Guide on top of his game doesn’t beat about bush

Frank Laka is a true nature lover and thrives at his job when taking guests out on game drives. Picture: Awande Dlamini

Frank Laka is a true nature lover and thrives at his job when taking guests out on game drives. Picture: Awande Dlamini

Published Jan 25, 2018

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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. 

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