In the early days this was cattle country! The Reilly family pioneered the Nguni cattle breed in Southern Africa and this was one of their early farms that has been converted into a wildlife reserve. Today they have black and white rhino, giraffe, kudu and Nyala in great numbers.
On arrival, we were met by two baby orphaned rhinos who butted you with their little horn stubs. We loaded our luggage onto an open game drive vehicle and headed for our camp. We traveled a short way down the road and then tracked some adult white rhino on foot. The giraffe and the Nyala were all looking on. This s is how we spent our stay in Mkaya. The white rhino were easy to track but the black rhino were very wary and we had to be extremely careful.
Stone Camp offered simple luxury close to nature with stone and thatch chalets. These are spread out beneath a riverine forest canopy. We enjoyed hot in-house showers but the camp had no electricity. Everything was romantically lit with lanterns. The chalets were solid with half-walls. Enchanting in a way but very different.
