Game Drive Highlights

We got up at 5am, grabbed the coffee and muffins on offer, and climbed in the truck for a morning game drive. It was actually a little chilly and the sun was working hard to burn through the mist.

We saw our first rhino!

The reserve removes the horns of all the rhinos (not a painful procedure for them) in order to make killing them unattractive to poachers.

And more giraffes.

One of the most interesting finds of the morning was a lioness with blood on her head. Brendon thought it was probably a bite wound from a fight with one of the new male lions, probably as she was protecting her cubs from him.

She was lying with another lioness, probably a sister, near some brush where they had hidden a wildebeest.

Not long after we found that, we ran into a couple of members of the reserve’s anti-poaching unit. Brendon explained to us some of what they do to discourage poaching on the reserve.

We saw bunch of zebras and our first live wildebeest. It is interesting how different the zebra’s camouflage strategy is from anything else out here.

We found the younger male lion sleeping. Brendon suspected that he was the one who had been fighting with the lioness, but couldn't see any obvious signs.

Eventually we headed back around to where a leopard had been spotted sleeping earlier. Brendon was hoping she would be awake and moving around by this point.

We were looking for her in the brush when she came running through, dragging an impala that she had just taken. We were very excited, and then suddenly another, much larger leopard ran up and grabbed the impala!

The two leopards tugged back and forth, growling at each other while a troop of baboons in the trees overhead hooted and chattered. Another truck had pulled up and that guide looked up the larger leopard (they are recognized by their facial patterns). Turns out it was the mother of the hunting leopard!

The older leopard hadn't been seen in the reserve for about two years. Apparently female leopards carve off portions of their territory for their daughters so that by the time they are older, the core of their territory will be surrounded by their daughters. Brendon suspected that she was back looking for a mate and a place to bear cubs where she felt confident and safe.

The daughter eventually backed off and settled down to let her mother feed and we headed back to camp.

After a lovely brunch, we went back to our bungalow to nap (and, in Jason's case, work) before a swim. On our way down to the pool we saw several nyala that had wandered into camp.

From the pool we could also see elephants across the river.

As we set off for the afternoon drive we were joined by another couple from Cape Town, Maddie and Warren. They were very pleasant company and it was fun to catch them up on some of the predator drama we had been witnessing.

There is a private airstrip on the reserve for charter flights and supply runs. As we passed it there was an ostrich!

We proceeded from there into a different part of the reserve, further south along the river. We saw the usual Impala and nyala, and also the small steenbuck and the larger waterbuck, with their distinctive rear ends.

I haven't talked much about the birds we saw, mostly because I'm not great at remembering their names and it is hard to get great photos of them with a cellphone. But we did see many different and lovely birds, including egrets, ibises, and storks near the river, lots of different raptors soaring overhead, hornbills like Zazu from The Lion King, silly Guinea fowl, and iridescent starlings. Here is a lilac-breasted roller that was catching the light on its perch.

One of the reasons we had come down this way was to see Sticks Pride, the group of lionesses and young lions who were loosely following the males who had moved north, leaving them behind. We found them lolling by the river, digesting what was clearly a big kill.

There was another truck nearby and the guide radioed Brendon to tell us not to freak out, but a couple of lions were about to pass right by us, which they presently did, on their way down to join the group.

We stayed watching the lions for a while, then headed off to find a good place for drinks. On our way we noticed three hyenas crossing the road and Brendon turned off to follow them through the brush.

The brush finally got too thick, so we made our way back onto the road and Brendon took us to one of his favorite spots for enjoying the sunset. He pulled a cooler out of the back and set out drinks and snacks while we enjoyed the view.

It was getting pretty dark by the time we started back to camp, but a radio call came that the leopards were on the move and Maddie had never seen one, despite having gone on safari several times. We were all happy to delay dinner to see what the leopards were up to, so we turned out into that area and before long Brendon found the older female, bedding down in the brush.

He also spotted the tree where the leopards had hoisted their prey to keep it from scavengers overnight, so we would know where to look for them in the morning. By then it was really time to get back to camp.

Dinner was on the deck of the main building and featured grilled ostrich, which Alice had never tried before. By the time we finished we were all ready to fall into bed.

When I opened the curtains in the morning there was a large waterbuck on the grass in front of our deck.

Once more we grabbed coffee and muffins and headed out for our last game drive at MalaMala. We passed a few elephants and other herbivores and when we got down to the river the mating pair of lions were just arriving on the bank.

Brendon shared the news that the other male has headed back south, possibly to link back up with Sticks Pride. It has been so interesting to learn about all the drama among the residents in the area.

We saw more baboons, nyala, elephants, and waterbuck. But the impala were really massing, working up the nerve to go down to the river to drink.

We swung by the tree where the leopards had hung the impala carcass. The smaller one was asleep on another branch.

The larger leopard was sacked out in the brush nearby, just starting to yawn herself awake.

Brendon was surprised that we hadn't seen any warthogs and happy to show us this beauty.

We took a break for some coffee. He likes to serve it with amarula liqueur, made from the fruit of the marula tree.

On our way back we saw a whole delegation of banded mongoose bouncing across the road. We also saw slender, dwarf, and white-tailed mongoose at various times, but they move too quickly for us to get photos.

We made it back to camp in time to have brunch before saying goodbye to MalaMala and heading back out to Skukuza. There were giraffes on the road to see us off to Cape Town!