27-31 July 2016

We arrived in Hoedspruit, South Africa for safari game drives on 27 July and spent two nights at Thorny Bush Camp and two nights at Kapama Resort, departing on 31 July.

These are the safari vehicles we rode in each day.  They were very comfortable and we could always see very well.  They held 9 people but we always just had 5 in our group - Us, the Brubakers, and Ginger.  We had a fantastic guide at the first lodge who could answer every question about anything we might ask.  We loved him.
Here are a few pictures of some of the animals we saw:

A giraffe we saw just driving from the little airport
to our lodge.  

The lodge was very classy - our meals were often eaten on a terrace like this, overlooking the bush with animals wandering around.

This was our little house at the lodge - one of 20.
After dark, we had to call for an escort to come
get us and walk with us in case there were animals
near by.

Our bed with the mosquito net they would always put down for us each night, as well as turn on the electric pad under our sheets so we would be warm.  

Each of our units had an outdoor shower
that was heavenly, as you could look out
into the bush as you showered.

Out own little deck and swimming pool, over-
looking the bush.  It was not heated, so we
couldn't use it in these winter months, but
I'm sure it would feel great in the hot summers.  Two of our units had monkey visitors running in and stealing apples from our rooms.

Lounging around the lodge.  Our afternoons were mostly free for relaxation, hanging out by the pool, going to the spa (which we did for massages a couple of times), reading, resting, etc.  Our meals were mostly buffets eaten outside on the terrace.  The service was excellent.

We saw hundreds of birds and more species than
I can remember.  I enjoyed the birds as much as
the big animals

We saw a number of lions. More at the second camp
than at the first one.  This lioness had three cubs.

One of the three.

We saw lots and lots of elephants also.  Some close enough
to the car to touch.

Giraffes were a lot more skittish than elephants.

Each game drive was about 3 hours long.  They would
always stop in the middle and get out drinks and
snacks for you.  Hot drinks in the morning and
cold drinks at sunset in the afternoon.

This guy had just finished a huge meal of buffalo that the lioness had killed.  His belly was huge and he was just sleeping away.

This a video of the lioness and a cub eating aCape Buffalo. It's 
graphic, so you may not want to watch it. This the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HarJF2o6eh8

The Starlings in Africa are a lot prettier than ours.

Leopards are the most difficult animals to see
of the "big five"; lions, elephants, buffalo, rhino and leopard.
If guide sees a leopard they let all the other
guides know.  Our guide received a call and
was told there was a leopard at his house. Sorry.  The
video isn't great.  Here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap2zOiB2ZUk

This mongoose lives in packs, so it's called a wolf mongoose.

These little birds pretty much live on the backs
of buffalo, wildebeast and zebras, picking off the
insects.

A fish eagle.

Cranes in a tree.

And one lonely grey heron.  We also saw a tree
like this loaded with vultures waiting for some
lions to finish a buffalo carcass.

This black rhino and her baby charged our truck and our guide quickly put it in reverse to get away.  It was a little scary.  They are known to be mean and grouchy.

One of our elephant videos. You can view it at
https://youtu.be/ea7-1b3vnJo

Grant, our guide, with our tracker up in front, whose name was Million.  You can see how close the elephants were to us.
The morning run would start at 6 am and it was very cold, but they would give you blankets and hot water bottles and hot chocolate when you stopped.  The afternoon/evening runs would start off warm, but when the sun went down, you had to bundle up again.  The stars were amazing at night - Loel got to see the Southern Cross, something that was on his bucket list, along with going south of the equator, and going on a safari.  He was crossing lots of things off his bucket list on this trip.

It's hard to not take pictures of lions.

A Honey Badger.

How do you like that yawn?  Video at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90xXVhj-t2c

White rhinos (that are really grey).

South Africa is in the middle of a drought so the
land is overgrazed. The game preserves are feeding
the rhinos and buffalo as they are the most stressed.

Zebras and wildebeast take advantage of the buffet.

Wildebeast or Gnu

Kudu. The second largest African
antelope.

The tracker sits on a little chair off the front of
the vehicle, looking for animal tracks, droppings,
broken branches, etc, and direct the guide to
where the animals were.  

Helmeted Guinea Fowl.

Impala. We ate some for dinner.

A young Battelier Eagle

The birds are so colorful and iridescent
it's like watching jewels fly through
the air.

Nyala

Water Buck.

Sometimes we had groups of lions very nearby and on both sides of the truck.  They would just stare at you and as long as we stayed seated and didn't stand up, we were in no danger.  Once we saw a recent buffalo kill with a mother and 3 lion cubs chewing away on the meat.

We were probably 20 feet from these lions.

These lions were part of a pride that figured out
that buffalo would be near the feeding sites, so
 they just hang out nearby.

Vulture.

Lunch time.

The African sunsets were breathtaking.