After our flight to Nelspruit, we had a two-hour drive to Mala Mala, the private game reserve where we are staying. During simply the drive into the reserve, we spotted a bunch of impala (very common here), a couple rhinos and a group of ten to fifteen giraffes! Mala Mala itself is stunning. Consisting of a bunch of separate bungalow-like buildings, it feels as if we're living on an incredibly luxurious camping ground. Everyone who works here is so nice it's scary. The second we approached reception, we immediately received cold towels for our hands and a cold glass of juice. Our safari ranger Jonathan (one of my favorite people in South Africa already) gave us a little tour and brought us to our room...or rather, suite - complete with a huge bedroom and living room area (both with full glass doors/windows overlooking the reserve), two bathrooms, a desk area and a fridge. Jonathan had taken our orders for some sandwiches for lunch and sure enough, there was a knock on the door while he was showing us around with a tray filled with food.
They seriously treat us like royalty here. We can have our laundry done for us every day at no extra cost and everyone around here is essentially at our beck and call every minute. For safety reasons, Jonathan has to walk us back to our room every night after dinner, saying "I'll be with you until you go to sleep." When we asked if we were supposed to go straight to bed after dinner, he told us we could do whatever we liked. He replied, verbatim, "if you want to stay up all night partying, I'll party with you....I just have to be up early the next morning for the drive!"
The reserve also has a pool, a mini-gym, a gorgeous little bar with animal-printed bar stools and couches, a large deck overlooking the reserve and a huge lounge with several couches, chairs, magazines and African artifacts all around. Jess and I were wide-eyed and open-mouthed, with some watery eyes, because we couldn't have dreamed up a more magical place to stay. Jonathan was laughing a bit because he'd never seen someone react to their accommodations the way we did!
Our first drive was around 4:30 in the afternoon and it was unbelievable. Our jeep is shared with a couple celebrating their 27th wedding anniversary from New Brunswick, Canada and they are great! Their names are Fred and Monica and we get to know them really well since not only are the drives a three to three-and-a-half excursion twice a day, but the reserve sets it up so that you eat every meal together as a group, including your ranger. We couldn't have asked for a better first drive. It began with seeing, among impala, baboons, kudus (a type of antelope), hippos and a crocodile. The real highlight of the afternoon was seeing a male leopard a mere three feet away from my side of the vehicle, meandering along the path in the brush. We followed him for almost an hour - as Jonathan warned us, he doesn't like to stick to the dirt path roads, so if we're onto something, that Jeep will drive through anything. The leopard appeared to be a slow hunt for food and we watched him catch the scent of a nearby crowd of impalas and head their way. We were hoping we were going to get to see a kill, but our patience wasn't as good as the leopard's. As Jonathan said, the impala are so abundant that he was in no rush to catch dinner and was going to take his sweet time.
The evening ended with a candlelit dinner on the deck. The six of us were talking and laughing nonstop and we've already grown quite close. The Canadian couple has three boys and Monica has told us she's going to want to adopt Jess and I as her daughters after this trip! Dad, Jess and I were telling the other three about leaving Mom at home and how much we miss her (though with this literally 99 degree F heat, she probably wouldn't get to enjoy much, anyway!) After asking what her name was, Fred lifted his wine glass and said, "To Pam!" We're lucky to be sharing a Jeep with such compassionate people.
Today started off with a wake-up call from Jonathan at 5:30am sharp. We were all ready to head out on our drive a half hour later and weren't even half a mile away from camp when we met up with a group of five elephants, one of which was the tiniest baby! We were all in absolute awe of them and ended up seeing several others throughout our morning drive; at one time there was a line of about twenty of them walking in the near distance. For me, the most exciting part of the drive was parking about ten feet from two lions laying in the shade. Never in my life have I been so close to such a massive male lion! We were also very lucky because this morning's drive granted us an opportunity to see the rarest occurrence in Mala Mala - a pack of African wild dogs feeding on an impala carcass. The group consisted of three adults and about ten pups, who were as playful amongst each other as domestic puppies. These dogs are Africa's most endangered carnivore and move very quickly through the brush, so we were fortunate to be in the right place at the right time! The rest of the drive included very close sightings of giraffes, zebras, wildebeest, beautiful birds....and unfortunately, some massive arachnids with webs the size of hammocks between trees.
I've realized how the tiniest of details is what makes the experience feel so personal and intimate. The bubbling and hissing sounds of the hippos as they breathe while in the water, the sound of grass crunching while the elephants chew and the squeal of a baby elephant in the dark... those moments envelop the fact that these are such natural, unstaged instants and I can't get over how close I am to these wild animals.
As you can imagine, I'm very antsy for this afternoon's drive!!
xo Em
I've got pictures galore for y'all:
Giraffe seen on our way into Mala Mala
Jess and my bedroom
View from our bedroom
Psyched for our first safari drive!
The "airstrip" leopard, so called because of where he lives (Big Five #1)
Elephants! (Big Five #2)
Buffalo (Big Five #3)
Lion (Big Five #4)
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