MASHATU & MALA MALA 2014

MASHATU & MALA MALA 2014

The train to the airport was late, the plane was late… I believe we have to get on Africa time right here and now, and take it easy.

Sept 19^th

We arrive late, how else could it be! An enormous queue at customs, slowest ever entry in South Africa…, late again. The car is not the big one we asked for ( a mere 10 months ago … ), they’ll try to organise us something bigger. We go and have a long desired for coffee at the Intercontinental, two hours and three coffees later we’re still stuck with the smaller model, heck , we’ll fit everything in somehow. Easier said than done, we really have to squeeze everything in, 4 people of which the smallest is 6 foot tall, 4 big bags, 4 camera bags. We take two camera bags on the back seat, so even the sitting is rather confined. I can hardly move, who cares, we’re here, and for today it’s only 300km, let’s go !

Marc drives even though he didn’t close an eye last night, poor guy , he’s just too big to fit into any airplane. A lunch stop at the resting place just after Bela Bela, the same one we stopped at last year, but a lot busier this time, maybe because it is Friday afternoon. The weather was great, sunny and warm, now threatening clouds darken the horizon and by the time we get to our hotel : Protea, the Ranch, the sun is gone. Who cares, we have a beer at the poolside. At first we thought this place was old, old fashioned, run down, but must admit it’s great value for money, compliments ! Very friendly staff, great dinner, room rather old but big enough and clean, good beds, we all slept well.

Sept 20^th

We leave as planned at 07:30, pass through Polokwane, which took longer than planned, to Alldays, from there to the Pontdrift border post. Arrive at 10 sharp. Kyle and Elvis (the driver) come to meet us.

We clear formalities, leave our car, get into the jeep and cross the river. Now do the formalities on the Botswana side, fill out some more forms and off we go.

We are spending the first night at Main Camp, got upgraded, so cool ! I was really looking forward to staying at tented camp, but I do love this place too, and the rooms are wonderful ! Not that we’ll be spending much time there, got better things to do. We spent time photographing the weaver birds in camp, sort of first photo session to get the feeling… first game drive, after a nice cup of tea, starts at 15:30.

The weather is horrible, it’s not raining but that is the only positive thing I can say. We expected nothing and got it all ! Cheetah with 4 cubs on the plains, then a leopard in a tree. The leopard was sort of hard to photograph, she was sleeping up in a tree, didn’t move an inch, we only saw her head. Funny but the photo is one of my favourites, you don’t always need full view and broad daylight for good shots !

Kyle, our Pro-Photographer gives lots of tips on settings and is a source of information for all of us. We leave the sleepy leopard and find 3 beautiful male lions. They are “moving through”, don’t have their territory here, are not so used to jeeps as most other wildlife here, we can’t get very close but get a good look. They are a beautiful greyish colour and their manes are a very bright blond, bleached out by the Kalahari sun.

I have never seen lions like these, must admit I like the sight of them. We are lucky to see them, the next day they are gone and don’t return for the rest of the week.

This was such a fabulous first game drive ! Too bad it is so cold, we will have to dress up tomorrow morning, it will be much colder then, a cold front is coming… I’d say it is here already ! We check out our pics, have dinner in the boma and are off to bed at 22:00. Wake up call will be at 05:30 or so, we’d better get some rest.

Sept 21^st

Shit, it’s early, 05:30, knock, knock, hello ! Get out of bed, no light so we get dressed by the light of the torch. A coffee, a muffin and at 06:00 we leave. Still very cloudy, bad light, damn ! We drive by a hyena den, one mother and a cub, sleeping and clearly not in the mood to change that, can’t blame them… We leave them fast asleep. Goms, our tracker in the back seat, sees a whole load of impala racing off, let’s see what they are running from.

The cheetah family ! So we spend most of the morning watching them. The cubs are so cute, they run around, climb every tree they come across, try to get down, jump on and over mum, over each other.

As soon as mum moves they follow. This is just perfect ! We follow them and get lots of lovely shots, even in this lousy light, or maybe even because of this light… in the heat of day they wouldn’t move around and be so active. Plus with all the clouds there are no shadows, soft colours, good portraits, I’m happy. After the 8:00 am coffee break we see giraffe, zebra, kudu and impala, no elephants at all. Hope they will show up at the hide, we go there on our last morning. Back in camp we have a great brunch, rob the shop and pack up. Time to head for tented camp, a 30 minute drive gets us there. This is very much to my liking ! Just 8 tents, lounge and dining area look cosy, the tents are great, big enough (about 3x5m), a wooden deck with seating in front, and out the back the outdoor bathroom (wash basin, flush toilet and shower). Already love the place.

We relax till tea time, at 16:00 it’s game drive again. So sorry we had to say goodbye to Elvis and Goms, they were such good fun to be with, and really knew what they were doing.

Elvis was really the best, nothing like “the real Elvis”, actually more the absolute opposite. Wonder how his parents got to that name, he’s no talent at singing either… Marc adopts him as his new twin brother,

this is rather ridiculous too, since Marc is very, very pale white, and about twice as tall as Elvis is, but they both have a great smile, and a strange sense of humour. Plus they really like each other and get along splendidly.

Let’s see how the new guides are, and it’s also time to meet the other workshop participants who have been driving with Andre since yesterday. The four of us stay with Kyle in the one jeep, the four South Africans stay with Andre, we’ll change tomorrow. We didn’t see much this afternoon but did a great sunset shoot. At last the sun is coming out, as small red line at the end of a dark and very cloudy sky, with a lonely tree in the foreground and the right settings it looks totally dramatic. Dinner in the boma, which is half open here and looks out onto the waterhole (where absolutely nothing is happening). Beef curry, very yummy,mmmm !

Sept 22^nd

Yes, sunshine ! Juerg is not coming, bad stomach cramps, so sorry, but can’t help him anyway, he says we should go. Can’t be the beef curry, we are all fine and it was soooo good ! At first I am afraid we will not see anything today, one gnu, five impala, a few giraffe. We drive in the dried out riverbed to a bank where there‘s a colony of white fronted bee-eaters, beautiful bright green birds. It is rather hard to get them “in the picture”, they are so fast and you never know when they will come to land or take off, and in which direction…?

At least 50% are empty riverbank shots, 40% are out of focus or “de-capitated” birds, flying half way out of the picture, but we keep at it and get some good shots after all.

Got a shock, my screen is broken, is totally black, what’s wrong ? Turns out without my reading glasses I put the camera on M instead of Tv, set a fast shutter speed for the birds, and still had the aperture of a previous setting in M, no light coming in ! No wonder the screen is black ! Switch to Tv and the problem is solved, good I noticed rather quickly. This again proves you should always check your screen and do a few test shots ( and stop being so vain and bring your reading glasses along ! ) As we want to leave the car doesn’t … dead battery, with the radio and the lights still on, stopping for so long, that was a bit too much.

We radio for help and have a coffee break whilst waiting. At last a jeep arrives, full of people telling us there’s a lioness with cubs just round the next corner, aahhhhh !

And we are stuck at the birds…! We could have been there by now if the car had worked. They have to pull our jeep back into the track first, which takes quite a while, the other jeep almost digs itself in too. I offer to take photos of the people on the other jeep whilst waiting. Bad idea ! When walking backwards to “ get it all in the picture “, I trip over a stupid log, (what is that doing in this riverbed), and fall rather hard on my bum. Shit it hurts ! They want to help me get up, I refuse, leave me, let me be for a while, it really hurts. Try to move my feet, ok that works, so I slowly, very slowly get up, walk about for a while. Visiting the doctor back home, because it still hurt like hell after 2 weeks, it turns out I broke my sacral bone, the big bone between your buttocks, not the little coccygal tip normal people break, no the big one, well done Asi…. As Jürg said, I can’t do anything normal. Sitting is not really a pleasure from this day on. Oh well, a good photographer can’t be a whiner. At least the car is working again by the time I get in. We will not turn it off till we get back into camp !

Of course the lions are gone from the riverbed by the time we show up. They are now on the riverbank, hidden in the dense grass, from a tiny peep hole two cubs are looking down at us, still a very cool picture ! After a while they disappear, too bad, but no, they show up again, all are on the move, no clue what from but they are moving rather fast. We don’t really see the cubs, they are hidden by the high grass, except for the time they all cross the riverbed, some good looks at them after all.

We’ll try again this afternoon. On the way back to camp we found another leopard in a Mashatu tree. At first it looks like a sleepy one too, but then she got up, sees something in the distance. You could really see her stare.

For us this was totally great, beautiful posing, eyes wide open, then she lies down, almost poses for us, a narrow ray of light just adds a frame of golden light on her paws, gorgeous !

We now have to hurry back, or we’ll be late for lunch. Juerg is joining us, he is feeling a little better, but sticks to tea and toast whilst we enjoy the breakfast/brunch buffet, hope he can come along this afternoon. After brunch photo presentation, comments from the pro’s. Always a good way to learn. They want to crop my favourite cheetah cub shot, no way ! I’m going to leave it just as it is.

From there we go to have a cup of tea, then leave. First we check out the tree for the night shot. We want to try a new tree, not the one we did last year with Greg, the one everybody uses…. a new one ! It looks good in daylight. Moving on from there we see two bull elephants, the only two we see the whole four days we spend at Mashatu, which is very strange. Normally they have hundreds of elephants here, even have them in their logo, we get just two !

The one elephant gets real close, about 2m from the car, Karin & Marc get quite a scare, we’re used to this by now… as long as they keep flapping their ears it’s just mock charging.

We go see the cheetahs again. The cheetah mum has made a kill. I’m real happy she’s got something to eat at last. She’s awful thin ! Can’t be easy trying to catch something, surprise an animal when there’s always two or three jeeps on your heels. A big male impala, well done mama ! She’s eaten her belly full, almost looks pregnant again, the cubs are chewing away at the carcass, not really strong enough teeth to eat meat, and probably too young to, but they try real hard to look fierce and dangerous ! Mums beside them with a very full belly and lets them have a go. From here we go back home, dinner in the boma, then off to bed with a very full belly too.

 Sept 23^rd

It was bloody cold as we left at 05:30. Juerg’s not doing too well, poor guy. We get to the hide, get in and wait. Pigeons, quelleas, the tiny birds in big flocks, and chicken like brown birds, I believe they are called francolins. Juergs not well at all, has bad stomach cramps. I am moving like an eighty year old, nice couple we are !  Andre tells us to watch the guinea fowls which have now arrived, they might do some sparring, start a fight. They do, race about, jump up, throw up a lot of dust, make lots of noise.

This is fun ! We try to get some good action shots, I mean… anyone can do elephants at the hide… ! The birders will be really jealous when they see these shots !

We leave the hide for lack of wildlife at 07:45. The three male cheetahs are close. We drive over, see them walking, get cameras ready, cheetah-walking-towards-us shot is coming. Sorry, no way. They take a right turn and lie down, in the shade of course, under a big Sheppard tree. We take a few shots, but this is not it, this is not cool, three cheetahs sleeping in the shade. We move on as we hear the lions are close, the pride of nine. All of them in the shade too, except for one, a young male. So we photograph him till he leaves to go lie in the shade with the others too. Five of them are under a bush some distance away and they start to move over one by one. The light is by now rather bright, but we get some nice shots. Back to camp after that, where poor Juerg’s races off to the toilet once again. Brunch is fine, time to relax after that. Photo comments at 13:30, so we are at it, sorting out our best. Juerg spends most of the time on the toilet, I select, read, write and relax. This is as Greg said, if there is a jury, bring what they want to see. So we don’t really get any bad comments at all, just tiny things we could or might change. Juerg’s not coming this afternoon, he doesn’t dare go far from the toilet, so we leave without him. He will be brought to the night shoot spot at sundown in a private jeep.

The afternoon was cool ! First we go to see the three cheetahs. They had made a kill over lunchtime, and were lying there with full bellies, still in the shade of course, even though it was a different tree… they are even less likely to move now, so we continue and go to see the nine lions from this morning. One is in the sun, we do some backlit photo of her, move to her other side and get some nice shots with beautiful light. The other lions one by one get up and start walking, down the slope, cross the dried out trench, up the other side to lie under the next tree. All other jeeps move on, we stay. They get up again, Dan thinks they will go for a drink. He’s right , but before that they all lie on a ridge and pose for us in the most beautiful light, set against a bright blue sky, this is great ! We now have to hurry, we are doing the starlight shot tonight. Dan steps on it, we get shaken through rather badly, the roads, especially in direction tented camp, are disastrous.

Juerg’s already there, we set up, this is ok for all the others who have a tripod, for me this means lying down , crawling round in the sand to get a good low angle.

The other jeep with the South Africans arrive, Kyle comes to my rescue, he has an extra tripod ! But now we have to focus again, in the dark, which is not good. I light the tree with three torches and Kyle and Andre help set everybody up. Since I now have a tripod I fold the blanket I was lying on, wil sit on it. Unfortunately I place it so stupidly over just about the only bigger piece of rock around, that when I sit I land on this rock. And of course with my already badly hurting bum, shit, that hurts, almost as bad as yesterday when I fell. Now I will probably move like a ninety year old tomorrow…. Takes a while till I can sit up again, must get going, night shoot is starting, I sit on an abandoned bean bag to make it bearable, hope the thing will hold my weight… We get some really cool shots at 30 seconds exposure, for the grand finale we do a star trail at 20 minutes exposure and have a late sundowner in the meantime. Wow, turns out great !

Back to camp for dinner after that. Juerg’s not eating anything, so as not to upset his stomach, hope he will be fine tomorrow. We are a little worried about the flight tomorrow, what if he has to go….I threaten to cut him an underpant from an old plastic bag…

 Sept 24^th

Juerg was back on the toilet again at 1 and 3 am , so he’s not coming on the game drive this morning. Well he didn’t miss much, the highlight was a tree full of yellow billed stork, an owl, and the coffee break with the other jeep with the South African photographers.

Karin & Marc leave on a separate jeep to the borderpost, we head back to camp for brunch. Pack and leave for the airport at 11:00. We are the only two people waiting. The rather big plane standing there is not for us …shortly after a tiny one arrives. This is just like business class, just a little smaller. First time I’ve had a private plane in my life, I like it ! Small airplanes are my favourites anyway, I love to look down at the land we are flying over.

Here’s our favourite mashatu photos : Mashatu gallery

We stop for customs at Polokwane. They want to search the bag. Are we carrying bullets ?

No ! Is it the batteries ? No ! It’s somewhere in the middle of the bag. Turns out what showed in the X-ray was the wrappings of the chocolates we are bringing for the ranger at Mala Mala. We had to open the pack, and then they all wanted to try one, sort of a bribe, but we are happy to share, there’s still enough left. Everything went smoothly from here. We land at Mala Mala at 14:45, Mashatu to Polokwane is 35 minutes, 30 minutes burocracy, 45 minutes more from there. Morne picks us up, he remembers me from last year… did I behave that bad ? Morne tells us Pieter is coming back on the 12^th, damn, damn, damn, 2 weeks too late my dear ! I would have so loved to drive with him !

We get Joe as our ranger, and two Chinese ladies with more make-up than I wear to go to the disco, heavy gold jewellery, dressed to latest Asian bush standards, and with incredibly tiny cameras, for company. Help ! They look like the people that do Europe in one week, they will probably want to rush from one animal to the next, tick them off on their list. Not good for photography ! I know I’m a sissy, but I get a crying attack once in the room, missing Pieter by two weeks, a new very young ranger, non photographer jeep mates, lets pray this turns out alright.

Turns out to be half as bad as I expected, the other couple on the jeep are an Australian honeymoon couple and with the Manilla girls the six of us get along so well that we are going to try for the title: best jeepmates of the year !

First game drive we see a beautiful eagle, a tiny elephant and after that a hardcore offroad trip to a leopard. The Manilla ladies and the Aussies are as thrilled as we were after our first off road experience, we know the routine by now and smile. Too many branches and sticks in the way to make a good photo, but everyone is excited anyway. Driving home in the dark we stumble across another leopard, the Kilkezi female and one of her two cubs. The light is gone by now, we watch her a while in the beam of the spotlight, then head home for dinner in the boma.

Sept 25^th

Wake up call at 5:30, leave at 6:00, no problem. We soon find a male lion, one of the Manyelethi males lying in the sand in the riverbed. On the other shore is his brother and a female of the Charleston pride. They have been mating for quite a while, but now that we are here to watch they decide to sleep. From there more lions, right by the road side, the Styx pride, the cubs are unfortunately not there.  We move on, something’s wrong, Joe stops the jeep, gets out, walks around it.

Turns out we have a flat tyre. No problem, with a guy used to driving in the Australian outback  assisting him, Joe fixes that in no time.

We get some lovely shots of a roller in flight and some cool zebra shots. The absolute highlight of the afternoon is a rhino with baby.We follow them a while, lovely light but they are rather skittish and there are a lot of bushes in the way. A single hyena shows up, no danger for the baby Joe says, so glad. We lose the two of them while closing in on the hyena, just look away for 2-3 minutes and they are gone… incredible, I mean these are not small animals, but he bush has them hidden so well we don’t find them again. Might as well do a stop for sundowners. We are having a ball doing group photos with the timer setting ! Driving back we get a message the lions are on the hunt. So we follow in the chase, but loose them in the dark in the dense bush. It’s way too late anyway, we must head back for dinner, we see another rhino baby on the way home, what a day !

Sept 26^th

If we thought yesterday was good, today was going to beat all ! Up at 5:00, leave at 5:30 for a sunrise-in-the-bush coffee. Just too bad it is cloudy…The coffee is good anyway ! Katrina spots buffalo nearby so we go see them after the coffee.

From there, just as we are on our way to see the yesterdays lions, Joe suddenly takes a left turn after crossing the causeway. The lions are on the right Joe ! Now these guys don’t change direction and start speeding for no reason….

Wild dog pups in the riverbed, 7 or 8 of them, even more ! They run around, play, chase each other, so cool to watch ! They come right up to our jeep.

Suddenly they all run, we thought it was the other jeep coming that scared them off, no way, it’s mum with meat ! The young ones now follow the adults, all race off, we follow through the bush. Even with 3 jeeps it’s hard to keep up, and keep track of them. We reach a road, see them a little better, off into the shrubs again, lose sight. No worries, the riverbed scene was fabulous anyway. From there to the leopard den, they had not been seen for a week but have returned, we really are lucky ! The cubs are under the low hanging branch of a tree, sleeping on the rocks. We can’t see them very well, whoever spotted them there must have miraculous eyesight. We’ll try again tomorrow, new highlight is on for now….the cheetahs are about to cross from the Krueger Park onto Mala Mala land.

Two males which make their way across from the woodland across the plains to a waterhole. On the way they stop every now and then to scent mark a tree, bush or log. We follow along and get to see them very well, they are quite a lot bigger than the female with cubs we saw a few days ago at Mashatu. Especially in the high, dry, yellow grass we get some lovely shots. We leave them at the waterhole and head for camp to have breakfast, this asks for a celebration so Katrina and I decide to share a bottle of champagne. After breakfast I write mails, download photos, try to write a blog but don’t succeed, bad connection. The others go for the bush walk. I’ve done that before and really want to write the blog for everybody at home, so I let them go and make myself comfortable under the big Jackalberry tree.

Worst thing happened, I don’t get to write, and the others get great sightings ! First the Martly pride coming to drink just as they are about to cross the river. They drink just about 10m in front of the jeep, all nicely lined up, the male arrives too. Then elephants come, the lions leave, now the elephants drink and cross the river as well, this of course also mere metres from the jeep…and I am sitting on the deck in camp, aaahhhh !!!!

The afternoon continues as action packed as the morning was. First we see a rhino, nicely out in the open grazing peacefully, a little further on a female with calf. They are very skittish and run off, we leave them and head for the hyena den. Well, I know that one ! Have been there twice before, staring at bare rocks, nothing moving. Third time lucky, we are unbelievably lucky anyway. We see a female hyena, two tiny black ones and three mid-sized ones, Joe reckons they are about 3 months old. They are in the trench, under a ledge but we sort of see them, decide to wait and see if they come out in the open. Best decision ever. The youngsters show up, curious as hell, approach our car up to about 3m.

They are so adorable, grown hyenas are rather ugly, but these young ones…you’d gladly adopt one ! Juerg reminds me they will grow big and ugly, and make perfectly scary watchdogs, which will definitely solve the cat problem in our garden, okay so I won’t adopt one…

They move away, show up on the rocks opposite us, the two tiny ones too. the others stay close, push them inthe rigt direction when they wander too far off, wonderful family interaction, so good to watch. The Manila girls are of course doing another round of “selfies”, with yet another animal in the background. After a while the cubs show up on our side again. We only leave when the light is gone, have drinks on the riverside sitting in the jeep, head home from there. Last ones in again, must hurry it’s already 19:45, will skip the shower…

 Sept 27^th

We leave at 05:30, have our morning coffee on the Campbell Koppies, the “Lion King Rocks” as we prefer to call them. I just love this place, the view is great and the rocks get my imagination going every time I visit, truly a place for a lion king. We now head for the leopard den again, one other jeep is there already, tells us the leopard family is on the move. We follow, the young ones are playing, discovering new territory. They are about as big as the cheetah cubs in Mashatu, a little less fluffy,darker in colour and no stripes on the noses, but just as cute.

At some point mum continues on and the cubs stay behind. She gives them some sort of sign, and after following in her footsteps all the time, they all of a sudden stay put. Good chance for us to take some photos ! We follow her, as there is another car wanting to see the cubs anyway, we have to let them see too. Mum is clearly on the hunt, moves from one lookout point to the next, gets onto one termite mound after the other to get a better view, doing that giving us some more great photo opportunities. She almost gets a duiker, almost. We leave her, and head back to camp, the Manilla girls are leaving today so they slept late and packed, but did join us for breakfast.

We have another bottle of champagne for good luck, worked awful good, splendid sightings since yesterday morning.

After lunch we decide to spend some time at the pool, it’s really hot today, wonderful to cool off a little. We leave again at 15:30, it’s really, really hot now, all animals will be hiding in the shade. Let’s see what we can find. Sam wants to go put his Go-Pro at a waterhole and leave it for 2 hours or so. We do a de-tour to set it up. Believe it or not, we found the rhino family again. We stayed for about an hour, the big male was in the mud right in front of our jeep, at times so close we didn’t dare move or make a noise, the horn is very big and pointed seeing it at this close a distance, can easily upturn a car ! Let’s not upset him ! The female and calf approach to have a drink but are very hesitant, after a long time they do get their drink as big papa moves out of the mud, and away from the waterhole.

We drive further south, have early sundowners on top of a termite mound because we have to wait any way. The wild dogs are close by, but there are already three cars there. So we sit and relax, enjoy the view and the G&Ts.

As we went to the river to see the wild dogs they had crossed the river, we could hardly see them in the now quickly fading light. Katrina suddenly spots one dog, running like mad, boy he is fast ! Something in front of him… a kill in the middle of the river ! The water here is only ankle deep so it looks like they are walking on water, looks super. Just as we drive a little closer to the action another animal races towards our shore, and doesn’t really make it. Two kills in two minutes, we better not tell the girls, they so wanted to see a kill and now we see one a few a hours after they left ! It’s almost completely dark now but in the last light we watch all the pups come out, run from one kill to the next, splashing and jumping, almost like “normal dogs”.  After eating, which didn’t take long, the pups play about around our jeep. One cheeky one comes right up to our jeep, sniffs at Joe’s shoe and dashes off again. On the way home we hear the Styx lion pride is on the hunt so we follow in the chase. The prey gets away, and we leave to get back for dinner in time, doesn’t really work, we’re late again. I’m so tired, woke at 03:30 this morning and couldn’t sleep after I heard the lions roar in the dark, to exited. Had only 4 hours of sleep, I don’t even sort out the rhino photos, am too tired, must sleep now.

Sept 28^th

Joe calls, it’s raining, we meet at 6:00 for coffee on the deck. Only a light drizzle now, the weather forecast says no more rain after 11:00, it’s not too bad now, so we decide to get going. A leopard tortoise, impala, 1 giraffe, shit ! I knew it ! Rain is no good, all the animals hide. I’ll have nothing to download today …how wrong I was. Radio message: lions on a zebra kill, the Styx pride, let’s go !

The pride kicked out the one male a while ago, but he’s back now. I saw these lions a year ago, boy they have grown. The “outcast” is eating, crunching on the bones, tearing at the last scraps of meat, he’s been badly wounded but seems okay, has scars and red open wounds all over, poor guy, he was such a pretty lion.

We used to call them Punky 1 and 2, because their mane would stand up on top of their heads, like in our little neighbour boys hair, when they put loads of gel in it. He doesn’t look so good anymore, I am glad he is getting something to eat. The rest of the pride is spread out around the kill, all rather sleepy and with full bellies. We drive to one lioness which is perched on top of a termite mound and keeps an eye on things, you’ve guessed it right, she comes down before we can take a good picture ! As we are just about to leave the other male gets up and goes to her, stop ! Will they mate ? Joe says probably not because they are brother and sister, but he smells and licks and makes some nice grimaces, drawing the air in, that gives us some cool shots. Back home after we have had our bush breakfast on the riverbank.

That was cool, better said it was freezing cold, wind blowing, light rain, who cares, we are having fun. Best part was when Joe said he saw the wild dogs again on the opposite riverbank. We looked, and looked, are you sure ?

Suddenly the “dog” took off and flew away. One of Sam’s better comments : look Joe, it’s a flying wild dog ! Poor Joe had to hear that till the day we left.

Plus we kept teasing him about his mouse, the one in his room, that bit him in the night, he’s afraid he might get rabies now….First sign would be weird talking, extreme thirst and foaming round the mouth. So everytime Joe says something we ask if he is serious, or if the rabies is setting in. And we plan for him, how to set up a mouse trap, with peanut butter ( secret tip from the Aussies, should work extremely good ). But he must make sure it kills the mouse, otherwise he would have to keep it as a pet, a little paralysed mouse, build him a little wheelchair… Pet mouse was often mentioned this holiday ! I bet next time Joe will not tell any guest, whatever  it is that bites him in the night.

We took our small bottle of champagne for breakfast as usual, this time really for good luck. After lunch it is warmer and no more rain. I sit in front with Joe, less wind and the heater on ! Much better ! Barely out of camp we see 2 rhinos, they are lying directly on the track so we drive around. Then a leopard on a termite mound, we follow her. It’s the mum of the two cubs, looks like she’s on the hunt, moving from one look-out point to the next. Boy, the bush is dense, we give up, another car joins in but she’s gone now. We go to see a snmall buffalo herd. It’s almost dark now, too dark for photos, so we sit and enjoy, they move on and we are smack in the middle of the herd, grazing buffalo all around us. From there we head home, this is the first time we have time for a drink in the bar before dinner. At dinner we have a great laugh with an American lady who somehow believes our Sam is Mr.Rattray in person, and from there things go from bad to worse, we drink 3 bottles of wine and laugh so much we almost fall off our chairs. If not the last to come home, at least we are now the last to leave the boma and go to bed.

Sept 29^th

Boy, oh boy, it is hard getting up at 5:00. Juerg is doing overtime on the toilet, please…not that again ! We leave at 5:30, it’s cloudy but dry. We have morning coffee on another Koppie, great view ! Juerg drops behind halfway up, has to go behind a tree, this is not good ! he decides to return to camp, Michael comes to pick him up. Just as he climbs into the other jeep and they drive off we see a leopard. the Kilkezi female and her two cubs. Mum looks as if she is on the hunt, the cubs stay behind and we stay with them.

A herd of elephants arrive, one cub goes up a tree and peeks down from her safe viewpoint, the other hides in the bush beside our jeep. Other jeeps want in so we leave, watch a herd of elephants with a young one, they don’t come any closer so we move on, shortly after we see another elephant family of three standing at a solitary bush in open space, much better for photos ! Much closer too ! After some re-parking we get into a good photo position, the little one is so cute, it tries to hold down a rather thorny branch with its feet, doesn’t like the thorns sticking in its feet, fumbles around with the branch, then goes to hide under mums belly.

 

The aussies have seen so many elephants in Chobe they are not very keen, but the young ones are so adorable to watch, nobody really minds staying a little longer. From here we only have one more stop. Leopard in a tree, with a kill, was still missing on our bucket list.( Cubs hiding in a tree don’t count). Good for us someone has spotted just that, and only 10 minutes away from camp. We stay till shortly before breakfast time. I go to fetch Juerg, he’s better but sticks with tea and toast. One last champagne then it’s time to pack. We sit on the deck till it’s time to leave. I hate departures. I hate saying goodbye. Hugs for all that cross my path, they will probably remember me here as the crazy hugger ! Poor Joe gets a double portion at the airstrip, I cry, I hate to leave. Back home Juerg tried to describe to friends how I behave, Astrid just loves this place, it’s somehow magical to her. I don’t exactly know why, but yes he’s right, it is my special magical place and I will keep returning here !!!

P.S. We must keep in touch with the Manilla girls and the Aussies, we had such a great time,

I’ve never had so much fun on a jeep, never laughed as much as this time, they truly were the best jeepmates ever !

I must select photos, write blogs, write testimonials, trip advisor reviews, make coffee table book, a calendar for mum, write mails to all our new friends, will keep busy for quite a while… and after that I will start planning my next trip !!!

Our favourite mala Mala photos : Mala Mala gallery

                                                              copyright text and photos by Astrid Bluemel