Africa, Part 4

I apologize for the quality of some of these pictures, but at least I can prove that I was there. Some of the shots look like they have had a filter put on them in Photoshop Elements, but that's not the case.  As I mentioned before, I bought this new iPhone 6 specifically for the trip, but I am very disappointed.

We went to three different games parks and one elephant preserve. The pictures are not necessarily  in order, but I'm just given you an overview. I took well over 700 pictures.

Ruthie and I out for our game drive.  This must have been in the early morning because we have long sleeves and pants on.  By the time we returned at 9 AM it was very hot.

Cape Buffalo, one of the "Big Five".  We saw lots and lots of these. Did you know that a group of them is called an Obstinancy?  Well, neither did we, but we learned a few of the collective names for different animals.
The other animals in the Big Five, so named by hunters for the difficulty in hunting and degree of danger involved, are the African lion, the African leopard, the elephant and the black rhino.  We saw them all, except for the elusive leopard.

We also saw lots of elephants, but this was one of my favorite moments. This herd was traveling along in a row, as they are wont to do.  See the little baby near the front?  See the next picture for what happened next.

Along came a big baboon and the herd all surrounded the baby to keep him safe.  One very large elephant at the rear (you can't see him here) raised his trunk in a threatening way several times to chase the baboon away. When he left, they continued in line as they had been before.

The Warthogs were all over, as common as dogs.  This family was about five feet away from my patio in one of the lodges where we stayed. The mother kept walking along and munching grass while the babies were trying to nurse.They are so ugly that they are cute.

We visited an Elephant sanctuary where orphaned elephants are being raised.  They were quite tame and we could pet them and scratch their trunks, and we did. We also fed them, but no pictures of that. 

They also had an orphaned cheetah.  He was also relatively tame and we all got to pet him.

At the same sanctuary we were able to walk quite close the herd at the watering hole.  They seemed very unfazed by us.

Victoria Falls.  The water level is low, according to our guides because of the drought, but we still thought it was very impressive.  This was just one of several views.

One of several ostrich that we saw.  I hope I didn't eat his brother,but he sure was tasty, and no it doesn't take like chicken, but rather like beef filet.

At one point when we stopped on the road to watch a herd of the big gray guys, they came so close to our vehicle that I almost could have reached out and touched one.

Here you can see the other vehicle near us and how very close he was.  I'm sure he could have tipped it over if he wanted to but they are not bothered by us because they have never been shot at. 

We would stop half way thru the drive to get to and stretch our legs in an obviously safe place and get some refreshment, tea or coffee and biscuits in the morning drive and wine and tidbits in the evening drive. Very civilized, I thought.

You really have to look hard to see the ONLY lion that we saw on all three of the  game parks.  Here's where a good zoom lens would have helped.

We saw many dazzles (another collective noun) of zebras.

I never got tired of seeing the giraffes.  Their group name is Tower.

I forgot what these were called because there were so many different kinds of deer-like animals, all beautiful.

Another refreshment stop and one of the few pictures I have of Mickie, our third travel companion.  She always seemed to be somewhere else when the pictures were being taken.

Now here's something that would delight any six year old boy. When the hippo defecates, he swishes his tail back and forth very quickly and sprays it all around.  There was a communal "Yeww" from the crowd on the boat.  We did take one safari cruise to see the animals in the water and those coming down to the water to drink.

Another instance where you have to look hard to see the cheetah, so nicely camouflaged.

This picture was one of my big disappointments.  I took so many shots of this mama rhino and her baby and they all came out smudgy, but you get the idea. 

This handsome croc was sunning himself right next to the road.

This was taken on the safari cruise that I mentioned before.



Give me a few more days and I'll wrap up the trip and show you some of our accommodations and a few other things.

Have a happy Thanksgiving.