Mala Mala


European Roller



Saddle-bill Stork










Brown-hooded kingfisher


Baby Wildebeest

Tawny Eagle

Egyptian Geese with chicks running away from the Tawny Eagle.

Waterbuck

The Island Female Leopard





Male Nyala

Chris, Richard, Ngaire, Linda, Ken, Harvey.

Stunning pictures. I particularly love the one of the bird with the beautiful blue winds.

Lots of Impala lambs.

So many exciting sightings almost impossible to remember what we have seen.

LEOPARDS so many leopards have no idea how many sightings we have seen it must be well over 10 sightings. Some of most recent highlights. Ken has so many leopard pictures!

We were watching a leopard who had put a kill in a tree. She was not in the tree but close by. So were the hyenas close by waiting for her to feed again and hoping for scraps. Sitting there we heard an alarm call. So we did a ferrari safari to the area where the impalas were calling. We saw a big male leopard. He was heading in the direction of the impala kill in the tree. We followed him and he climbed up the tree and stole the female leopards kill. Then the hyenas came and circled under the tree.

We saw a mother leopard with a male cub, The cub is one year old and twice the size of the mother. We followed them for quite a long time. They would stop along the way and rub each other. So sweet Ken got great pictures of that behaviour. Then they crossed over to Londolozi so we could not follow them any more. This male cub will be a force to be reckoned with when he gets older, he was huge.

Following a mobile leopard is so much fun,one of my favorite things to do. Seems like we did that every game drive.

BUFFALO - saw a big herd in the bush earlier and today the huge herd coming back from the river. We got ahead of them and they came very close and it was an amazing sight. So wonderful to see the herds return after the drought in 2019 it was devasting for the buffalo.

LION - lots of lion but the highlight was the mating pair. We found them multiple times and have seen the "activity" at least five times at a really close range. Once they
did the deed twice within 5 minutes. Today was the best. We found them and pretty quickly they mated. Then the female appeared to be trying to get away. They have been at this for about five days now, I think she has had enough. But that male was not having any of that he was right behind her. Then she gave up, stopped and the deed was again done. We left them at this stage.

ELEPHANTS - so many elephants they are everywhere. Lot of baby ellies in the herds. Got a little attitude from a teenager but he was all bluff. MalaMala has the calmest elephants they are always so relaxed. But so many of them they create road blocks as we try to get from one area to another.

The most exciting event we did not see. One vehicle responded to an alarm call and found a python wrapped around a impala lamb. Hyenas came and python let go of the lamb and the hyenas ran off with the lamb. Once in a lifetime sighting for sure.

Food has been great as usual, the sightings some of the best ever, weather could not have been better. We hit a cool spell with the highest temperatures in the mid eighties. Next week supposed to be much hotter and the day before we arrived it was over 100 degrees. No rain, quite a lot of clouds that made it cooler with just now and then having the sunshine. I expected a lot of flies, bugs and that has not been the case. I was concerned about the heat, the rain and the bugs but none of things have been an issue.

River i anticipated would be much higher. They have not had their usual rain and it looks just like it did last time we were here in the winter.

Last afernoon game drive today and one very early in the morning I am still deciding if I want to go or not. No wild dogs yet and if we do not go and they see dogs I will never forgive myself. But not getting up early, and rushing in the morning also sounds appealing.

Two young males watching the buffalo herd.

Afternoon drive highlights.

Elephants.
Young bull super close rubbing himself on a tree. He did both sides.
Tiny baby Ellie sleeping on the ground under the mother
Teenager giving us attitude then when we left he chased the vehicle.

Leopard
Male eating remains of his kill on the ground. Hyena arrives and that leopard was up that tree so fast taking his left over meal with him.

Lion
Lots of lovely giraffe and a lioness down by the water panting heavily. One group saw eleven lions together. Some sleeping some awake.

Last morning drive coming up hoping for wild dogs.

No wild dogs. But still a good drive. Three highlights.

Baby elephant about two or three weeks old. Basically the other elephants made a circle around the baby shielding it from view but now and then the baby moved where we could see if.

Leopard in a tree with an impala kill. There have been so many leopard sightings and not sightings of the same leopard but lots of different leopards.

We found a new leopard we had not seen before on top of a termite mound. The leopard went mobile and we followed. Not easy, up a hill! Finally the leopard climbed on some rocks. Beautiful view of the area below. Impalas went crazy running back and forth. Ken took a pictures of the baby elephant and the leopard. I hope they turn out well.

We had to go as it was time to leave MalaMala. Been a great safari with outstanding game viewing. Now back to Cape Town and a sad farewell to everyone except those going to Birkenhead House and La Residence.

Tuesday 12/13/2022

Hi:
Well Jan and I are finally home. Drove into the garage at 1:58 pm yesterday.
Spent almost 41 hours in either airports or in the air to finally get to Billings at 1:25 AM.
By the time the hotel shuttle picked us up and got to our room it was 2:10 AM
Had to check out of our ICH hotel in Johannesburg at 11 am so hung around the lobby to 4:30.Regent rep walked 13 of us across the street to check into our Air France flight at 7:30 pm. So spent time in the lounge.
Then in Paris we knew the would be a 4 hour wait which turned into 5 1/2 hours. Then boarded had to wait almost an hour before take off because of a strike by union which refuels the planes!!!
Flight from Paris to SLC was fine except we already knew we missed our 3:30 pm connection. Delta had us rebooked on the 6:30 pm flight, but missed it too. So that left us the 11:30 pm flight for Billings which required us
to wait again in the sky lounge for about 7 hours.
Also had blizzard warnings for yesterday but made it home before anything happened. Then the storm stayed farther south and we did not get much.

Jim, What a journey. You must be exhausted. Flights these days are unfortunately difficult. That was a lot of things steam rolling into a nightmare. Glad you are now home safely. Hope you had a good safari at Lion Sands.

Leaving Birkenhead House in an hour to go to La Residence. Been a great stay. On arrival we had lunch looking at the ocean. Late afternoon there was a storm that washed out roads and caused mud slides. No issues for us personally. The food has been great and everyone has enjoyed Birkenhead House. Shane is still here and we took a picture of him,

Next day the weather was good. We went to the animal farm and had a terrific time. The people loving zebra welcomed us. Two new one year old cheetahs we could Pat, Plus an albino porcupine that we could touch, she was beautiful. Along with a caracul cat we could Pat. Wonderful day. The guide at the farm remembered us and she has the Cheetah pin on her refrigerator. Now she has another pin to add.

Some pictures will follow. Just been super busy.

Peacock at La Residence at our lunch table.

Unfortunately I have come down with a bad cough. Started yesterday morning so before dinner I took a Covid test and it was negative. Took another test today and again negative. It is not Covid but a nasty cough. It is a POLLEN ALLERGY. I went to the doctor got lots of meds and am doing better now. Flying home today.

Here are few of my photos from Mala Mala. I will add to them later as I have time. Link below. Ken

https://ngaire.smugmug.com/AFRICA/Africa-Tours/AFRICAN/i-GBVpLCp/A

Ken, your pictures are outstanding as usual. Love them all. Thank you for sharing.

Such beautiful pictures Ken....what a great trip you had !!