Ngala Tented Camp in Ngala Private Game Reserve is my base for 5 nights. Washed away by floods two years ago, it is newly rebuilt, with 9 large ‘tents’ open to the breeze, and protected from the resident vervet monkeys and baboons with windows made of chicken wire with a layer of fly screen.
5 days at Ngala means roughly 10 game drives – one in the morning, one in the afternoon/evening. This morning’s drive has us in an ultimately fruitless search for a female leopard and her cubs in the southern section of the reserve. We find her impala kill at the base of the tree she intends to drag it up, but mother and cubs are in hiding and not inclined to show themselves. A relaxed herd of white rhinos provide the main action of the morning, and a surprisingly relaxed female zebra and foal are prepared to pose for a portrait. The rhinos have their own close quarters protection squad hidden away somewhere nearby – the problems with poachers are endemic this close to the Mozambique border where poverty and the lure of a few rand incent the slaughter of these ancient creatures for their horns. The pretty little steenbok is a find – a small graceful antelope with sharp horns and bambi ears.
After breakfast, we head out for a ‘nature walk’ with Derrick, our guide. Crashing through the undergrowth, we don’t have a hope in hell of seeing any animals – they’ve heard us coming a mile away and disappeared. Nevertheless, it’s a good 75min leg stretch after 3 hours in the vehicle this morning.
The afternoon drive sets off at 3.30pm, with the aim of revisiting the female leopard and her cubs. No visibility of them from another vehicle means a change of plan, and we head off to see a couple of elephants cooling off at a waterhole, and a large herd of buffalo at the same waterhole that we saw Day 1’s leopard. A last stop at the hyena den finds a set of hyena cubs waiting for their mother to return from hunting.
Shortly after sunset, we’re packing up after a sundower drink and are surprised to see a ranger approaching on foot. His radio has gone flat and he has no way of radioing for someone to collect him. So we have one extra in the vehicle, and deposit him for collection at the old owners’ house in the reserve. He was in for a long walk in the dark without a rifle if he hadn’t happened upon us.
