We left the hotel for the airport at 8:30. We flew on a small plane to Skukuza which is the gateway to Kruger National Park. We were collected and drove 45 minutes to MalaMala which is a private game reserve. One of the major advantages of MalaMala over Kruger National Park is that you can drive off road. Also at MalaMala, a ranger must guide all drives. At Kruger no guide is needed and sometimes people traumatize the animals so they are very afraid of people. Not so at MalaMala.
We were met at the lodge by Gareth, our ranger for the next 3 days. He showed us around the facility and to our rooms which are amazing. Here are some pictures.
The camp is open to animals so there were male and female nyalas grazing in the grassy areas between the bungalows.
After getting settled we had lunch which was fabulous. Lunch was served on a deck overlooking a small river. While we were eating elephants wandered by and were eating.
At 3:15 we met Gareth for coffee and sweets after which we went on our first game drive. Here is a picture of our vehicle. Yes that is a gun on the front of the truck.
We saw lots of birds which I can’t keep straight and are very hard to photograph so I won’t bore you with details about them. Shortly we came a upon two female lions laying by the side of the road. We spotted a male lion nearby laying in the grass. We watched them for a while. One of the females tried to catch an impala and then tried to herd them back towards the other female but they were unsuccessful. The whole time Gareth was telling us about lions and answering our questions. He was extremely knowledgeable and holds a masters in relevant fields. Here are pictures of them.
Gareth was on the radio with the other rangers sharing sightings. MalaMala has strict rules on how many vehicles can be around an animal. They do not intervene in anyway unless the animal has been injured by a human. So they just let nature take its course. Eventually we moved on and found some baboons, adults and babies, that we watched for awhile.
Then we found some zebras.
While we were out, it got dark. As we were driving back Gareth was waving a light across landscape looking for animal eyes which are red in the light. We didn’t see any animals on the way back to camp.
That evening we had dinner in the boma. Here’s a daytime picture of the boma and the main reception area.
The wait staff and cooks call us to dinner by parading through the lodge and singing local songs. Dinner was another excellent meal. All of the staff are very friendly, courteous, and helpful. Overall we are really impressed with this camp.