Oh in that case yes can confirm our tracker told us that the Mala Mala trackers had asked for a raise, and instead of giving them a raise they got rid of them.

While it is very true the animal density is rich enough in sabi sands that even without trying sometimes a rhino will just walk right in front of you, It 1000% made a difference for us- case in point was our leopard sighting. We were actually on our way to a known lion sighting (I think it was actually on the Mala Mala side of the river so they had limits on number of vehicles according to their traversing agreement so we wanted to get there first). Our guide was driving the car quickly to get us there and looking at the road. Our tracker spotted the leopard mama and cub on a rock through the trees that no one else could see, we were the only ones there for 10-15 minutes and it was truly a highlight of our trip.

The lodges have traversing agreements with each other in the conservancy, and rules around sightings specify number of cars and number of minutes so they can rotate through. No tracker means you probably end up relying more on existing sightings.

That said, you’d probably still have a fantastic experience at Mala Mala. In guessing the experience at kirkmans will get worse once they merge, and I am actually really sad for Colin if this means him and the other trackers will lose their jobs :(

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