South African Safari

On our way to the reserve from Pretoria we stopped for lunch at 'The Corn & Cob' (http://www.cornandcob.co.za) where they have a mock Ndebele village.

Welcome to Kapama - http://www.kapama.co.za/_en/default.html

Although this looks romantic in our chalet #20, this is actually mosquito netting which worked pretty well.

One of several animals having a snack outside the chalet, this baby and her parents were used to humans walking by and grazed as desired around the complex.

The safari begins...

Excuse me sir - can we pass by?

Female waterbucks.

Male waterbuck.

Vultures waiting for the next meal.

Yep, we got stuck in the mud one day tracking down lions.

One morning I decided to try the Elephant Safari because riding in a jeep apparently wasn't enough fun.

That's me in the back of Mupfuri who turned out to be a perfect gentlemen. He's a teenager in elephant years, about 18. These elephants will live to be about 80.

After about 20 minutes I unfroze long enough to start taking pictures.

This was the elephant behind mine on the safari ride. Shortly after this photo was taken (that's Pat and Tracey) the elephant got mad at a guide on the ground for striking him and took off after him with everyone aboard! After calming the elephant down, everyone arrived safely back at base camp.

The great thing about visiting during this time of year was seeing all of the baby animals. Here you see several baby Impalas with an older adult looking on.

This is how the Cape Buffalo (another of the Big 5) stay cool on a summer day.

Baby stopping for a snack from Mom.

Included this photo to show how close we got to the animals, in a lot of cases really close.

These ladies were not happy with us being here and started to make an aggressive move towards one of the jeeps. Our guide got them to back away a little bit before we drove off safely. Note how the ears are flared out to make themselves look bigger.

This is pretty how we saw all of the hippos on the trip. The hippo is the most dangerous mammal on the continent (kills the most human) but NOT one of the Big 5 (toughest 5 to hunt).

Warthogs.

The Lion King - named Felix by the guides.

The future Lion King - a cub about 8 months old trying (unsuccessfully) to climb the tree to be with Mom.

Mom - resting in the tree.

Mom is on the right and her sister on the left.

The lions family (4 of them) was all nearby and pretty calm about having the jeeps nearby. We all stayed seated though!

Ladies on safari!

Men on safari along with our Guide Alex and Tracker Johnson.