McDonald's at Mala Mala?

The Impala are called the fast food of the animal world for a couple of reasons. They have a big 'M' like the McDonald's logo on their butts, they are the first to eat (actually easily caught and eaten) and you find them on every corner! Until two days ago, I had never seen an impala with tires. Now I find myself saying 'Oh it's just an impala!'


As I sit here trying to recapture yesterday, everything is running together in my mind. The animals are surreal and the drives have all been incredible. Beyond that is the sense of being in a different world. There are no airplane sounds, no cars. The sounds are the different birds singing or chirping, the baboons chattering while they are playing. Or the sound of nothing. I don't know that I would want to live in this world all the time but it certainly is a wonderful place to visit.


Saturday our wake up call came at 5:30. By 6:15 we'd had some coffee and we were on our way. Ryan pointed out several variety of birds along the way; helmeted guinea fowl, a lesser spotted eagle, a variety of Kingfisher and a saddlebill stork among others.

The first animal we found was the leopard perched on a river bank. This was followed by a herd of Cape Buffalo.



A new animal for us when we rounded a corner and came upon three zebras drinking. They were gorgeous. Ryan tried to trip us up by telling us that the females are black with white stripes and the males are white with black stripes. Yes he said, some tourists fall for that and ask serious questions related to the stripes. He did tell us that each set of stripes on a zebra is unique to that one zebra. Like our fingerprints.


We found kudu and of course more impala and duiker (looks like a small deer). A nyala was spotted eating. At some water we saw a crocodile reclining in some reeds. Didn't get to see a lot of him....fine with me! In an open area, more impala, a warthog (so ugly they are almost cute) and then a giraffe!



What a magnificent animal. So tall, so graceful. Just oblivious to us as she ate. Did you know that a giraffe must remain standing all the time? If they lay down, their blood pressure elevates to the point that they faint! An enemy of the giraffe is the lion. They approach from the back, knock them down at the knees and then kill them. Luckily we have not encountered a kill.


The rangers are very skilled at keeping each other informed when they find animals. I think my original impression of the animals was that we would see them from a distance. I also thought with trucks approaching they would run off. As I mentioned previously, they don't seem to care about us. The rangers wear headsets and speak very softly into hand held microphones directing each other to the animals. When one finds something, he sometimes asks (we've been told) for the other groups to hold off a few minutes before approaching.



That was how we came upon the leopard. They are just gorgeous and any chance we have to 'ooh and aah' over them, we love. The highlight of the morning was when we found a leopard on top of a giant (wait until you see the pictures for this one!) termite hill! She was just hanging out waiting for us to come take more pictures. We obliged!


After the morning drive, a leisurely breakfast on the deck overseeing the property. Monkeys, steenbok and various birds are easily spotted from here. A retreat to our room to download pictures, relax for awhile and then.....more food at lunchtime! At lunchtime a leopard was spotted from the deck. After lunch, a little more leisure time before the afternoon drive.


We headed out about 3:30, Ryan having procured our order for 'sundowners'. Having seen 4 of the big 5 we were searching for rhino! For the first 2-1/2 hours we literally saw nothing. It is hard to believe elephants, giraffes and even lions can be out of sight. It is awesome to see the animals but interestingly NOT seeing them makes this all very real. It isn't staged, it is the real bush and sometimes the animals oblige....other times they are busy! Eventually we spotted a wildebeest and them some blacked back jackal. We spent some time looking for their den and pups, said to be in the area. Never found them. Even the sunset which had been magnificent the night before failed to impress. The sun just dropped behind some clouds ad that was it! We stopped for our 'sundowner'..... gin and tonic in the bush on a table set with a checkered table cloth and snacks! Again, that slightly surreal feeling took over for me. Happy hour in the brush with impala around us!


Getting back in the truck, the whispers on the radio picked up and just after dark we saw the 2 male lions we had encountered the day before. They were just hanging out for everyone to admire them. As we watched, they rolled over, stood up and wandered close to some of the trucks and then they roared! We were told they were calling the lioness who was off hunting (apparently the women do the shopping and cooking in the lion world too!). The roars were not extremely loud but they made their point!



After the lions we found a leopard and were able to follow him for quite awhile. He was marking his territory and quite active moving around the bush.



Our last stop for the night was the big one! Rhinos were spotted on the air strip! We headed over and there were 4 incredibly large rhinos just hanging out for us to look at! Or maybe they were the non revs who didn't make the weight restricted flight earlier in the day! It was very dark so pictures were limited. Hopefully we will get another chance to see them.



Back at camp, we showered and dressed for dinner. After gathering in the bar, we moved to the buma for dinner. The buma is a large area encircled by reeds that act as the walls. There was a fire in the firepit and the weather was perfect for being outside. As always, the staff was incredibly gracious. Some of them entertained with some songs after dinner. We ended the evening in the bar with some of the staff and Sally and Caroline who have been with us since we left Jo'burg. Sally is from Atlanta, Caroline from Jacksonville. Bedtime was shortly after midnight with a 5:30 wake up call this morning!