Bonus sunset pic!

Wildlife all around!

And so the afternoon went... We drove, identified, listened, learned, observed... And were simply overwhelmed by the diversity of things we saw. Mama giraffe with a baby on the left... Herd of zebra to the right. Kudu, impala, cape buffalo all around. Birds all over the place! Favorite bird I didn't manage to photograph was the Lilac breasted Roller. Look it up, simply gorgeous! Oh look... There's a herd of elephant crossing the road up ahead. Go figure. Just another day in the bush.

Zeeeeeebra!

I never get sick of seeing these guys! The guides are kinda like "there are some more cows" or something mundane like that.... But they are real live zebra! Horses with stripes! OMG!

Check out the pregger belly on the lady at the back. With the spring rains come the baby animals. Some animals such as zebra can hold off giving birth to their young until the grasses have grown in enough to provide food for the young! Jeez nature is smart sometimes. Didya also know you can tell the sex of a zebra by the width of the stripe on it's butt! Thick ass stripe is female. Thin ass stripe, male. Giraffe can be identified by the hair, or lack thereof on their horns. Little boof of black hair, female. Bald, male. Elephants? Shape of the forehead. Squared angle to the head, female. Rounded, male.

Rest stop and skull graveyard

Mid-way through our drive into the park, we made a quick pit stop at the "rest area and skull graveyard".

The safari vehicles at the watering hole

Strutting his stuff...

The croc decided to steal a little attention, and let his domain be known...while everything around the watering hole paid attention, he strutted his stuff outta the water, and settled in on the shore. Little yawn to show his teeth, and settled in for a nap in the sun.

...lurking in the watering hole!

While checking out the giraffe, I noticed this bugger lurking in the water. Hello mr. Croc!

Working for our wildlife identification!

Our journey through the park was slow and FULL of wildlife sightings and amazing amounts of info from our guide. Sibs definitely made us work for our experience! Out came the binoculars. He would stop the truck... Point something out, and have us observe the characteristics of a bird, for example. Then with a little guidance in a category, we had to work together with the book to identify the species we had sighted. There were a lot of "points" given and taken away for our identification skills! Ha. It was such an awesome way to interact with the game drive tho. All the work helped us to remember what we were observing instead if just asking "what's that?". And Sibs (and all the guides for that matter) would then talk to us in depth about the species, characteristics, habitat, etc.

This bird was my first species spitting and identification! The Southern Yellow-billed hornbill. Yea! Robin got a point!

On safari!

After a celebratory dinner at the Boma restaurant in vic falls (African meat buffet and drum circle performances), we bud Laurence a farewell as he headed back to the states, and we boarded a bus to Hwange national park. It was a 2+ hour ride to the entrance to the park where we net our guides, and had a bite for lunch. From there we loaded up into the open air safari vehicles (loaded up on the sunscreen again!)... And headed off into the bush. Our guide / driver Sibs informed us it would be a 3+ hour drive to the camp "depending on what we saw along the way".

Off bumping down the single track dirt road we went! No idea what to expect...

Sunset at the watering hole

As the sun began to go down, we rolled up to a large watering hole... Full of late afternoon activity!

As we sat in the vehicles less than 20' from the hole... We were overwhelmed by a parade of elephants heading in for an evening drink, swim, and mud bath! Over the course of 20-30min, there had to have been over 100 elephants come across the field, and join the fun at the pool. The mamas ushered their babes into the pool. The families drank and socialized together. The young males stutter their stuff, and raised a little hell with each other, even taunting the surrounded bunch of hippos in the pond (lumps in the water in the right corner of the pic).

The sun set was amazing, and the guides had to tear us away from the scene playing out in front of us.

As the dark set in, we continued the drive... Getting pelted by bugs! Yum! When we arrived at the "camp", we were greeted by the friendly staff, given a after briefing (camp is in the open bush, no fences. No walking alone after dark, Must be escorted by armed guards). We stayed in pairs in tent/huts... Huge separate structures with electricity (all solar power!), awesome beds, writing desk, porch, full bathroom sporting all copper sinks and fixtures, Indoor and outdoor shower, all in the confines of a tent/hut. Of course, no outdoor showers after dark!

We shared a wonderful meal together, then passed out overwhelmed by the enormity of the day!

Hello sweet data!!!

Just made it to j-berg s. Africa, and my dear iphone is once again connected to the data world! Yea!

Uploaded a handful of safari pics to Facebook. Will work on catching up the blog as soon as I get checked through to London, and have a beer in hand!!

:)

Sent from my iPhone