, love and appreciate the wonders of nature and all wildlife in Africa ( except maybe impalas ).

Greg told us in one of his photo lessons to see with our eyes and heart. Pieter does that, Greg too, and I’m learning to.

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                                                              Copyright text and photo by Astrid Bluemel