Once inside the reserve, it was a very bumpy 45 minute drive to our accommodation with not a blade of grass in sight, and very few leaves on the trees that still stood. I was thinking to myself that this would be a rather quiet trip as surely nothing could survive in such harsh surroundings.
As soon as we arrived in our room we looked out onto the watering hole and saw a few eland grazing on goodness knows what vegetation.
And boy was I wrong about survival. The cats in particular were having a field day as they could spot their prey from far away. Obviously that means the prey can spot them too, but the cheetah with their amazing speed were being very successful. On our first game drive we met up with a family of five cheetah cubs and their mother. They seemed to be very lazy in the afternoon sun and we stayed a while to watch them greeting each other and playing around.
Suddenly they all became alert and we saw that they had spotted a herd of eland in the distance.
The hunt began and our ranger followed and while we were all bouncing around on the back of the vehicle the adrenalin was pumping.
They did manage to catch an eland calf and 'played' with it for a good 45 minutes before finally killing it. Don't believe what you read about cats playing with prey and making 'friends' with it. It's all part of the training.
The eland calf made several attempts to escape while the successful brother was waiting for his siblings to come join the feast. It even seemed to know how to "play dead" and just when you thought it was over, it made another leap for freedom, but was doomed from the start. On driving further around the reserve, we saw that this particular family had had lots of practice at hunting, and several carcasses (mostly young) lay around the reserve, hardly touched. It does seem a waste, but everyone has to eat.
Mashatu is well know for its huge elephant herds, but because of the length and severity of the dry season, most of them had moved south to Mapungubwe (the South African portion of this extended reserve). A few, however, had stayed and there was some debate about who chooses to go and who to stay. The matriarch ultimately makes the decision and we surmised that these amazingly intelligent pachyderms weigh up the pros and cons of how the journey will take its toll on the youngsters, whether with only a few of them staying there will be more food for the ones left behind, and I am sure various other factors that we can only imagine.
Many had to dig for their food, whether carnivores…
Herbivores…..
Or Pescatarians…...
The scavengers were also having a field day, but still found the need to fight over any scraps that they found.
These guys were all having a stand off as the hyenas had discovered what looked like an old piece of skin and the jackal and vulture were keen to grab their share. But in the end it was the hyenas who fought between themselves for the prize.
As with most bush holidays, your day is made up of getting up (very) early, coffee, game drive, huge brunch on return to the lodge, trying to rest in the afternoon before getting back on the vehicle for another game drive and sundowners in the middle of the open bushveld, back to lodge for dinner, good food, good wine, great company, meeting people from all over the world who simply love coming to Africa (who can blame them) and back to your comfortable bed for some peaceful, undisturbed sleep - and I NEVER tire of it.
There is much activity to be witnessed on most game drives in Mashatu, but some animals are more relaxed about life.
"What do you wanna do?" " Dunno, what do you wanna do?" "Dunno, what do ……etc"
Some are just so ugly they are beautiful - and look at those ballerina toes:
Needless to say, we went back. Mashatu trip number 2 to follow……
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