Mjejane Game Reserve - Experience
It is a group trip, how exciting! I have been planning this trip for the past two months. I thought it would be a good idea to go away with the ladies. It’s been almost two years since my last group trip with the ladies. What better month than August – women’s month, we have been in and out of lockdown for the past 16 months, I think we deserve a break. A few weeks into planning the trip South Africa went into lockdown again. We are on the third wave of Covid19, and infections are rising by the day. In my mind we can’t cancel, we can only postpone to a later date if we are still in lockdown.
The trip to Hectorspruit took us about 5 hours with all the stopping we had to do on our way to Mjejane. We also got stuck in Mpumalanga roadworks traffic and I had to notify the lodge that we won’t be able to make it for the afternoon game drive. We rescheduled the game drive for the next morning at 7 am cause honestly, I didn’t see these ladies waking up for the 5 am for a game drive
Mjejane Game Reserve in Mpumalanga is located within Kruger National Park on the banks of the Crocodile River. I have been to Mjejane Game Reserve earlier in the year and I know it is that kind of a place where it is normal to see a herd of elephants passing by while you are enjoying your afternoon swim. When we were there on the earlier trip our villa was bush facing, so I was excited to experience River Facing Villa. Mjejane has the main Lodge which is River Lodge and other private lodges/villas. These private lodges are great for big groups cause they accommodate 6-10 people. There is a restaurant and a swimming pool at the main lodge.
Our Villa, Tamboti River lodge is a 5-bedroom villa of which two of the rooms are facing the river and the other three-rooms are bush facing. The bush-facing room has added privacy since they are detached from the entertainment area. The central hub which is also the entertainment area has a fully equipped kitchen, a lounge, and a dining area, outside there is a pool with a boma area. The lodge decor is beautiful with a truly modern styling without being pretentious, feels like a place where you can relax. Upstairs there is a games room with a pool table and another lounge area.
On arrival we unpacked our luggage, we had afternoon drinks while watching the beautiful sunset. It is said that an African sunset is like witnessing the hand of God, in Tamboti River Lodge the setting sun over the river creates a complex collage of colours that remind you of the beauty of Africa. On the first night, we had dinner in the comfort of our villa and after dinner one of the ladies made a fire and we had drinks by the boma and talked the night away, until we had a loud growl and we remembered we are in the jungle and jumped out of our seats and ran inside the house and then after processing the loud growl we realised it was one of the hippos in the river and we went back to our boma.
The next morning started with me trying to make sure everyone is on time for the 7 am game drive. Our ranger had to wait for us for 20 minutes. It was a beautiful morning not too cold and not too hot. Everyone is excited and chatting away. We couldn’t contain our excitement and our ranger was getting annoyed by us chatting. He stopped at one point, and we looked around we thought he was seeing something but there was nothing we asked why he stopped he said he was waiting for us to be quiet. I thought that was very rude of him to do that. We had amazing sightings during our game drive.
It was quite an eventful drive along the way came across a vehicle where the ranger had a medical emergency and was not feeling well, luckily, he had already been assisted and help was on the way. Our ranger stopped and jumped off the vehicle just to make sure, mind you there are two lions a few metres away and also buffaloes. The other ranger was assisted, and we were on our way again. It was time to stop for a short break, we had a snack and took some pics and we headed back to the villa.
After so much drama we were all hungry and ready for a scrumptious breakfast outside on the deck and we spotted, giraffes, elephants, and other antelopes by the river. For lunch we had a poolside picnic, the weather played along it was a warm beautiful day. We swam and sunbathed by the pool. Mjejane is such a peaceful place and yes, the hippos were swimming in the river as well. When you are in this lodge time flies by so quickly, before we knew it, it was time to get ready for dinner.
A special Boma dinner was arranged for us at the Main Lodge in Mjejane outside under the stars. Boma dinners are part of the magic of being on a safari lodge. Boma dinners are always nice as you get a variety of meat, vegetable, salads including multiple deserts and everyone eats to their heart's delight, the food was just delectable. After dinner, drinks flowed as we talked and enjoyed being under the African night sky. The evening was a great success, and it was time to retire with stuffed tummies and a grateful heart. Just like that, the weekend was over the next day we were heading back to the City of Gold Johannesburg. As the reality was setting in, some of the ladies suggested that future trips should be 3-4 days. Mpumalanga is always a great getaway.