Mike Wendel has been looking after Mkulumadzi Lodge for Robin Pope Safaris down in Majete Wildlife Reserve. Whilst camp is currently quiet, the animals have taken over! Read his stories of elephants taking baths, and lions stealing cameras right here:
Well ladies and gentlemen, a very good Monday morning to you all from Mkulumadzi lodge. However, I find that the longer I stay secluded in the bush, Monday feels like Friday and Wednesday feels like Sunday. Days and time have lost all meaning, the only time we know here is dawn and dusk. Many exciting things have been happening in the past few weeks. Now that there are now only two people here and looking after the lodge, the animals have taken it upon themselves to move back into the lodge, no invite or anything, which, if I may say make day to day tasks very interesting.
Being in the bush for this long and being isolated, I have found myself talking with the animals, but many of my family members have said to me “Mike, if they start talking back, I think you need a break from the bush, ok?” We do have a couple of regular visitors that come into the lodge which have names, my favorite has to be Tom, a fully grown bull elephant. For some reason Tom has found refuge at my house. On Friday morning he came crashing through the bush at 03h30 to enjoy a drink at the small waterhole in front of the managers house. Of course hearing this I woke up and decided to join him and watched him from my terrace. It was a day before full moon so we could see each other very clearly. After his drink, he gave himself a little bath, so, I helped him. I got the garden pipe and helped him with his bath by spraying water all over him. After waking up a bit more, it occurred to me that I’m less than 7m away from a wild, fully grown bull elephant, on foot, bathing him at 03h30 in the morning. Mike you are not well. We spent half an hour enjoying each other company until he decided he had had enough and stomped back through the bush into the darkness. And that was that.
