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The next stop,
142 kilometres away, was our favourite "Big 5" Game reserve, Mkuze Falls,
although Avis' directions sent us down a road far worse than any we were
on in Namibia! Maybe it was because it had rained so much, but this road
was definitely only meant to be tackled by four wheel drive vehicles!
Anyway, Mkuze Falls.
It felt a bit
weird to start with being back there because of the fact the last time we
were with Siebert (see the, "How It All Began" diary entry.) Especially
when one of the drives we were on went past the place where he died and
this was pointed out to us!
The staff had
changed almost completely, which can be quite common for game reserves,
although Elliot still ended up being our tracker, but was now working with
Sepohe who was our ranger on the game drives.
We had a
fantastic time on the game drives, especially the last two when it was
just us, Elliot and Sepohe, they could relax a little bit more as we tend
to be a little less high maintenance than some of the guests! We shared
many a funny story between us, some we probably shouldn't have been told,
but were glad we were and some we probably shouldn't have told those guys!
As far as the
game viewing goes, it is always excellent here, but the highlights
included seeing a Cheetah with her two cubs on two separate occasions, a
male cheetah, several Lions, a Serval, a Large Spotted Genet, several
White Rhinos, lots of Buffalo and quite a number of Ellies.
We did struggle
to find Impala on our first drive which was quite amusing given that their
nickname is "McDonald's.” This is for two reasons, firstly they have an
"M" on their bums caused by three black stripes, but secondly because you
are pretty much guaranteed to see one on most corners! Sepohe asked what
we would like to see and nearly everyone says Lion, Leopard, Cheetah,
Elephant, etc, so I jokingly said, "Impala" as it is just about the only
animal you can guarantee you will see! Of course Sepohe laughed and made
the fatal mistake of promising he would find me Impala. "Murphy's Law"
jumped in big style and made sure he couldn't find one, this has to be a
first on game drives and I am sure Sepohe would not live it down if anyone
found out! Oops!
One of the other
amusing moments was on our last drive when it was just Angela and myself.
We went the long way round one of the mountains on the Mkuze Falls reserve
to see what we could see. There is only one road around this mountain and
as we got almost all the way round, literally just twenty metres away from
the junction back where we started, we were met by Shosholoza, a
cantankerous Elephant who happened to be on "Musk.” This meant he was
extremely irritable and was not going to let us drive past him. We tried
everything to get round him, but he was having none of it, he charged us
several times, sharpened his tusks twice, stood in the road looking as
huge as he could make himself and finally pushing over a tree to
demonstrate his strength! After several attempts to fool him and waiting
ages we had no choice but to go all the way back the way we came, just for
the sake of twenty metres and a stroppy elephant! I swear blind we saw
him laughing as Sepohe gave up and drove off! |