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The next morning (DAY 5 ~ 16 June) we were up at 6:00 AM, dressed for breakfast and were headed for the Land Cruiser for our morning game drive. Getting into the Land Cruiser was not easy for an almost 80 year old codger like me. The steps helped, but they didn’t come with us when we were out in the bush. ;o(

We came upon this herd of Cape Buffalo. That’s number two in our quest to see the Big Five. The leopard at the end of PART Two was number one. The map below shows that the MalaMala Game Reserve borders Kruger National Park.

I was surprised at how shiny the Cape Buffalo's horns were. And, YES, it was cold. For the night game drives they provided us with ponchos which were lined with warm flannel.

The monkeys were so cute, I just wanted to go up to them and scratch their heads, but I knew they would probably bite me. The Impalas were probably the most ubiquitous animals in the preserve. It was delightful to watch them move, especially when they were in a hurry, and they would leap into the air. A nature show I watched once said that they did that so they could see where the danger was, like a lion or a leopard.

This is our accommodations at MalaMala Camp. It was moe like MalaMala Palace. Frame 2 below is he entrance to our suite. The interior in frame 3 shows that it was not too shabby. Frame 4 is the deck off the lounge where we would meet each morning for a snack and coffee, and then walk to the Land Cruiser for our morning game drive.

This is some sort of African game I’m sure, but I never asked anyone about it. We were too busy with game drives, morning and evening. The skull I believe is that of a lion.

We saw a lot of wart hogs, and when they would turn tail and run, their tails would always go straight up in the air. I never could understand why they did that.

As you can see, the road was a little uneven, but the Land Cruiser could handle it easily. It was the passengers who struggled with it. We didn’t have seat belts, and many times if I didn’t have a death grip on the rail in front of me, I would have been thrown out of the vehicle. Every game drive Mike would stop midway and present us with snacks and a drink. Here it was mimosas. Now I ask you, how civilized it that? This safari thing is quite all right.

As we carried on with our game drive, we came upon a small herd of elephants that were on the move towards the watering hole. They are such amazing animals. They have tremendous memories.

I used to think that the elephant would just siphon water up his trunk and into his throat from there, But apparently they just fill their trunk with water, and then blow it into their mouth.

I once saw a video which told of a herd of 10 elephants in the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia that had a migratory route, and then man came along and built the Mfuwe Lodge on that route. They did not know it was this pod of elephant’s route to the grove of mango grove on the far side of the lodge. For the past 10 years the herd has been coming through the lodge to eat the mangos on the trees just beyond the lodge. This next frame was borrowed from the Internet. They are not from my camera.

If you would like to watch the YouTube video, go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdTII_unZSA It’s awesome.

Below is a water buck. The giraffes were large in number, and they were often seen grazing with the zebras.

They never seemed to be bothered by our presence, but they did however, keep a sharp eye on us.

These wild dogs happened to come upon us and Mike stopped the vehicle in the road. There were 4 of them, and they just lay themselves down in the road, right in front of our vehicle. They didn’t seem so wild to me. They might even make a mighty fine pet.

We left the wild dogs and further down the track we saw some more giraffes. There seemed to me to be quite a lot of them. There were not as many as the impalas, but a lot none-the-less. Mike said they had the same number of vertebrae in their long necks as we humans have, seven. How strange is that? They are funny watch when they need to take a drink. They have to spread their front legs far apart so that they can reach the ground level where the water is. It makes you wonder how some creatures evolve the way they do. I’ll bet Darwin would have had a field day in Africa.

Back at the camp I took some photos of our room. They call this MalaMala "Camp”. Camping was never like this.

From our deck we had a great view of mother nature. A rather large heard of impalas was browsing their way through the property, and some water bucks as well. When this water buck got his fill from browsing, he laid down to chew his cud.

After the morning game drive we came back to camp for lunch. It was buffet style with way too many selections. I really loved that multigrain bread. It was almost like a pumpernickel.

On our evening game drive Mike spotted a vulture in a tree. That’s usually a sign that there is something dead near by. Sure enough, Mike drove the cruiser on a trail near the tree, and there was a male lion chewing on an impala carcass.

We could hear his powerful jaws crunching the bones into pieces, going after the marrow. You can see how close we were to him in the fourth photo. Our presence didn’t disturb him in the least. Mike recognized this lion, and he said that his left hind leg was badly damaged, possible injured in a clash with a cape buffalo, and he could no longer keep up with the pride. He was very surprised to see him over 2 miles from where he saw him last, a couple of months ago. He actually thought he would have been dead by now. Amazing how Mother Nature allows her creatures to hold onto life.