Marloth Park: A Postcard from Carrie and Jim
I can’t believe we left Marloth Park over a month ago. It feels like we've been gone for so long. Writing this post is bringing back all the amazing adventures we had there and it's making me sad we won’t be back until mid-June. In the meantime, I'll just have to tell you all about the fun we had and the fun you'll have when you visit us in Marloth. If you are looking for what airport to fly in to see us, or how much time you should plan to spend when visiting us, drop us a line!
Day to day life in Marloth
The Bushbox- our fantastic gym while in Marloth.
When moving to a new location, I usually join the local Facebook groups for the area. I've found it's a great place to learn about what’s going on the in area, including events (outdoor movies, trivia nights, concerts, festivals, etc), and covid related restrictions that might be in place. It can also be a great place to ask questions about the area.
About two weeks before heading to Marloth, I started searching for the closest gym and grocery stores (I had my fingers crossed that there would be a Woolworths nearby, which is my favorite grocery store in South Africa). The closest gym seemed to be a 25-30 minute drive away. Doable, but not ideal.
Off to Facebook I went to ask the lovely locals if there might be a closer gym. Sure enough, there was! Cliff and Anita, owners of Bushbox, had turned their garage into the perfect crossfit gym with everything we would need to keep my puny arm muscles from getting punier. Bonus was that they were super fun nice people that we got to hang out with while we were in Marloth.
In addition to time at the gym, we spent most days sitting outside in our boma and taking walks along the Crocodile River and the fence to Kruger National Park.
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Birthday trip
If you know me, you know my birthday is a big deal to me. Such a big deal that we celebrate birthday MONTH, not just the day, or a weekend. In the past, Jim has done special things like a present every day of the month, but usually we make our way back to Colorado so I can celebrate among friends there. This time, we would be far far from Colorado though.
Jim surprised me with a drive along the panoramic route and organized a hot air balloon ride. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate for the hot air balloon ride, but who cares about canceled hot air balloon rides when you have Kruger right next door.
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The drive along the panoramic route is truly beautiful. Mac Falls was neat, as was the cloud forest at God's Window, but what really stuck out was our lunch at Divine Foods. The food was so tasty and the view was completely unexpected.
We were up early and hopeful for the hot air balloon ride on my birthday. (Well, I was hopeful… Jim is not a fan of heights so I think he was secretly grateful it was canceled!) When the ride was canceled at 4:30am, we decided why not get an early morning game drive in at the Kruger. Not more than five minutes from the entrance we came across a leopard relaxing on the road. Of course, by the time I got Jim to stop the car and had my camera in hand, the leopard was already heading into the bush. But that wouldn't be the only leopard we would see on this trip!
Driving ourselves around Kruger was a blast. Elephants, zebras, lions, buffalo, wildebeest, cheetahs, rhinos, baby impalas, even giraffes drinking water. Seeing giraffes drinking water is a really cool sight.
And the elephants! Oh, I could watch elephants all day long!
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Self driveS in Kruger nationaL Park
In addition to the game drives for my birthday, we popped into Kruger a few other times to check things out. I feel like we picked such a great time to be in Marloth Park. We arrived at the very end of the dry season—the trees were bare, our yard was dirt, and the animals were easily seen through the branches. After the first few good rainfalls, that quickly changed! It seemed like overnight the entire bush turned green: leaves, grass, flowers (unfortunate for Jim’s allergies!). By the time we left our Airbnb there, the entire yard was full of grass.
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Braai Life in Kruger
On recommendation from our new friends in Marloth, we decided to do a Bush Braai in Kruger. It isn’t a cheap activity, but it's 100% worth the price. Our outing started out with seeing four cheetahs less than 2 km from the park entrance. This was followed by three male lions and a lioness, some hyenas, and a black mamba before the sun even set and we headed to our lovely and delicious braai in the bush.
Our drive out gave us another beautiful leopard sighting. I think they might be my favorite of the big cats, but ask me tomorrow and I’ll probably have changed my mind.
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You can see why we fell head over heels in love with Marloth Park and the surrounding area. Since I can’t really get a dog while we are still traveling, being surrounded by so many wild animals is surely the next best thing! I cannot wait to get back to Marloth!