Day 6 – So Long Marataba, Hello Morukuru

Our last drive at Marataba took on a different vibe than usual. We were on the look out for animals of course, but we headed towards the Operations Centre, which is where they overlook the running of the park. This is where they can check their cameras, the weather station so they can plan maintenance, and what I found the most exciting, how they track their animals. They do this by the AI collars we helped with on the rhinos, and also by inputting known sightings while on drives, which allows for record of some interesting stats. We got to see just how far one of their elephants roam throughout the months, and got to check in on a rhino we had met along the way. I find this kind of thing fascinating! It’s interesting purely by a curiosity standpoint, but it also provides so much information on behaviours that goes into the protection of these animals.

I’m not including photos of the comms centre and maps to ensure the safety of the animals.

On this mornings drive, we met:

• Impala
• Violet breasted roller
• Arrow marked babblers
• Burches coucal
• Water buck
• Hippos
• Crimson breasted shrike, AKA butcher bird since it is known for being brutal towards its prey
• Giraffe
• Zebra
• Warthog
• Leopard tortoise
• Wildebeest

After the drive we headed back to camp for our farewell breakfast and to hang out until our transfer to the airstrip and our flight to Morukuru. This didn’t exactly go to plan though, which is a very long story which involved getting soaking wet, a pilot making questionable decisions, 4WDing, waiting trapped in a car for 3 hours, one manic episode and a dance in the rain, before finally getting on the damn thing, saying a sad goodbye and flying to our next destination.

The flight was a quick 30 minutes and once I got over the frustration from the morning, it was pretty cool to take a flight in a small plane. It’s quite interesting to see the landscape change like it did being only 30 minutes away by plane, but landing into Morukuru showed us a vastly different setting. The sand is much more red from the iron in the soil I’m assuming, and it’s a much more rocky terrain with a lot more vegetation. After we landed we met out guide and tracker for our stay, Emile and Gummy, who took us back to our home for the next few days. We started out with a bang since on the way to the Farmhouse we met:

• Banded mongoose (not meerkat, which is a long story)
• A large family of elephants causing a traffic jam, which we had all the patience for since they had a young calf amongst them, who was yet to know how to use his legs confidently, and who had a good suckle off mum which made the funniest slurping sounds
• Burchill starling
• Stein buck – the cutest tiny antelope you’ll ever see
• Wildebeest
• Nyala

This place is bloody stunning. Much too fancy for me, but an experience I’m not likely to forget. The house itself is immaculate, and exactly the aesthetic I enjoy with the light colours and stone and wood accents, but the grounds are even nicer, full of greenery and beautiful stoneworks. But I find myself more comfortable with the vibe at Explorers. I’m going to try my best not to compare the two, because these are two very different experiences.

We got here much later than expected, so we had a quick lunch at 4.45, and left for our first drive on this reserve at about 5.15. It was a rushed drive, and a little bit later than we wanted, so it was a little bit quieter, but we were still able to see:

• Elephants
• Black Impala (designer breed impala with a different colouring)
• Warthog
• Wildebeest
• Buffalo

We came back to another feast and then called it a night. We do our morning drives at 5.30 with Emile and Gummy, so we need all the beauty sleep we can get!