Nature is Frank Laka’s biggest
passion. And every day he
gets to live it as a field guide at
the Mabula Game Lodge. In his job, Laka revealed, he
got to share his love of nature
and animals with visitors to
the 12 000 hectares of land near
Bela Bela.
While guiding our group for
the overnight stay we spent at Mabula,
Laka showed great knowledge
of the wildlife and vegetation
of the Waterberg area.
He started working as a
tracker before studying nature
conservation and now visitors
to Mabula can share his enthusiasm about animals.
For our first afternoon game drive, Laka managed to get
us so close to a family of lions
that we could have touched
them.
This is one of the most
interesting thing about the
game drives at Mabula.
If you
love animals, you will be in for
a treat as the guides try to get
you as close and as safely as
possible to the animals.
We got to see the lions,
which hunt for their own food,
napping in the sunshine.
The
lion family woke up and lazily
stretched, their bellies full
from their last meal.
Some of the other animals
we saw on the afternoon and morning
drives included buffalo,
wildebeest, kudu, hippo, large
groups of warthogs and, my
favourite, elephant.
Laka warned that people
sometimes see elephants as
gentle giants but they can get
dangerous quickly.
“When looking at the elephants,
you must always be
aware of your surroundings
and have an escape route.
“The times I have been in
dangerous situations with animals,
it has always been with
the elephants,” Laka informed
us.
enthusiasm about animals.
In the two days we spent
with Laka, he managed to get
us so close to a family of lions
that we could have touched
them.
Frank Laka works as a field guide at the Mabula Game Reserve. Picture: Awande Dlamini
This is one of the most
interesting thing about the
game drives at Mabula. If you
love animals, you will be in for
a treat as the guides try to get
you as close and as safely as
possible to the animals.
We got to see the lions,
which hunt for their own food,
napping in the sunshine. The
lion family woke up and lazily
stretched, their bellies full
from their last meal.
Some of the other animals
we saw on afternoon and morning
drives included buffalo,
wildebeest, kudu, hippo, large
groups of warthogs and, my
favourite, elephant.
Laka warned that people
sometimes see elephants as
gentle giants but they can get
dangerous quickly.
“When looking at the elephants,
you must always be
aware of your surroundings
and have an escape route.
“The times I have been in
dangerous situations with animals,
it has always been with
the elephants,” Laka informed
us.
While the animals are
allowed to roam free, Mabula
lodge has not lost even one
rhino to poaching.
This as other reserves are
fighting hard to save their
population from poachers.
“We have great security and
field guides to take care of our
animals,” the soft-spoken guide
told us.
Read more about The Star's Christmas Party at Mabula Game Reserve here.
Laka is also very proud of
Mabula’s buffalo.
“The buffalo we have don’t
have TB. Our animals are well
taken care of. The same way
that people can get sick, animals
can also get sick.”
If the Big Five and other
land animals aren’t your thing,
you can go birdwatching and
see at least 340 species of
birds.
One of the most beautiful
birds we came across was the
woodland kingfisher, which
travels from central Africa to
South Africa.
“We also have a lot of protected
trees, including marula,
leadwood and mountain
mahogany.”
Laka thinks the richness of
nature at Mabula is something
worth saving.
“I love nature, it is very
beautiful. I love showing local
and international people our
interesting animals and how
they live. I also like teaching them
about how to take care of
nature so that our children
and their children can have
something to inherit and get to
experience this beauty,” Laka added.