Doesn't get much better than this!!!
Aug 26, 2024 Karrst Pretoria, South Africa
We spent two nights at Rock Lodge as part of our four day visit to Ulusaba. We once again booked the Makwela Dawn Suite for its spacious layout, comfortable with everything one could ask for, great pool and deck which offer excellent views over the surrounding bush. Perched on the side of the koppie it gives you a different perspective on the…
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We spent two nights at Rock Lodge as part of our four day visit to Ulusaba. We once again booked the Makwela Dawn Suite for its spacious layout, comfortable with everything one could ask for, great pool and deck which offer excellent views over the surrounding bush. Perched on the side of the koppie it gives you a different perspective on the area.
Anel and her team at the lodge were nothing short of superb and we are always made to feel at home when we are at this lodge. As always the dinning is excellent from breakfast snacks before the drive to your five star evening meal with the bottle of wine. You want for nothing.
Having been paired with Peter at Safari, we continued with him and John for our next installment in the bush. Again we saw all the Big Five along with Hippo, Hyenas, Giraffe, Crocodile and the various buck species that are in the area.
Our afternoon drive saw us meet up with one of our old favorites The Ravenscourt Male, we have had the opportunity of seeing him as a young male on a previous visit and now he is an establish mature male and strolls around the bush as if he owns it (probably does!!!). Anyway we spent quite a time following him on his wanderings to eventually rest up and survey his domain.
It was then off to find some White Rhinos hich had been quite elusive until now. We eventually caught up with a mother Rhino and her calf in some thick bush. There was also a bonus as close by we also saw a young female Leopard who was waiting for her mother to return with news of a kill. She as usual with young Leopards entertained us for a good while. Just for good measure on the way back to the lodge we met up with a couple of Lioness. Then to cap a great drive there was a Chameleon in a bush.
The following morning we woke to the sound of Lions roaring not far from the lodge, so could not wait to get out on the drive. Breakfast coffee and rusks along with a chat to Peter on what to expect. As the other guests on the veheicle were not joining us we had the morning to ourselves so what would we like to do. Well lets get out and find the Lions. We must have spent a good hour traversing the bush listening to them, but not finding them. Eventually we came across another Rhino mother with the calf which are always nice to see. We could still hear the Rangers looking for the Lions on the radio, so Peter suggested we head off in another direction to see what we could find.
It was one of those mornings, where things in the bush are slow. Peter suggested we try the Leopard Den, but we could only stay if the mother was with the cub. So off we set for which would be the most exceptional sighting we have ever had. Although we had seen them before this was something special being on our own with these amazing cats. When we came close we could see the mother Leopard lying down, but no cub. Then this little head popped up and looked at us. This was obviously the que it had been waiting for, there was an audience at last and its time to entertain. We then treated to 45 minutes of the most awesome interaction between the mother and cub playing and mock hunting the little star went through his complete routine. Not even interrupted when a noisy herd of Elephants passed by, although the mother kept a close eye on them. Words cannot describe how we felt when we left them at last, but there was silence on the vehicle and n in the faces at what we had experienced.
The afternoon drive also provided us with a rare sighting of a Pearl-spotted Owlet near the Hippo Dam. along with some more Hyena pups. It was then off to spend some time with the young male Leopard we had seen near Rock Lodge on a previous drive he had killed an Impala and was lying below the tree digesting his meal. Our final sundowners were at one of our favorite spots on the Sand River near a large Fig Tree. Often we have had the odd Bull Elephant cross the river near us. On this occasion on came close to us as we were drinking our Sundowners, so close we had to take shelter behind the vehicle as a precaution, but it made for some close up pictures. Once he had sauntered off in his own time. We set off again back to the lodgethinking the day was over. However we finally caught up with the male Lions from the morning, now sleeping as Lions do.
Our final drive saw us back at the Leopard den as we had a new group with us on the vehicle. As wonderful as this sighting is at anytime. This morning it was cooler and overcast and clearly mother and cub were not in the mood for play. It just made us relaise how lucky we were the previous day to see such great interaction between the two. at the end of our safari we were left with one over-riding thought, even though you know how solitude the life of a Leopard is. The sights we saw really brought it home. The little Leopard cub had only it's mother as companion and she devoted so much time to ensure the cub learnt the skills it would need . Compare this to the Lion Cubs who had numerous buddies to play, mock hunt and generally have a good time with.
A big thank you must go to Peter and John for the amazing time we had on the drives. Peters impersonation of the Pearl-spotted Owlet allowed for some great close ups of White-crested Helmet Shrikes and it eventually led to us actually seeing the owlet. His positioning of the game vehicle made getting the great pictures easy he has a sixth sensce to get into the right place at the right time for some perfect angles.
While I was compiling this review I could not find my previous review of our visit to Rock Lodge. I'm not sure what happened to it as it was at the end of COVID.
Special people for a special visit.
Following my retirement we decided to have a family holiday at Ulusaba, which was duly booked for Easter 2020. Unfortunately by then the world was in Lockdown from COVID so we had to cancel and re-book a further time, before finally arriving at Ulusaba in December 2021.
While the game drives were again awesome thanks to Brandon, this visit was made special by Anel, Corrie and the staff at Rock Lodge. One of my daughters suffers from a number of allergies which presents a challenge to most places we visit, so we were not sure how the team at Ulusaba would manage being out in the bush. No worries for them as we found out, once they new what the allergies were they set about creating a menu for us that met all the various allergies, no gluten, no soya and the many others. In fact my daughter discovered that the kitchen staff had been practicing the week before we arrived. If this is not world class and professional service i'm not sure what is. This even went down to Safari Lodge where we went for tea before our drive. There she was met with a member of staff with her own plate of eats. So Special!!!!!
As I mentioned this visit was towards the end of COVID and little did we know before arriving that thanks to the latest lockdown brought in by the UK the lodge was practically deserted. In fact there were two guest there the first night. After that we had the whole of Rock Lodge to ourselves, not something that happens very often.
As I said Brandon took us on some awesome drives. He also manged to arrange a Bush Breakfast for us in one of the dry river beds.
Big Five, Giraffe, Hyenas, Hippos, Zebra to name a few. In all we saw 11 different Leopards, from a mating pair with our old fried the Ravenscourt male. To three generations of Leopardesses, Grandmother, Her daughters with twin cubs, which were really special to see. Along with a number of young nomadic males in the area.
A complete pride of Lions, with big Males, 3 females and a number of cubs. We spent a great time driving along with the Lionesses and Cubs as the moved around. It was amazing to see the antics of the cubs at play as they moved. We also saw them a second time, unfortunately it was raining and they were not the happiest bunch of felines.
Rhinos were difficult to find and we only saw three while we were there.
As always there is one sighting that will be the highlight of your safari this time it was the pack of Wild Dogs on the last morning. Something I had always wanted to see. Thanks Brandon it was special.
This is a real special place to be and be seen as part of the family. So much so that our "old friends" Wikus and Chris came to see us off at the Reception. They even offered us to come back for Christmas as due to COVID all their bookings had been cancelled. It was a generous offer, but we'd already make arrangements for Christmas. No doubt it would have been an exceptionally great festive time with them.
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