Tuesday 7/1/2008 – Thursday 7/4/2008
Our adventure to the game reserve started when we tried to fill fuel and then all of the sudden they didn’t accept credit cards. The woman apologized when she said ‘I didn’t understand’ when I asked “visa, mastercard’? And she said ‘yes’…. Oye. So, the next thing we know, we had a woman in our backseat telling us how to go to the bank to pay for our gasoline. Through a series of events, and three non-working ATMs, we finally found one ATM working in a grocery store the little town of Ulundi, so we went back to the gas station to settle our debt.
About 45 minutes later, we turned onto a dirt road reading “Mkuze Game Reserve,” our home for the next three nights. On our drive in, we didn’t realize that we would have our own game drive seeing warthogs, black backed jackel, velvet monkeys, impala and many other types of game. We arrived to the tented camp in true five star fashion with three people to greet us, collect our bags and give us a tour of the camp with lychee welcome drinks. They showed us to our Hemingway-style tent overlooking a gorgeous stream and walking by a group of Nyala. (Antelope looking animals, they call ‘yellow sox’, which you’ll see why in the pictures).
There was no detail forgotten at our tented camp, including the mini-fridge being painted khaki to help blend in. We had all of the amenities of a five star hotel, in the comforts of the bush…we were excited to get our game drives started! After a quick lunch, we met our fellow ‘campers’ for high tea and to meet our ranger. A family of four from Dublin, Ireland and a couple from Johannesburg would be joining us on our game drive. As the game drive started, we wondered what to expect at this game reserve. Within 15 minutes we found two male lions who were finishing up a kill from the night before. Wow, what a start. We continued on our drive and hacked our way through the bush to find some buffalo, giraffe and many different kinds of birds. Half way through the drive we stopped by a river and had some drinks and snacks.
At sunset we headed back to the tented lodge for dinner. A semi-circle of table surrounding an open fire awaited our return. After washing up, we came back to find personalized menus waiting for us. We had a great dinner and then headed to bed since we’d be waking up at 5:30 the next morning for our next game drive.
It was not too hard to get out of bed early as we were both excited to go see some more animals. It was very cold, but there was a heater inside our tent. We got out of bed, bundled up, had some snacks at the main tent and then set off on a game drive. Everyone in the group wanted to see elephants, so our safari guide was lucky enough to find a herd of about 20 elephants ranging in age from a couple of months old to 50+ years old.
The young male bull elephants were very curious of us and came right up to the truck and nearly touched us. We got some great photos as you will see. We drove around and saw more giraffe, antelope, birds etc before stopping for a snack break. Towards the end of the drive, we found a pack of 5 cheetahs, one momma and four cubs. They were amazing animals to watch up close, very graceful and regal looking. We could see Katie's mom wanting to decorate the entire apartment with their beautiful coat pattern. The cheetahs were looking for some prey and we watched them stealthily try and find some food.
We soon got hungry ourselves, though and had to head back to the camp for breakfast. Breakfast, like all the food at this reserve was very good. We finished eating, said goodbye to the Irish family and South African couple and then checked out of the tented camp and made our way up to the main lodge.
The main lodge was like the tented camp, but just a notch or two better. After having lunch at the main lodge, we got ready for our sunset drive. We would be joined by an English couple on this drive. The drive itself was not very eventful as we did not see many animals, but the English couple was very nice and we amused each other since the animals were not cooperating... not to mention having two 'cocktails at sunset. The highlight of the drive was on the drive back to the lodge at night our tracked caught a bird with his bare hand and showed it to us. We had a very nice, fancy dinner and then headed back to our room to go to bed. We would have another early awakening the next morning.
Up at at ‘em early the next morning we were once again joined by the English couple. We stumbled right upon a lion and a lioness enjoying a very fresh and very smelly kill. It was interesting watching the lioness rip away at the meat on the wildebeest that she was enjoying. The male lion already had his fill of wildebeest, so he was resting next to her. He heard his brother calling for him in the distance and he returned a roar that literally made our truck vibrate from its sheer strength. It was unbelievable how loud and deep of a noise this creature was capable of producing.
After seeing the lion we found more cheetah, warthogs, hippos, giraffes, and many different types of antelopes. It was definitely our most successful game drive to date. We returned back to the camp for another delicious breakfast. We then headed back to the room to rest for a bit. We did manage to get up for lunch and felt as though it was the goal of every employee of the game reserve to get us to gain 10 lbs. each. The food was good as usual and we headed back to our rooms to get ready for our last sunset game drive. This drive would be by ourselves as there were no more guests left at the lodge.
Instead of a traditional game drive, we decided to get off of our ever expanding backsides and go for a walk in the bush with our guide. He loaded his rifle, told us to walk single file behind him and we set off into the bush. We did not see many animals (both a blessing and a curse), but it was fun to get some exercise and fresh air in the African bush. Once again, we did get drinks and snacks to have as we relaxed after our walk. We made our way back to the lodge and got to see some reedbuck using the spotlight. We arrived back at the lodge had our last fancy dinner, talked to group of American doctors who were staying at the lodge and then headed to bed.
The next morning did not start so well as Dermot was very sick. It was either food poisoning or a stomach bug, but he prayed to the porcelain gods for most of the morning and as a result we could not do our last game drive. At around 11 a.m., Dermot felt well enough to leave the room, so we decided to start our five drive up to Johannesburg for our flight to France that night. We made a couple of stops on the way Johannesburg for food and drinks and some medicine, but the drive was fairly easy (unlike Dermot’s stomach).
We made it the airport with plenty of time to kill. We checked in for our flight, got two free passes to the Air France VIP lounge and then made use of their internet facilities, chicken noodle soup for Derm's belly and free drinks until our flight boarded. The flight went off without a hitch and we began our 11 hour journey back to the Northern Hemisphere.