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Magic of Makalali<br />
Some of the best sightings SA reserves can offer. Charismatic field guides.<br />
And charming bush textures. An authentic African experience awaits ...<br />
Compiled by: Daniella Graham<br />
From seeking big and small game to telling bushveld tales, the field guides<br />
take you on an extraordinary African adventure.<br />
There’s something wonderfully romantic about Makalali River Lodge, and<br />
the bathtubs that overlook the reserve are one of the highlights.<br />
32 Get It Joburg <strong>West</strong> <strong>March</strong> <strong>2020</strong><br />
A Land Cruiser’s engine roars into<br />
action. Hippos groan. Buffaloes grunt.<br />
These are (some of ) the sounds of<br />
Africa. They surrounded us recently as<br />
we sat at a waterhole in the<br />
26 000-hectare Aha Makalali Private<br />
Game Reserve near Hoedspruit.<br />
What was that? A lion growling? No,<br />
it was someone’s stomach grumbling<br />
… time for sundowners. It wasn’t long<br />
before we were standing with a cool<br />
G&T in one hand, a stick of dry wors<br />
in the other. Aware of the wildness<br />
around us.<br />
On our first afternoon game drive we’d<br />
already spotted two of the Big Five<br />
and, during our short stay, we’d go on<br />
to see a further two of these big game<br />
animals, as well as a pack of wild dogs<br />
hunting impalas.<br />
We couldn’t possibly take credit for<br />
spotting the game first – the field<br />
guides and trackers are excellent (they<br />
tell us they ‘eat their carrots’) and<br />
they’ve a great sense of humour. When<br />
the message ‘We want to see a spotted<br />
leopard,’ reached our field guide during<br />
a game of broken telephone, he<br />
laughed heartily and joked, ‘Oh, you<br />
want to see a spotted leopard? Today<br />
we were going to look for a plain one!’<br />
We learnt tourism group, Tourvest<br />
is educating even more field guides<br />
through a fully-sponsored course at<br />
the Tourvest Field Guide Academy,<br />
based at the reserve.<br />
The field guides make sundowners<br />
far from ordinary. On our last evening,<br />
lanterns were set up in a circle at a<br />
spot in the reserve. A gin bar to one<br />
side. Comfy cushions scattered in the<br />
middle. It was ‘Bush TV’ at its finest.<br />
Impalas and wildebeest grazed a little<br />
distance away, while daring blackbacked<br />
jackals crept close to the<br />
snack table, hoping to score a piece
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