The scent of the beckoning wild
MANYELETI: HIDDEN GEM OF THE LOWVELD A RARE EXPERIENCE
One thing you need never doubt about the Manyeleti, says guide Wise Mnisi as he bumps the game-viewing vehicle through the bush, is that you will see lion, elephant and buffalo in abundance.
Born in the Manyeleti to one of the dominant Tsonga clans long before the reserve was proclaimed, few people argue with the man who transformed himself from maintenance worker, through master tracker, to senior guide at Tintswalo Safari Lodge.
“I was a guide here while Wise was working in security and maintenance at one of the other lodges in the reserve,” says Alistair Leuner, Tintswalo’s regional general manager for safari operations.
“I was driving along and spotted this guy – alone and unarmed – walking in the road. I asked him what he was doing. He replied that he was tracking a leopard.”
Sure enough, says Leuner, they found the animal a few minutes later.
“Wise’s sister and mother both work here at the lodge and they told me he was looking for freelance tracking work. My tracker at the time was off sick, so I told Wise I could offer him a three-month slot.
“He arrived without any professional qualification but, as I always say, you can train someone who’s passionate…” That was more than six years ago.
So competent and personable is Mnisi, I am told, that return visitors to this exclusive breakaway in a wildlife-rich part of the Lowveld insist he be behind the wheel for their morning and evening game drives when they make their bookings.
The 27 000ha size of the Manyeleti is actually misleading.
“We are part of the greater Kruger National Park,” says Leuner. “There are no fences between us and Timbavati or with Sabi Sands. We also have a 27km unfenced border with Kruger.
“There are only three lodges – of which Tintswalo is one – in the Manyeleti, each with just three viewing vehicles. This is an incredibly low vehicle density, which allows guests to spend almost unlimited time on game sightings.
All this, he adds, “makes the Manyeleti a hidden gem”.
The reserve, located close to Hoedspruit, just off the road leading to the Orpen Gate entrance to
Kruger, is run by the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency. It was proclaimed in 1963 as a “blacks only” nature reserve because, at the time, “people of colour” were not allowed into Kruger.
My conversation with Leuner takes place during breakfast on the five-star lodge’s stoep that overlooks a waterhole with a difference.
“We had a traditional waterhole but the elephants kept digging up the pipe that fed it. Eventually we rerouted the pipe to the upper branches of this jackalberry tree, creating both a shower and a tap for them.”
It’s fascinating sitting in the hide next to the waterhole, observing at eye-level how they manipulate their trunks – did you know these contain about 40 000 muscles? – to catch the falling stream and funnel it into their mouths.
I arrived at about 4.30pm, half an hour late for the usual departure of afternoon game drive, but because it was a midweek visit and the lodge was very quiet, Wise and tracker Pardon Mokoena hung around until I’d downed a beer, dumped my luggage and was ready to head out.
To be honest, as a photographer, I far prefer morning game drives to those in the late afternoon: apart from the “golden hour” when the sun imbues the veld and animals with a rich glow, the light gets progressively worse for pictures. Sadly, this coincides with the time predators become active and flashlight-spotlight photography is very much frowned upon.
Light was teetering on darkness
when we encountered a little procession heading in our direction… two lionesses and four cubs, two of which couldn’t have been much more than a month old.
The two mamas were on a mission; to get back to the other females in the pride so they could create a safe laying-up spot for the cubs so the females could go hunting.
There was no way the two tiny ones could keep up, but they followed gamely in the tracks of the other four, squeaking anxiously all the while and forcing their mother to periodically turn back and check on them. And therein lay another story which Wise told me later during our phuza (sundowners) break.
“Alistair sent me to do my first assessment as a tracker. I was very nervous because I hadn’t been working long in the bush and some of the other guys being assessed had been tracking for more than 10 years.
“One guy was asked to determine in which direction a lioness was moving but, after a couple of hundred metres watching her going back and forth, he gave up.
“It was my turn to pick up the spoor and I soon found the faint tracks of two small cubs. The lioness was doing exactly what we saw that mama doing. In order to track the mother, I followed the spoor of her babies…”
Back at camp, I got the chance to freshen up before dinner, which gave me the opportunity to have a look at my suite.
Tintswalo describes itself as the “ultimate chic safari lodge” and the seven standalone dwellings, which include a “presidential suite” are extremely large and lavishly equipped. All are named after famous African explorers.
Mine was “Grant” after James Augustus Grant (1827-1892), one of the co-discoverers of the source of the Nile in 1862.
The suite was lavish and it was only the next morning that I discovered there was a second enormous bedroom. Frankly, I’d been so knackered the night before that, even though I’d left my doors open to enjoy the sounds of the wild, I’d been little bothered by the proximity of browsing elephants and a cackling spotted hyena.
Dinner the night before was a seven-course tasting menu that included a caprese salad, ostrich steak, wild mushroom risotto, sea bass and a chocolate fondant with homemade vanilla ice cream.
Food is an integral element of a luxury lodge’s offering and I had the springbok tartare.
My word, did I unleash my inner carnivore. However, unlike the myriad lions of the Manyeleti, I could wash it down with a Kevin Arnold Shiraz.