Photographs courtesy of John and Karen Meeks from the USA
who were guests of ours at the Sable Camp 09 - 13 June 2006

Due to the fact that we were traveling with two couples who had logged three other trips to Mala Mala and had listened to them for six years extol the experience the Rattray’s provide their guests, we thought we knew what our five days and eight game rides would provide. My wife and I instantly knew we were wrong for within six hours of landing at Mala Mala we witnessed the Styx Pride and the two Split Rock males take down, within twenty yards of our vehicle, an enormous bull Cape Buffalo. At that point we knew we were in Africa and that it was, as we had been advised, impossible to describe the Mala Mala experience. Our next days were followed by experiences we could never have imagined - this was not High Definition National Geographic – this was the real Africa where everything is about survival.

Certainly, the kill by the Styx Pride was one of the highlights of our trip along with watching the Styx Pride lionesses cavort in the river bed the next morning obviously joyful for a full stomach and restful slumber. Our guide, Sheldon, was not only our constant companion but a veritable encyclopedia of the nature and habits of the ‘Big Five’ combining boundless energy for the next quarry sighting with our needs for rest and rejuvenation.

I had never experienced the native skills of anyone like our tracker, Saliot, in being able to spot game with his naked eye that we could not even begin to see with our high dollar binoculars and lenses. The tracking skills of Sheldon and Saliot were certainly another highlight of our trip. In a single five hour morning outing, their work allowed us to see the African ‘Big Five’ in a virtually effortless cruise into the Mala Mala bush that they know so well.

The real ‘nature’ highlight came our last evening when we witnessed in close to total darkness with only Saliot’s spotlight pointing the way, the Kapen female Leopard call her hidden cub out of the thick bush. Sheldon then safely positioned our Land Rover so that we could observe the mother and cub join together at the river for a reunion and well deserved drink then we were “chauffeured” slowly and carefully for more than twenty minutes through an impossible brambled route up and down steep river banks in a wonderful game of hide and seek with the mother and cub.

All I can say about our experience at Mala Mala is, “We Shall Return”.