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Published: November 15th 2012
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Like our stay in Shumbalala private game reserve, I'm combining days for our stay in Mala Mala...
Oct 14 Gary is our guide (he's 23) and there are two other couples he is hosting: a couple nearing 70 from L.A. Judy and Steve, and Kate and Brett from Australia who are in their late 20s and also on their honeymoon.
On the morning drive we saw: Caribou stork, giraffe, waterbuck, white rhino, male lions, zebras, whole pride of lionesses with 7 cubs (three are 7 mos old, two are 3 mos old, two are 4 mos old), yellow billed horn bulls, and leopards.
The waterbucks have big manes and a big white circle on their butts. They are prone to dehydration because of their shaggy coats, so are always near water. They have a musky smell as they have glands that waterproof their coats and make them undesirable to predators.
We saw 7 white rhinos. There are 2 females, 2 babies, and 2 young males who have attached themselves to the group and are submissive to the dominant male. When a female has another baby, she kicks the older one out. The dominant male doesn't always
stick with the group.
Saw another dung beetle pushing a ball of poop, this time the female was riding along on it, not helping at all. John's comment was "That's how he rolls"! They will lay one egg in the ball of poop and bury it just below the surface. The baby then eats it's way out. They can push 900X their own weight!
Saw two male lions, they are so lazy they don't even get up to pee, just go right where they are laying! As John said "the ultimate in male laziness!"
We went for an hour long walk after breakfast, and saw lots of termites in buffalo dung, found a porcupine quill although never actually saw a porcupine at all on the trip, warthogs, rainbow skink, and water monitor (lives by the water all the time and swims). We climbed up some rocks for great views and could see giraffes from there.
At lunch we had this delicious butternut squash with penne pesto pasta and thin slices of parmesan on top. Also had a really yummy hot lentil dish and some greens (kale, etc with feta, onion, peppers), a very yummy lunch!!
On our evening drive we saw: African fork eagle (hunts guinea fowl), giraffe, leopard tortoise, buffalo
We found a herd of 600 buffalo!! A little scary because there are buffalo all around. When they are on the move, the young "pathfinders" are up front, calves and cows are in the middle, and the more dominant/strong/big males are in the back.
Found a dead giraffe, the bones had been picked clean, must have died in the last week, smelled horrible!!
Saw the two male lions we saw in the morning again, pretty much in the same spot!
At dinner, we met this woman Gena from Kansas City... I promptly told her I grew up in Lawrence, turns out she's a '76 KU law school grad, SMALL WORLD!! She was super nice!
10/15 On our morning drive we saw: jackals, zebras, impalas, lionesses and cubs, green pigeons, kudu, male lions sitting on the airstrip.
The pride we found had an adult lioness of ~17 years old... usually they only live to 14 or so. There were 3 cubs in the pride ~3 mos old.
We checked on the leopard with the dead impala again. Since
we last saw him he had dragged the impala by the water for a while, then up another tree which is where we found him now. Leopards have a successful kill 4/10 times, lions 3/10 times.
After breakfast, we went for a 1.5 hr walk and saw: HUGE crocodile, water monitor, starling, leopard tortoise, and a lunar moth
The leopard tortoise we saw this time was almost full grown and over 40 years old. The females have flat under bellies, and the males have indented underbellies so they can mount the females. Hornbills are their only predator, they will crack open their shell.
We spent a bit of time after the walk hanging out by the pool when a bunch of kudus came by.
We started calling the evening drive the "honeymoon death march" since Kate and Brett were also on their honeymoon and we all wanted to see a kill. First thing we found was a leopard and her cub who came close to us to poop (exciting! lol) and boy did that stink! Led to one of John's best quotes of the trip "Nothing like being downwind of a pooping leopard!" It was really
bad. The baby was ~6 mos old.
We saw some nyala and how they show dominance without fighting... their mane stands on end to see whose is bigger and they lock horns and move around in a circle, one eventually backs down.
We got some great pictures of hippos "yawning"!!! They do this as a warning and to show off their teeth. They look so funny under water with just their eyes sticking out! They can stay under water for 6 minutes. Their only predator is the lion, and that's very rare instances. Most closely related to whales, their young are born under water. There eyesight and hearing are poor, their sense of smell is their most pronounced sense.
10/16 Back on the death march on the morning drive, following lion tracks from camp, saw a very nervous impala and then found the lion cubs being watched by the oldest lioness while the others go to hunt.
Saw a giraffe running...
For the most part, a fairly uneventful morning, even the hippos didn't yawn at us!! We were most fascinated when we came upon an entire pile of dung beetles (on a pile of
poo of course!). We just watched them for quite a while, making their balls of poo, fighting over balls of poo, leading John to say "You're ballers!"
After the morning drive we got packed to go... we were both really sad to leave Mala Mala as it meant our honeymoon was coming very close to the end.
We had an early afternoon flight to Johannesburg... there really isn't much there so we just stayed at the West Cliff which is one of the nicest hotels there and had a good dinner. We were pretty exhausted, it's been many days of early game drives!
Giant Kitty Litter Box
Leopard Cub (6 months old)
More on the Leopard eating the Impala (2 days later)
Elephants Jousting
Elephants
Male lion joining the two sleeping lions to go hunting - their greeting
Dung Beetle pushing ball of poo while his girlfriend hangs on
More on Dung Beetles
Rhinos
More of the Rhinos Playing
And more of the Jousting Rhinos
Hippos
Check out how LAZY these lions are!
The ultimate in male laziness, he won't get up to pee!
More on the lions
Pride of lionesses and cubs
More on the lionesses and cubs
Turtle
Searching for the herd of 600+ buffalo
In the middle of that herd of buffalo
More of the herd of buffalo
Giraffe Bones
Following the lionesses hunting
Still hunting with the lionesses
More hunting with lionesses
Lion finally gets up... then lays down again
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Kay Peterson
non-member comment
Mala Mala
Jessica & John….We are also in California and have been to Mala Mala 4 times now. We absolutely love it there! I hope this was as life changing for you as our first trip there was for us! We also had Gary as our guide when we were there last Nov. and he was fabulous! :)