Farewell to Phinda...Hello to Ngala

We woke up on our last morning at Phinda with decidedly mixed feelings.  While we were still on an absolute high from getting married and the incredible events of the day before, we were definitely sad to be leaving Phinda.  We'd met so many kind people and they treated us so incredibly that we wondered if the other game lodges that we were visiting had any chance to compare.  All that said, we weren't leaving yet...we had one final morning game drive in Phinda and we'd invited Francois to come out with us.  It was the first day of our honeymoon and we didn't want to waste a minute...

Although we'd been greeted for the past several mornings by giraffe, on our final morning the white rhino would see us off.  We got to see this mother and calf for a few moments on their way to a watering hole

 

Our good fortune continued as we came across three male cheetah who were on the hunt.  Matt told us that they were brothers, and they were very effective hunters.

 

 

Warming up for the nyala race?

 

After the cheetah encounter, we stopped for tea and coffee.  You might not be able to see it, but the sign on the vehicle says "Just Married"

 

 

Matt took a picture of Francois taking a picture of us.

 

 

After our final mocha-choca-rula, we ran into the lions on our way back to the lodge.  The dominant male and the large lioness were keeping an eye on the two lionesses from the previous morning.  They were much less agitated as the sub-adult male was nowhere to be found.

 



 

Once we returned to the lodge we enjoyed our final breakfast with Francois.  We went back to our tent cabin and packed up all of our stuff. We then headed back to the lodge to say farewell to everyone.  Devon gave her wedding flowers to Tasha for her wedding, and Tasha had secretly made a travel bouquet for Devon out of flowers from the ceremony.  Jess, Muzi and Francois also saw us off as Matt drove us back to the airstrip.  We were sad to say goodbye to Matt.  As our first Ranger, not to mention the person who gave Devon away at the wedding, he would always be a part of the great memories of our trip.

 

 

For our flight from the Phinda airstrip to Ngala, we had the same pilot.  He offered Rob the chance to sit in the co-pilot's seat, which Rob thought over for a hundredth of a second before saying yes.  The flight to Ngala lasted about 90 minutes and included flying over the country of Swaziland.  Ngala was located adjacent to Kruger National Park in South Africa.  There are no fences between Ngala and Kruger, so there would be a great deal of space to explore.

 

When we landed at Ngala Private Game Reserve, we met our Ranger, Andrew.  He was very knowledgeable and we liked him right from the start.  He brought us to Ngala Tented Camp where we met Dennis, the Hospitality Manager, and David, our butler, who showed us our room, which had  private balcony overlooking the river bed.  It was very nicely appointed with an indoor bath and outdoor shower.  After checking out the room we headed to lunch.  We both had yellow tail with parma ham and shared dessert of a deconstructed lemon meringue pie...Needless to say we were off to a great start.

 

After a quick rest in our tent cabin we headed to the lodge for our afternoon game drive.  We enjoyed some iced coffee and lemonade and met some of the other people who were staying at Ngala.  There was a very nice couple from Sweden who had been to Ngala several times before.  We also met a very nice British couple who had recently retired and were celebrating.  At the vehicle, we met our tracker, Adam, and the other people who'd be on our game drives.  Kai and Barbara from Germany and Gordon and Kim from New Zealand.  And then we set out on our first Ngala game drive.

 

As the afternoon was warm, Andrew started out our game drive with a visit to a watering hole.  It was a good call as we were able to see a group of elephants, including a young calf, taking a cool dip. 

 

The watering hole was also occupied by a family of hippopotamuses.  This was the first time we'd experienced hippos and it was fascinating to see how they were able to keep virtually all of their bodies submerged except for their eyes, ears, nose and backside.

 

 

As we left the watering hole, we ran into a couple of male rhinos.  Andrew was certain that they were heading to the watering hole, so we went back there as well.

 

We arrived before the rhinos and had a chance to observe another elephant, this time a solitary male.

 

 

 

After the male left, the two rhinos came for a drink.  You can see that they are white rhinos by the square lips.

 

They were joined by a couple of female kudu.



 

After the rhinos moved off, a large group of elephants came to the water.  Apparently this was quite a popular spot!

 

They were very careful to protect the calves while they were drinking.

 

At first some young males went for a swim, but after a while, everyone jumped in.

 

It was quite an experience at that watering hole.  But the night was not over yet.  Andrew drove us to a clearing where a huge feast was set for us.  We enjoyed grilled kudu, South African sausages and chicken along with several sides and a traditional African pudding for dessert.  The only problem with the evening was that while we were dining, two of the rangers thought that they'd heard gun shots.  As rhino poaching is a real problem in the Kruger, we were all immediately concerned that the rhinos that we'd seen earlier may have been killed.   It definitely put a bit of a damper on the evening, but we wouldn't know anything until the next morning.

 

We somewhat somberly drove back to the Lodge and went to bed.  It had been a very long day and we wanted to be well rested for the morning.



Literally, The Best Day Ever

Day 4 at Phinda started just like the previous two.  An early wake up call that we were already ready for and a quick breakfast at the Lodge (Rob is now trying to figure out how to find good Rooibos in the USA) and we set out with Matt and Muzi.  Our friends from Cape Town elected to sleep in this morning, as they would be heading back home that afternoon. Francois was able to join us, however.

We were greeted first thing by a female giraffe who was able to use her tongue to find leaves amongst the giant thorns of the tree she was working on.

 

Shortly thereafter, we ran into a young bull elephant who was tearing down whole branches of the trees he was eating.

 

 

You can see him reaching up with his trunk, which he'd wrap around a branch and pull down.



 

 

After we left the sand forest, we experienced our most intense lion encounter to date.  At a watering hole, a sub-adult male lion (not from the dominant pride) was trying to interact with a female from the pride.  She was having none of it.  

 

The dynamic really got aggressive when the dominant male showed up with another lioness.  At that point, the lioness went over the dominant male and the sub-adult was in a world of hurt.  It was clear that he was trying to get out of the situation in a specific direction, but for some reason, the 3 lions weren't letting him do that.  We'd soon understand why.

 

 

 There are specific protocols that the rangers and vehicles need to observe.  One is that only 3 vehicles can be at a specific interaction at any given time.  The rangers will reserve a place "in line" so that when one vehicle leaves, they can drive into the area and observe. 

 

 

While we were observing this lion interaction, we thought it was winding down and Matt "called out".  Unfortunately, the action wasn't quite over yet, but another vehicle was already coming to take our spot.

 

 

Not to worry however, because nearby we were able to find another very intense lion encounter.  This time, it was the two females who were companions of the sub-adult male.  They were being absolutely harassed by another one of the pride lionesses.  





 

The pride lioness clearly didn't want these two to go and support their male.  She kept them penned into this small clearing by charging them several times.  We could tell that the two females were very intimidated.  They got very submissive and made sounds that were almost like a dog whining.

 

By the time that we left, the sub-adult male was pushed off into a different direction than where his lionesses went.  We were hoping that we'd have the chance to see them interact again because it didn't seem that the soap opera was quite over.

 

That said, it was time for us to head back to the lodge for breakfast and to get ready for the wedding.

 

We enjoyed our breakfast and headed back into the tent cabin. We split up into separate cabins to have lunch and get ready.  While that was going on, Francois took some pictures of the rings and the dress as well as Devon getting ready for the ceremony. Tasha joined Devon to help with her finishing touches.

 

The wedding site was a small clearing at the base of a Fever Tree about 10 minutes away from the lodge.  Muzi drove Rob to the ceremony with the Reverend and Francois.  Matt drove Devon and walked her down the rose petal aisle as a Zulu choir serenaded us.  Devon had a protea bouquet and there was a beautiful lantern with filled with local flowers.  Jess and Tasha were witnesses while Francois captured our special moments.  It was all perfect and perfectly represented what we wanted:  Love, Laughter and Adventure.  Afterwards, we enjoyed some champagne and took some pictures at the site.

 

Until we receive our pictures from Francois, this is the only one from the ceremony that we have to share.

 

 

That afternoon we enjoyed a game/photo drive with Matt, Muzi and Francois.  We enjoyed our sundowner at the top of a mountain where we watched the sunset and took more photos.  It was a fun night with people who we know will remain lifelong friends.

 

When we returned to the Lodge for dinner, we were in the Boma again.  This time we had a separate table from the other guests set up with candles and champagne.  Once dinner was over, we set out to a few other places in the lodge with Matt and Francois for some final photos before heading to bed. 

 

There were lots of laughs and great stories and it was a day that we'll never forget.   We fell asleep excited for what tomorrow would bring, the start of our African Honeymoon.