South Africa - Blog 11

Hi everyone.  Another Saturday has rolled around and I am back in civilization and the internet café.  It was a very rainy week this week, so-much-so that we didn’t go out for our normal game drives for the last three days because the roads were just too muddy and there were concerns about “flash floods”…(and thoughts about what happens if we get the vehicle stuck in lion country).  We were out one morning and it started raining so hard that we all got soaked-to-the-bone and were pretty miserable by the time we arrived back at the house.  However, I was still able to get some nice images on the first few days.

This week I saw my first large boomslang snake (one of the most deadly in Africa); pulled-out about 500 non-native wattle plants; played on the river one day; had an outstanding meal last night with the paying lodge customers; got to see many animals, including lions, elephants, and two hippos playing together (something I’ve never seen before)…and all-in-all had a great week. This week Pat made us biscuits and several loaves of garlic bread…an excellent addition to our meals. He also made a spaghetti dinner one night that was awesome. 

These are my last few days at Kariega as Pat and I will be leaving Monday morning to fly to Hoedspruit…to be picked-up by the Makalali rangers.  It will be interesting to see how Pat likes Makalali as compared to Kariega. It’s hard to image that we’ve already been here for a month.

So here are the images I thought you’d enjoy seeing this week:

 This lioness is stretching just before she goes out to hunt.

 This lion is the pride's leader...just waiting for the lioness's to go catch him a nice impala, zebra, or wildebeest for dinner. I like the way he's just staring at me.

 I caught this landscape just at sunset.

 Early one morning I caught the sun peaking through the trees by our house.

 This is but one type of the many wildflowers that are in bloom here now...they just add such beautiful color to the bush.

Isn't this a nice way to rest?

 I was pleased to catch this warthog one morning...usually they immediately run away and all you can get is a butt shot.

 This is a Steppe Buzzard that I happened to catch just as he flew from the bush.

 I took this image because the zebra was so close to me...check out his eye and you'll see a reflection of our vehicle and volunteers. I wonder what he's thinking when he looks at us?

 I caught this image of these two baby impalas play-fighting...cute, cute, cute as they weren't even old enough to have developed horns as yet.

 Lion cubs resting

 I caught the lion pride moving to a new area...there are 10 lions in this pride.

This is the "head lion" surveying the land as he tries to decide where to take the pride.

 This is a Cape Glossy Starling...usually they won't sit long enough in one place to allow for a photo to be taken.

 This image is my attempt to show how really beautiful zebras are. What do you think?

 These next images are of the baby elephants I saw a few days ago. They were just so cute that I decided to include a couple of them.

 They were constantly playing with each other.

 This one baby wanted to continue playing as the adults ate...until finally its mother took her trunk and pushed in off of the other baby. Just great stuff to see in person.

...and now the one baby decided to bite his brothers ear playfully.

The baby elephants were just so cute to watch as they played together...I'm hoping that the rain will stop and we can go out tomorrow to see them and the lions one last time before heading to our next stop. Now that I'm heading back to Makalali Game Reserve (where they have internet), I'll be able to spend a little more time on my blogs. I hope you enjoyed the images. I'll just hope that Makalali has some great images just waiting for Pat and I. So until next week, I'm wishing you all well. Out.