Grand Africa Cruise - Safari Day 3

 Cruise Day 43

Monday, November 21, 2022

“Better to see something once than to hear about it a thousand times.”                    -- Asian Proverb

Rattray’s Camp Day 3, Mala Mala Game Reserve

It was another early wake up call for us this morning, but knowing what was ahead of us, we were raring to go.  As we walked to the main lodge, we saw some nyala and baboons on the grounds.  We met Chad on the verandah of the main lodge, had our morning snacks and then we were off on our third game drive.  It was a little warmer today, but the weather was still very pleasant so weatherwise, our luck continues.

There had been four older male lions sited so we set off in search of them.  As Chad drove, he looked for fresh lion tracks to determine what direction they were traveling in, but after tracking them for a while without success we came across a large herd of elephants that we watched for a while.  They were pretty much all around us as we watched them slowly wander along, grazing as they went.  Grazing for an elephant is tearing off huge branches of a bush or tree and stuffing it in its mouth.  Chad told us that elephants usually keep on the move, slowly moving along and grazing while they go.

After spending a while watching the elephants, we moved on still looking for the male lions.  We didn’t find the lions, but we did run across some giraffes and watched them for a short time.  These were young giraffes and had much lighter colored spotting than the older ones.  I am just fascinated by giraffes and really enjoy watching them.

These are younger giraffes.  You can tell by the lighter colored spotting.

As we drive around we see many hooved animals such as impala, nyala, waterbuck and kudu, but they are pretty skittish and don’t let you get too close.   

Kudu

Waterbuck

This is a Helmeted Guineafowl

A Yellow-billed Hornbill

As we continued our drive, we came across a large crash of rhinoceros.  Rhinos are huge and very odd looking.  Despite their large size they are quite nimble and graceful.  We followed them along for a while hoping they would cross the road in front of us, but instead they wandered back into the bush.

The policy of Kruger National Park and the Sabi Sand reserve is to not interfere in any way with the animals.  If they are hurt or wounded, just let nature take its course.  The exception to this is the rhinos; their horns are much valued in some parts of the world as a traditional medicine, but also as a status symbol for success and wealth.  Because of this, they are a target for poachers and the rhino population is endangered as they are killed for their horns.  To thwart this and preserve the rhinos, it has become a policy to cut off the horns off to remove them from the threat of poachers.  They do grow back in about three years, but it does allow them some protection from poachers during that time.  The policy is somewhat controversial as a rhino uses the horn as a way of defending itself, but the danger of poaching is far greater.

Even though it is gray, this is a white rhinoceros.  They have two horns and as you can see in the picture, they have been cut off to protect them from poachers.

We stay mostly on the dirt tracks on our game drives, but when Chad spots something off-road he leaves the road and strikes out overland following whatever we are looking at through the bush.  That is something that is allowed in the game reserves, but not in Kruger National Park.  It seemed a little destructive at first, but it does little damage as the foliage is tough and resilient.  The animals do far more damage than the jeep does.  The great thing is, it allows us to follow animals as they move along and get close to them.

As we drove along we spotted a large nest in the top of a tree.

Val zoomed in with her camera and we discovered it was a White-back Vulture with one of its young.

After the rhinos, Chad drove us out to the far north end of the MalaMala following the border with Kruger National Park.  The road along the border is called the Boundry Road and the game drives from the MalaMala are not allowed to drive into Krueger and vice versa.

The landscape was open and very serene and beautiful.  We saw a few Wildebeest and Zebra grazing as we drove to a water hole where we stopped and had our morning stretch and refreshment break.  It was very peaceful out there and so enjoyable we extended our break a little.

Chad breaks out our morning refreshments.

Time to get going, Val is already in her spot.

We headed back to the south part of MalaMala and came across a huge herd of Cape Buffalo.  I had also heard them called African Buffalo, so I did a little research and found the Cape Buffalo are a subspecies of African Buffalo so both designations are correct.  Chad estimated there were three or four hundred of them and after taking some pictures he said, “let’s get in the middle of them” and off he went overland into the middle of the herd.  It was fascinating sitting there in the middle of the herd watching them while they paid no attention to us parked amidst them.  We spent quite a bit of time watching them, but the morning was getting late, and it was time to head back to camp.

We came across some Cape Buffalo by a water hole.

As we drove on a short distance, we found they were part of a large herd.

Chad drove off the road into the bush and before we knew it, we were in the middle of the herd.  The buffalo were curious, but mostly just ignored us.

We spotted some more zebras as we headed back to camp.

We came across some more zebras on our way back, but we made it back by ten, had our breakfast and returned to our lodge for our afternoon R&R.  As we sat on our verandah enjoying the day, we suddenly started seeing and hearing elephants wandering along and through the river below us.  It was quite a large herd with many young ones playing in the water.  The mothers didn’t seem too happy about this and you could hear them trumpeting to get the young one moving along.  It was fascinating to watch, and we spent quite a while watching until they passed by.

As we were relaxing on our verandah we started to see elephant wandering by.

Here is a video I shot of some young elephants playing in the water as a mother tries to shepherd them along.  (The original file was too big for Google Blogspot so I had to reduce the quality to make the file smaller).

It was soon time for our evening game drive, so we headed to the main lodge for our afternoon lunch snacks out on the verandah.  Once again there was a large selection of snacks and all of them were quite tasty.  This afternoon would be the first game drive with Chad that would include another couple.  As we sat and ate our snacks, we met Jill and Allen, a couple from Ireland who had just arrived that day.  They are old hands at safaris as they have already done 19.  We told them we were just rookies and to be patient with us.

There were plenty of snacks for us before our afternoon game drive.

We were soon on our way, with Val and I taking our usual lower seats while Jill and Allen sat above and behind us.  There had been another siting of the four male lions, so we set off in search of them.  It took a while, but we found them resting in the shade as the day had turned warmer and the animals tend to be less active in the heat of the day.

They looked like old warriors, a little beat up and worn, but still very formidable. Chad said they were the dominant males of the area and would stay so until a younger one could beat them and take over.  We watched for a while, but they weren’t moving so we left in search of other game.

You can see the battle scars on the side of this old male lion.

Look at the size of those teeth!

There was another leopard siting, so we took off to find it.  We found the leopard as well as another jeep already there.  The leopard was on the hunt, so we took off through the bush following it.  With two jeeps crashing through the underbrush making lots of noise as they drove over dead wood, the leopard completely ignored us while steadily moving forward.  The jeeps would leapfrog ahead anticipating the path the leopard was taking and if we happen to be in the path, the leopard just walked by a few feet from us seemingly oblivious to our presence.

Our fifth leopard in two days.  This one was obviously hunting as he was on the trail of something and didn't let us or anything else deter him.

That's the edge of the jeep you see in the foreground.  If the jeep was in his path, the leopard wouldn't hesitate to walk in front or beside to continue on his hunt.

Here it is again passing very close to the jeep.

The predators have a very keen sense of smell, so the rangers thought that they had caught the scent of impala on the wind and were after them.  Sure enough, the leopard became very alert, and we could see impala in the distance.  The leopard slowly stalked the mother and baby impala, waiting very patiently until just the right moment.  It was an area of underbrush so we couldn’t see very well, but could see the leopard lying in wait for the right moment.

After getting close to its prey it went into the underbrush to wait for the perfect time to make his kill.  We could barely see him, but we waited quite a while to see what would happen.  The impala finally took off before the leopard could get close enough and it had to give up and move on still looking for its dinner.

The impala must have sensed something as they soon took off and lived to see another day.  The leopard can’t outrun an impala over a long distance, so it gave up and started looking for other prey.  I hate to say this, but we were all disappointed as we wanted to see a kill.  The impalas are so beautiful and graceful and you hate to think of them being attacked and killed, but it is life in the bush and it would have been something special to view even if it would be upsetting to our senses.

It was getting late in the afternoon, so Chad decided to go back and see it the lions were getting more active with the cooler temperature of the evening.  Along the way we came across more giraffes and watched them for a while.  Some of these were older with darker spotting.

By this time, it was starting to get dark, but the male lions had been sited along the road ahead, so we took off after them.  When we found them, it was almost dark, so Chad had to find them by using the spotlight.  We found three of them just lying along the road in various spots, once again not paying us any attention at all.

Chad noticed one who was active who looked like he was tracking something so we took off overland and followed him.  There were once again, two vehicles there so the two rangers coordinated with each other to track where it was headed in the dark.  It did seem to have a real purpose as it never varied its pace as it walked through the bush.

We finally got a little ahead of it and Chad saw a large termite mound and thought the lion might head for that and sure enough, the male lion went up to the top and lay down there.  We weren’t more than twenty feet away and it was above us, so it was a little spooky, but Chad said be patient as he thought it was going to roar.

Sure enough, after a long wait, the lion let out some ferocious roars followed by some snorts and growls.  Wow, what an experience, being that close it was a thunderous, deep growl that seemed to come from a very deep place!!  It was both exciting and scary.  After a short time, we heard another roar coming from another lion further away, but still quite loud.  The lion near us answered with another ferocious roar and all of us in the jeep were in awe.  This was the two lions claiming their own territory and warning others not to come too close.  If another lion came too close and encroached on their territory, they would not have hesitated to go to battle to protect their territory.  If I didn’t know before, I certainly know now why they are called the king of beasts.

This is a video I shot of the lion's roar.  I didn't know it was coming to so I missed the best initial roar and the only reason I started taking the video was for the sound as I thought it was too dark to get a picture.  It's not very good and the sound quality isn't the best as I was only using the camera's small microphone.  It's certainly not like being there and hearing it in person, but it gives some idea of what is was like.

Here is a second video I shot and not much better than the first.  The roar at the beginning is a distant lion answering the initial roar and the end of the video is the lion near us answering.

That night, back at the lodge, Val did a little research and found this about the lion’s roar.

  “Lions have a notoriously loud roar which can be heard from incredibly far distances. In fact, depending on the conditions, it is believed to carry up to 5 miles from the source. Many who have experienced the power of their roar firsthand attest to its ability to reverberate for miles and even send chills down your spine. This makes sense when you consider that lions need such power in order to protect their territory and keep adversaries away as they reign at the top of the food chain in many places around the world. From 5 miles away or fewer, it is easy to understand why even an animal's most distant neighbors recognize a lion's long-distance warning call!”

Chad had been shining the spotlight towards the lion but not directly at him and he turned it off and we were in complete darkness.  That was very scary as we knew there was a huge lion less than twenty feet away above us who could reach us in a single leap, but we trusted that Chad knew what he was doing and just sat there in the silent dark, nervously enjoying it.

It appeared the lion was done for the night, so it was time to head back to camp.  As usual we were met with wet towels to freshen up, and led to the verandah for dinner.  It was a balmy evening, so it was a perfect evening to be outside.  Since this was our last night, Chad joined us for dinner, and we had a great time talking with him and savoring our last evening.

The end of another wonderful day.

Even though we hated to miss it, we had decided to skip tomorrow morning’s game drive as we were going to be picked up at eleven and driven to a nearby airport to catch our flight to Cape Town where we would rejoin the ship.  Since the game drive doesn’t get back until around ten, we thought it just wouldn’t give us enough time to eat, pack and get ready to go.

Even though we weren’t going on the morning game drive, we did make plans with Chad, Allen and Jill to have breakfast together.  After dinner Val and I found our escort and headed back to our lodge for our last night in the MalaMala, very sad for us.