First, a beautiful sun rise!! And then the driver stopped the truck all of the sudden. And we heard quite the noise. It wasn't a roar, but it was definitely a lion! It sounded so close, but there was no lion in site. So, apparently the animals walk on game trails (much like how we walk on hiking trails, for some reason this was totally shocking to me) and JR (our driver) knew where this one in particular was and he had a hunch that is where we would find the lion. So he drove us further down the road in hopes that we would get ahead and cross his path.
And sure enough after a two minute wait, along walked to king of the jungle.
See the trail he's walking on? He was huge!! Like seriously HUGE!
Maxine took this great picture of him!! It really captured the morning light (or not light) and illustrates how well the lions blend in with the grass.
I was pretty giddy, obviously making such a ridiculous face. The lion just crossed right in front of our truck and went on his merry way, not to be bothered with the likes of us.
At this point Maxine let me borrow the telephoto lens that her daughter who visited a month before left with her. And I got to shoot for the next two days with it and it was AWESOME!!
After the lion we came across the 4 cheetah brothers again. These two were just chillin' in the road.
Ok, this is one of my favorite shots from the whole trip. Look at his face! Isn't it amazing??
So because there are four boys, the park wants to introduce a female in hopes that there might be some reproducing going on. Right now there is a female living in a large fenced in area. The males are starting to visit her and check her out. In a few weeks they'll open up the fence and when she's ready the lady will take off on her own. Meanwhile the brothers will fight it out and the winner gets to have some time with the lady. When that's over he'll rejoin his brother and hopefully they'll get some little babies out of the whole ordeal.
They were checking us out, but really not that interested in us. They were primarily interested in laying eyes on the girl behind the fence. They were walking around the outside of it over and over trying to catch a glimpse of their potential spouse or sis-in-law
Second favorite pic of the Cheetahs
Stoping for a little refreshment
There were some areas of the park that reminded me a lot of Sedona and Oak Creek.
Hornbill (think Zazoo!!)
I totally forgot what bird this was
Impala
Our driver JR stopped the truck suddenly and snatched up this rad chameleon.
He put it on a stick so we could get a good look at it. First off, look at that awesome tail. Second, it was amazing how fast he changed colors.
And then we all got to hold it! Check out it's two toes.
So Cool!!
I had an awkward experience trying to hold it and pretty much got scolded for not moving slow enough (excitement containment is not a strong point for me). None the less I did hold the little fella for half a second. He had his mouth wide open the entire time.
When the morning drive was over we had shots of OJ and cold lavender scented washcloths waiting for us. And breakfast was ready.
The food was pretty good. They had a great spread of cheeses, fruit and cereal and then you got your pick of eggs and breakfast meat and veggies.
My handsome breakfast date!
Where we ate all our meals.
This little friend lives in the hallway. He was pretty large. Like way bigger than a quarter.
These are really cool bird nests that are all over the place. They're pretty amazing!
In between game drives we spent some time in the hide watching the animals.
We also went on a little walk/hike (don't worry it was in a gated area) and I step on a ridiculous thorn.
It went straight through my shoe and gave my foot a good poke. I'm not quite sure how I managed to step on that big 'ol thing without seeing it. But, I managed.
At the end of our walk we saw some giraffes making their way over to the water hole. But they changed their mind and turned around and we think it's because elephants were heading over too and apparently they didn't want to share.
This gives you a better idea of what the hide looks like.
We sat in there for a good hour watching the elephants and taking pictures.
The elephants really like that dead tree. They use it to give themselves a good rub down.
This guy is just itching his side.
This picture doesn't even do the distance justice. They were right there!!
He's just looking right at us
Maxine got this great shot of all the wrinkles and eye. Elephant's skin has an incredible amount of texture!
Tim wasn't feeling too great so he laid down outside for a little bit and fell fast asleep. He moved his nap to inside and woke up feeling much better for the afternoon drive.
Refreshed and ready to see some awesome animals!
We didn't see a ton of animals on the afternoon drive. It was pretty warm and there were a ton of flies. But we did find some mongoose.
They look a lot like a cross between a rat and an otter.
We also saw the Roller. Such a beautiful bird.
I love the colors and it's tail.
Kudu. These guys have some legit horns. Apparently if they get too big they can get caught up in the bush when they try to run away from predators which slows them down making them easier to catch.
African sunset!
When we got back from our game drive we got ready for dinner and while we were waiting we were told that they had found a spitting cobra in the hide and that it went missing while they were going to remove it (eek!!) and so we had every intention of staying away from the hide. But after we sat down for dinner, a rhino and her calf came walking up to the water hole for a drink. JR made sure that the hide was snake free and we went down real quick to take a peek. It was pretty awesome!!
Rhinos are so cool!!
I was using the big lens to shoot, but the lighting was so off. The lodge had a big mild light shining on the water so you can see the animals, but I didn't want to shoot with a flash obviously, so the coloring is off in the pictures.
I love baby animals.
I couldn't help it! And even though this picture is pretty funny, it makes me sad about my jaw line or lack thereof. I better enjoy it now cause I know it's all downhill from here!
Dinner with the Rhinos in the back.
This fun little guy flew right onto the table as we were sitting down to eat. Such a cool little guy!
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