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.

Mala Mala - Private Game Reserve

Thank you to Kevin for writing this post late last night after I conked out to sleep:

Day 2 started out as a typical and relatively uneventful vacation day – a quick shuttle over to the small airport where we met our nine-passenger plane, after taping up a ripped suitcase with luggage stickers. Ok, well that’s probably not the most typical of vacation days, but nothing went wrong in the transfer. In fact, the flight was actually quite enjoyable; my grandfather’s eternal love for aircraft pushed him to take the passenger seat, while the rest of us enjoyed the views that we had only seen in movies (if the Lion King counts).

Just over an hour after boarding, we had reached our next accommodation – the private game reserve of MalaMala, where we will spend the next three nights. A short ride by jeep to the camp allowed us to meet not only our informative tour guide/guard Robin, but also the first Big Five member of our trip. It came in the form of a large gray rhinoceros about 10 feet away, and although that sounds scary, it was awesome (and also scary).

Our first planned safari wasn’t scheduled to start until 3 in the afternoon, so we had plenty of time to get acquainted with our heavenly abode (the primary ingredient for fancy language is jetlag). A few hours of staring down nature from our porch and rejuvenation, and we were set for adventure.

After just a few hours of driving, we had not only seen two more Big Five members (elephant and lion), but also a rare sight – feeding hour for a den of wild dogs. Moments after Robin told us that it could begin in a matter of thirty seconds or thirty minutes, the puppies charged (with alarming energy and volume) after the freshly caught food, brought home by one of the hunters. It was hard to imagine that in such a short amount of time, we had already managed to see an event that we will likely never witness again.

We returned to camp at around 7 in the evening, and an hour later we were met by an escort who took us down to dinner. The outdoor meal featured delicious food, a cozy fire, and an entertaining song performed by the chefs and waiters in their native language (which my natural ear for the African tongue translated to “Welcome, welcome, please eat all my food”) (just kidding). It was certainly a memorable dinner to cap off a memorable day here at the MalaMala camp.

Johannesburg, South Africa

The word of the day today is: Trust

We’ve had a wonderful, fairly uneventful, and exhausting first day here in Africa. What an effort it takes to embark on a trip like this! As I am writing, it occurs to me what a tremendous amount of trust we have to put in humanity, engineering and each other to get to this point.

First thing we did was hire a stranger to get up in the wee hours of the morning, to drive a very large car (he drove very fast, and he was very tired) through the streets and highways of Connecticut and New York to deliver us to the airport.

Next, we boarded an extremely long, large, heavy marvel of intricate engineering, along with over 500 other people, (don’t think I’ve ever been on one that big) and settle into our seats for 14 ½ hours of flying through the air, piloted by people we’ve never met (I hope they are smart, well-trained, and not as tired as I am).

We finally arrived in Jo’ burg (that’s Johannesburg, South Africa for those of you who are not nearly as cool as I am) at around 8:30 am and settle in to our hotel. As a group, we make a pact to stay awake all day, have an early dinner and crash into bed at a normal hour. This is a perfectly sensible way to combat jet lag, right? Well, sort of… I am writing this blog post at 2:30 am because I can’t sleep, so things don’t always go as planned.

We hired a tour guide and his driver friend (strangers from Africa without any proven credentials, but a van large enough for all of us) to take us on an excursion through Jo’ burg as a fun, informative way to use our time here while we wait for the next leg of our adventure. (Driving around for 4 hours is NOT the best way to stay awake when you haven’t slept in 24 hours, so we all took our turns head-bobbing, and “resting our eyes” while the guide talked.) It’s a very interesting city, famous for Nelson Mandela, gold mines and hosting of the World Cup soccer. We made a new friend who joined us on the tour – a middle school social studies teacher from Maryland traveling through Africa on his own – and all shared a beer near Nelson Mandela’s house.

Dinner at the hotel before retiring was greatly enhanced by a glass of South African Pinotage, one of my favorite red wines, and great conversation. Next stop: Kruger National Park.

It's almost here! We're leaving for Africa this Sunday. I can't believe it's finally time for our adventure. My parents are taking my boys and me on the trip of a lifetime. I can't wait!!

I think we're ready. Passports, plug adapters, malaria pills, soft-sided luggage for the small charter flights between African locations (gulp!), cameras, chargers, paper work and more paper work from The Africa Adventure Company, MacBook, iPad and iPhone (of course)... I guess that's it.

Maybe I should think about clothes. I'm so concerned about odds and ends, that I haven't thought about that yet. Sitting here in 90 degree heat and humidity wondering what to pack for winter in Zimbabwe is a little daunting. I guess I better go look that up.

First stop will be Johannesburg, than on to Mala Mala Camp on the outskirts of Kruger National Park.

Next, on to Cape Town, South Africa.

Then Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.

This should be an amazing adventure. Stay tuned for lots of pictures and stories from afar!