Kariega Game Reserve - Blog8

Hello to you all.  I’ve been in Kariega Game Reserve since Monday and have been quite pleased with the number and types of animals I’ve seen so far. However, I haven’t been so pleased with my photography skills…just having trouble trying to deal with the intensity of the sun. Thank goodness I have three more weeks to get it right.
I met my friend, Pat, at the Jo’berg Airport and we had a good time catching up with each other before flying to Port Elizabeth. Of course when we arrived (as happens in Africa) our shuttle to Kariega wasn’t there…but we handled it well and eventually it showed up.

When we arrived at Kariega, Pat and I lucked out because we got our own room. There are six other volunteers here…four from the US, one from Switzerland, and one from Australia.

Since arriving we have seen quite a few rhinoceros and elephants. We were driving up a steep road yesterday morning and near the top of the hill we ran into five rhinos that were walking down the road.  Because of their size, rhinos always trump vehicles as to who gets the right-of-way…so we had to back down the hill (which was tricky because it was so steep) until the rhinos finally found a path off of the road that they wanted to take. Once the road was clear we were back on our way, but it was an exciting way to start the morning. The day before we ran into a herd of 26 elephants…we had to pull off the road and wait until the elephants walked by…of course taking as many pictures as we could while we watched them. This year the herd has four babies…cute as can be.

For this blog I decided to include some of the animals that we see almost every day.

 This is the lion cub that I took photos of last year - the two cubs playing together. He has grown so much over the last year.

 Kudus hanging out near our house

 These are Blesbok

 This ostrich came by our work site...it was a hoot watching her

 For my good friend, Bruce...

  

 This is your typical "Elephant traffic jam"...

 Eland - the largest antelope in South Africa

 This is Pat on his first African safari. And to my other friends, are you ready to come to Africa with me?

 These are Nyala

 I don't know what type of lizard this is...only that it's quite lovely

 You can see how zebra babies are actually "brown" when first born...evenutally turning to the "black & white" like his parents.

This is a Trumpter Hornbill - first one I've ever seen.

So that’s it for this blog. I hope you found an image or two that you liked. Unfortunately we don’t have internet service here…but I’ll try to get another blog out next week when we go into town. I’m wishing you all well. John