Grand Africa Cruise - Safari Day 4

Cruise Day 44

Tuesday, November 22, 2022

“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go.  I travel for travel’s sake.  The great affair is to move.”  -- Robert Louis Stevenson

Moditlo River Lodge

Even though we weren’t going on a game drive this morning, I still woke up around 5:30 when I heard a noise outside.  I got up to check it out and saw baboons outside on our verandah.  I don’t know how many there were, but they seemed to be flowing like a river over the wall beside our plunge pool and moving across the verandah.  They were moving so fluidly it just seemed like water flowing. 

After they passed, I went back to bed and slept until eight.  Unfortunately, Val woke up not feeling well.  She had an upset stomach and just felt sick.  That put a damper on things, but we got up and started packing and getting some things together.  I heard another noise outside and there were several huge birds outside that turned out to be Southern Ground Hornbill.  When they saw me in the window they flew off and a few minutes later I heard them around the front of the lodge near the door.  They are almost scary close up as they are very large.

Breakfast was at ten, but Val wasn’t feeling well enough to go so I left her to rest and met with Chad, Allen and Jill for breakfast.  It was a very nice breakfast and I got to know Jill and Allen a little better and spent more time talking to Chad.

On my way to breakfast I took a few more pictures of the main lodge.  This is the main entryway.

This a lounge area immediately to the left as you walk in the main entrance.  As you can see, it is also used as a place to store your game drive gear while you eat breakfast or dinner.

This is the reception area just to the right of the main entrance.  The only time I actually saw anyone there was when I checked out and settled our bill.  

This is the library / lounge area that is tucked away in a quiet spot.

Time for breakfast with Chad, Jill and Allen.  Jill and Allen were from Ireland and were very nice.  They had been on 19 safaris, I wish we could have spent more time with them, but they arrived just before we left.  At least we were able to share one game drive with them.

After breakfast, I returned to our lodge and Val and I finished packing for our scheduled departure at 11:00.  We did see some more baboons out on the verandah and although they were a little skittish when they saw us watching them through the glass doors, we did get some pictures of them.

One last walk back to our lodge.

Our "little" suite at Mala Mala

Some baboons showed up to wish us goodbye.

A little before 11:00 someone came to get our luggage and we left our lodge for the last time to settle our account and get ready to leave.  Our driver was already there and waiting so we were set to go when I finished checking out.  Everything had been prepaid and except for a MalaMala hat (sadly they didn’t have any MalaMala t-shirts in my size), so we didn’t owe anything, but we did have the opportunity to include gratuities on our bill.  The staff had been so efficient and wonderful we generously rewarded them for all the work they did, particularly Chad who we got to know so well during our stay.

We met our driver Seth, and we were on our way to the Moditlo River Lodge in Hoedspruit, the town where we are catching a flight to Cape Town tomorrow.  We originally were supposed to take a side trip to the spectacular Blyde River Canyon on our way to Hoedspruit, but because Val wasn’t feeling well, we decided to skip it and head straight to the Moditlo River Lodge.

This is our drive from Rattray's to the Moditlo River Lodge.

It felt sad leaving Rattray’s as we had a wonderful stay there.  Even though we were only there three nights, we felt like we had seen and done a lot.  It is unlikely we will ever be back, but if the occasion arose, we wouldn’t hesitate to return or recommend it to others.

As we left the MalaMala and checked out of the Sabi Sand reserve, we once again saw elephants along the way, this time a large herd.  A very fitting way to end our stay.

It was about a three hour drive to the Moditlo River Lodge and it went by quickly as we thoroughly enjoyed our time with Seth.  He is very intelligent and very well read.  He was old enough to have lived under apartheid and it was particularly interesting talking to him about that and its demise.  We also learned about South African life and politics as well as his view on our US politics.

We were surprised at some point on our drive when Seth asked about our cruise.  Evidently the driver who took us from Maputo to the MalaMala had spread the word to other E-Coach drivers about the length of our cruise and was a topic of conversation among them.  Seth wanted to know the details, asking many of the same questions as our first driver did and brought the conversation back to it several times.

We made one stop along the way for a bathroom break and a chance to get a cold drink.  Next to the store where we bought the drinks there was a chocolate shop, so we bought some chocolates for us and some for Seth.  They were very, very good and we finished them off during the rest of the drive.

The drive went by quickly and we were soon getting close to the Moditlo River Lodge.  We were surprised when we turned into the Moditlo Game Reserve and drove for a bit on a dirt road until we finally got to the Moditlo River Lodge.  We thought we were going to be staying in a hotel in the town of Hoedspruit, but we were at another game reserve.

We said goodbye to Seth and were met by the staff at the lodge.  Our luggage was taken to our room, and we were given an orientation and then led to our room.  They said a game drive was getting ready to leave, but we declined to go partly because Val still wasn’t feeling too well, but also because we were totally taken by surprise where we were staying.

We wondered why we were at a different safari lodge as we would have preferred to spend another night at Rattray’s instead.  I suspect it had to do with how many changes were made over the years of planning this safari and the person doing the final itinerary this year did not know why certain things were in the previous itineraries and just kept them in the current one.  We originally were supposed to fly out of Johannesburg to Cape Town and it was a further drive.  I had found out from Jill and Allen at breakfast that they had flown into an airport close to the MalaMala and we could have flown out of there.  Oh well, it’s done now and even though it would have been great to have one more day at Rattray’s, it doesn’t take away from our safari.

The Moditlo Lodge is very nice, but not as nice as Rattray’s.  The rooms are modern, but a bit spartan and had the unusual design of having the bathtub and shower out in the main room.  I will say, we would have been much more impressed with the Moditlo Lodge if we hadn’t stayed at Rattray’s, we were spoiled by our stay there.

The rooms were in a wooded area with two rooms to each thatched roof structure and accessible by a wooden walkway from the main lodge.  The main lodge had a reception area and then a large outdoor dining room as well as an indoor dining area and bar.  There was a pool with a lounge area all around it.  All in all, it seemed like a very nice place.

Lunch service was ending so as soon as we got settled in, we went to get our lunch.  The day was quite warm, but sitting outside in the shade in the dining area with a breeze blowing was very pleasant.  Although the menu and food presentation weren’t as upscale as Rattray’s, it was very good, and we enjoyed our lunch.

After lunch Val went to lay down and I walked around and explored for a while.  We hadn’t scheduled our dinner until 7:30 so we had a bit of time to kill and that was fine with Val as she was able to rest and sleep.  As dinnertime neared, we got cleaned up and waited for our escort to come and take us to dinner.  There was the same rule here as at Rattray’s that you shouldn’t leave your room without an escort after dark.

This is the entrance to our room.

This is the walk from our room to the main area of the lodge.

 

This is the outdoor dining area.  To the left there is a indoor dining area and a bar.

The pool area.

Looking back to where the rooms were.

Dinner was also very good, and it was very pleasant to sit outside in the balmy evening and enjoy our surroundings.  There weren’t many others around; there was one other couple and six people sitting as a group who were probably from somewhere in Europe, but we couldn’t quite place their accent.  After dinner, it was back to our room to relax until bedtime.  Val was feeling a little better this evening, which is good because we fly to Cape Town tomorrow.