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Mala Mala Sable Camp


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Senegal Bush Male, late at night

 

 

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vikramghanekar

Wow!

Beautiful pictures. I have been contemplating visiting Mala mala for more than year. But it has remained in contemplation (and will remain so in near future) thanks to the eye watering price tag. (drawing a strong disapproving look from my wife even at the mention of Mala mala.)

Looks like Mala mala is delivering it in buckets!

Waiting for more.

Cheers

Vikra,

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TravelMore

Today was our 6th and final day. We have a morning drive then return to Johannesburg. To date we have seen 10 different leopards. 2 new adult females today and one had 2 cubs. They are the only ones we did not see 2 or 3 times - yet. We saw the kambula pride 3x, the gowrie males 3 times, the avoca males once.  I've fallen behind because of all the sitings.  There is a 4 for 3 stay advertised on their website.  We went for a more moderate priced camp before anc received a much more moderate experience. I hope some day you get there!

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TravelMore

Our last morning started out like a lion! (It did not end like a lamb). We listened for the morning report on the causeway. We heard our summons and so.....

 

 

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We followed. 

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He was searching for his pride.

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So he roared to let them know he was still looking.

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When he picked up their scent he basked in it.

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Alas, he was moving across the border so we let him continue without us.

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TravelMore

As we continued our drive, we immediately came upon a hyena. He started to come forward to walk past us but  something behind us freaked him out and he high-tailed it out of there. 

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He jumped, turned mid-air and skedaddled.

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We saw him watching warily in the gully that was behind his original position.

 

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Next up, some general game.

 

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But of these the most challenging to photograph is the male kudu.  Females will pose most of the time but the males usually show me their behind.  This one decided to cooperate.

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Found another with a broken horn. He was cooperative as well. I think kudu are beautiful!

 

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TravelMore

AHA!  What do we have here?  

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Well we didn't get to watch her for long. She smelled danger coming and boogied!

 

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The male gave us the slip so we found our female up the tree. DSC03572.JPG.4ce056048a68c57ddd05963fb25fb14c.JPG She watched the area the male was located for quite some time.  It appears he had stolen her kill.  She descended and crossed a gully to climb the tree where her kill was stashed but he saw her and came up the tree after her.  Quite a ruckus ensued with the female fleeing to nurse her wounds.

 

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Atravelynn

Leopard in the dark.  That's its element.  Not to be messed with!

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The_Norwegian

Following intently :-D Great stuff! Awesome with the nightshots of the senegal male, wich by the way originally was named Kunyuma, he`s born a little north of MM, but when he set up shop in MM, they named him with their own name :-) 

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TravelMore
1 hour ago, The_Norwegian said:

Following intently :-D Great stuff! Awesome with the nightshots of the senegal male, wich by the way originally was named Kunyuma, he`s born a little north of MM, but when he set up shop in MM, they named him with their own name :-) 

Ty!  Finally back home and trying to get into the swing of things.  I'll try to write and fill in pics little by little. When I do, I'll be adding to previous posts. This trip was absolutely fantastic for wildlife viewing!

 

My guide did not seem to know the names of the 3 gowrie boys. More he had nicknames like the pretty one, grumpy one (lip is damaged so it looks like a grimmace), and the "hurt" one.

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Thanks TravelMore. Mala Mala is one of my top five places in the world. Glad you enjoyed it there.

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TravelMore
On 7/6/2019 at 3:22 PM, Wildship said:

Thanks TravelMore. Mala Mala is one of my top five places in the world. Glad you enjoyed it there.

I can see why. I'm already trying to figure out when I could go back!

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TravelMore

Several posts back I had pics of lion cubs. My son was sitting tiwards the back of the jeep and gad the perfect view to capture this:   Video of cubs

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Post 9 now has additional pictures.  Post 16 has the elephants at the river and a couple others.  Post 17 has additional pictures.

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Senegal Bush Male (Kunyuma) is always snarly it's part of his heritage from the infamous Karula. :) SO happy to see the Gowrie/Birmingham coalition doing well despite a slight injury to Nsuku. The Sabi Sands is on my list of places to go but I must get Kenya out of the way first. 

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Quote

 

I've added more pictures to posts 23 and 25.  23, has the special surprise we encountered.

 

I'm going to take a post here to try to insert some scenery from the reserve.

 

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Blow this one up to see the ellies.

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Summary

I guess it's time for me to finish this up.  There are many more pictures from the last two days that I haven't posted because I'm afraid it might be seeming redundant.  We came to Mala Mala for big cats and it delivered them beyond my wildest dreams.  Every day we had multiple leopard sightings and often spent long stretches of time with them. In all I believe we saw at least 10 (OH no, I forgot to post the leopard cubs - I'll fix that eventually). Some of the leopards we saw that are named:  Island female, Picadilly female, Three rivers female, Tear drop female, Nkoveni female, Flat Rock male, Senegal Bush male,  2 skittish males(could have been the same one - not sure).  We witnessed 2 leopard fights, one was a cloud of dust then found the Senegal with blood on his head.  The second two leopards battled it out in a tree and although it was across an empty ravine the sound was so loud you thought they were right next to you!  Every day we had at least one lion sighting, and except for the first night, multiple sightings.  I believe we saw 2 coalitions (Gowrie and Avoca) then different members of the Kambula Pride.  We were able to follow both leopards and lions down roads, along the river, and through the brush.  Twice we were serenaded by male lions roaring.  We saw elephants with babies daily, a zebra with a nursing baby, giraffes daily.  Wild dogs 3 times, hippos twice, rhinos several times(I don't post pics of rhinos).We saw cape buffalo on the way into the lodge (sorry another thing I forgot to post).  Wildebeast, kudu, baboons, monkeys, it was all practically non stop.  After each sighting it seemed we drove at most 10-15 minutes before we were viewing something else.  I'm really glad we went to only one camp for 6 days so we could really get to know the land, the patterns, the staff.  Would I go back for another 6 days?  In a heartbeat!

 

We have some video of our trip as well.  I may eventually add links when we get it all sorted.

 

Thanks for reading, sorry I didn't write a little more and primarily dropped pictures.  There was just so much and I wasn't prepared for it all.  In the future, I would try to log sightings in a journal, then put it all together later.

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The_Norwegian
On 6/29/2019 at 10:13 PM, TravelMore said:

Saturday Morning.DSC00801.JPG.6c01cc4bceee412c97e574c63586528d.JPGToday. Not enough superlatives to describe. Giraffes sparring.4 leopards. Wild dogs. A female lion. And More, much more!

 

Ok, too tired. More pics tomorrow.

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The Skittish Male Leopard. My son captured this photo. I have a fer of him in bushes and of his behind. He does not like the vehicles!

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Great shots yet again!

 

Do you know the Id for this leopard lying in the road, and who he was fighting with?

 

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On 7/18/2019 at 1:50 AM, The_Norwegian said:

 

 

Great shots yet again!

 

Do you know the Id for this leopard lying in the road, and who he was fighting with?

 

 Correction : the bloody one is none other than the Flat Rock Male.  The one he fought with was very elusive and we could not keep up with him (even though the guide did a tremendous job crashing through the bush).  We believe it was the skittish male that they've been talking about on FB.  Flat Rock male seemed fine within about 15 minutes, he and I believe the female to be Nkoveni female, left together.  She was acting rather coquettish and it seemed as if they would mate.

 

If you want to see a really neat picture of him in a different light, gameranger_rob posted a pic of him on Instagram.  It's the first time I've seen him without a grumpy look or snarl on his face.  He is quite the bruiser.

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Thanks for sharing your pictures! Happy for you Mala Mala delivered you more than you could have wished for.

 

Awesome picture of the bloody leopard on the road and the other one on the side, just in front of the car. Enjoyed your photos a lot!

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lisasplaces
On 7/15/2019 at 5:16 AM, TravelMore said:

I've added more pictures to posts 23 and 25.  23, has the special surprise we encountered.

 

I'm going to take a post here to try to insert some scenery from the reserve.

 

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Blow this one up to see the ellies.

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lisasplaces

Thank you so much for sharing! What a wonderful safari story and photos. Mala Mala is on my bucket list but as I travel on my own, price-wise it's always out of reach. But one day, I will get there!

I'm not away until Christmas time to the Klaserie but seeing your photos has helped to fill the gap

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3 hours ago, lisasplaces said:

Thank you so much for sharing! What a wonderful safari story and photos. Mala Mala is on my bucket list but as I travel on my own, price-wise it's always out of reach. But one day, I will get there!

I'm not away until Christmas time to the Klaserie but seeing your photos has helped to fill the gap

Thanks Lisa, 

 

I think you sometimes visit Senalala and that is a Very Nice Camp!  I love Corlia and HJ.  If you REALLY want to fill your gap, go on Instagram and look at some of the videos gameranger_Rob is posting.  Make sure to click on the video so it opens in igtv mode.  Watch it on a computer screen with the sound up, especially today's video!

https://www.instagram.com/gameranger_rob/

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 7/18/2019 at 1:50 AM, The_Norwegian said:

Do you know the Id for this leopard lying in the road, and who he was fighting with?

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Lion cubs are adorable in stills and video.  Good job of tag teaming with your son.

Edited by Atravelynn
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