Mashatu Game Reserve

The Mashatu Game Reserve was the real highlight of the trip, I think, and actually inspired the whole journey.

We were met at the border and really had a Game Drive on the way to Main Camp to check in.

^The river at the border. You can see the wires running across: in the wet season when the river is full, a cable car is used to get across.

We were warmly welcomed by Bobson and the staff, and checked in then shown to our room, which was spacious, well furnished and very comfortable. Definitely a room to be happy spending time in- anywhere else. There was too much to see and do here though: I was rarely in the room other than to sleep and shower.

We met our Rangers for the duration of our stay- Elvis and Aaron, and the two guys from Hong Kong who ended up on the same truck we were in- Gary and Michael- and off we went!

I would like to talk about a bit of an impression I got right now: it seems to me that it is common for folks on these game drives to have specific animals they want to see (often these are the "Big 5" : lion, elephant, cape buffalo, leopard and rhinoceros) so the guides tend to try and satisfy that, and often seem to want to move quickly from one animal sighting to another.

This probably does suit most folks, but all five of us were less interested in specific animals and far more interested in seeing what whichever animals were DID see were doing, how they were acting and interacting with each other. Elvis and Aaron adapted to us VERY quickly in that regard, and I think we were very lucky to have them, and to have a group of us that all felt the same way about what we saw. Also fortunate in that we all had ...a sense of humor, and didn't hold back from using it! Yeah, we had a lot of fun joking around as well as enjoying the incredible scenery and wildlife!

So there we were, driving around looking at (and being looked at BY) all the amazing animals, being taught their names, habits and more, and joking around just about constantly. I can not think of anything that could have improved on the experience at Mashatu except maybe more time.

There is a word in the english language that I generally consider worn out so I do not use it, but in this case, it is appropriate:

Awesome.

Each time we left camp- sometimes even sitting IN camp!- I was in awe.

A few of the pictures from the first day:

^Zebra

^Wildebeest

^Giraffe

^Eland

^Impala

^Ostrich

^Banded Mongoose

^Cheetah with a fresh kill.

^Female lions napping at dusk.

^Two lion cubs hanging out under the watchful eyes of the pride.

^Sunset.

^Driving at night, headed back towards camp.

There are more pictures in the gallery-

First Game Drive at Mashatu

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