Safari Game Drives - WOW!!

It’s nearly impossible to try to put all of the things we’ve seen and done during this African Safari into words! I guess the word of the day is “WOW!” (and also still trust).

“Wow” because there just isn’t any other way to describe the feeling of this experience.

“Trust” because we’ve had to put our trust into the hands of our guide, obviously, but also the trust of the animals allowing us to visit them in their natural habitat, and the trust of each other not to do anything dangerous and disturb the animals (like stand up in the jeep). During each animal encounter, I can’t help think about how any of these animals could turn on us and we’d be dead. I suppose they’re probably thinking the same thing about us, but it’s scary and exciting, nonetheless.

The Mala Mala Reserve has done an amazing job of creating a vacation experience that is luxurious and camp-like at the same time. They have a tight schedule and a guide telling you what to do at all times, yet it is extremely stress-free, rejuvenating and exciting (and the food is amazing!).  Our guide eats each meal with us, takes us out on four hour game drives twice a day, and does everything we request from getting drinks, pouring water at dinner, and making massage reservations, to driving our land rover, keeping us safe with a rifle, following leopard tracks and finding giraffes and zebras upon request.

He does this for all of his guests and does a great job of making us feel happy and welcome. It must get boring at times, but even during our trip he found a few reasons to take out his camera and get giddy with excitement over some of the things we saw.

On our first drive he brought us to where the endangered African Wild Dogs have a den with many puppies. We were able to park in the middle of all the action and watch while they played. When their hunters came back with food to share, the energy and excitement was amazing!

Another time we sat for at least a half an hour in the midst of a herd of elephants feeding along the riverbed. The babies were incredibly cute and fun to watch as they practiced using their trunks. But later we learned that you should never get too close to a mama and her baby when the elephant trumpeted loudly and we booked out of there.

Last night we saw a herd of at least 500 buffalo moving north and followed them for a bit at dusk. We met up with them again later where we found a den of 7 lionesses considering the idea of taking one for their dinner. But buffalo are actually one of the few animals that lions would have trouble hunting, so they gave up and parted ways.

This morning Eric spotted a hyena as we drove along and even Robin was excited as he got out his camera and followed her to the watering hole. He said that was an extremely rare sighting.

This evening was our last drive and it was the best of them all. We managed to see each of the Big 5 all in one evening (actually, we now call it the Big 6 because a human is a rare siting out there, and they should also be considered one of the most dangerous). We saw Robin’s favorite Rhino – baby Henry with his mom and 2 others. We saw a different leopard than the one we had seen earlier and they tend to be very elusive. And, to top it all off, we happened upon a den of lions waking up and preparing for their night ahead. There were 2 lionesses, 1 lion and 3 cubs. We stayed quietly in the middle of it all for an hour watching while they suckled their mom, played with their dad, wrestled with each other and yawned (omg – the teeth!!!). It was finally time to go home when we actually heard the lion roar and realized there was nothing left that we hadn’t seen, and nothing can compare to this last drive.

Tomorrow morning we leave here ready for a change. It’s been amazing, but three days is enough. We are on our way to Cape Town.