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Published: October 12th 2007
While we saw next to no wildlife in West Africa, the stretch of East/Southern Africa from Kenya to Namibia was overrun with it! In this area, it’s not even necessary to visit a national park or reserve for game viewing. It’s common to see giraffe, zebra, baboons and countless stunning birds while driving along. In fact, some of our best wildlife encounters were in our campsites, and not on game drives!
In our camp on Lake Baringo, Kenya, hippos wandered around our tents, snuffling and snorting throughout the night.
In Flatdogs campsite in South Luangwe National Park, Zambia, we had to be escorted around by security as there was a couple of angry cape buffalo guarding the path to the bar!
Also at Flatdogs, a dozen or more elephants wandered among us as we ate breakfast, on their way to the river for their morning baths. We even had to hide our food as they started to get inquisitive. Later that same day, I got trapped in the shower block for an hour by 6 giant elephants loitering outside. Poor Wayne had to hide in a tree after getting surrounded and charged by them! Great fun though!!!
Serengeti
Simba's all grown up!The national parks were no letdown either. Though it wasn’t the best time of year to visit, we managed to see all of the ‘Big Five’ (lion, leopard, rhino, cape buffalo and elephant) within 24 hours at the Serengeti & Ngorogoro Crater. Not to mention hundreds of giraffe, zebra, buffalo, wildebeest, gazelle, hyena, jackals, vultures, cheetah …everything I’d hoped to see, and more! We were extremely fortunate to watch a leopard up a tree, devouring a Thompson’s gazelle - leopards are notoriously shy, and sightings are rare.
We hit Etosha National Park, Namibia, at the best time for wildlife viewing. It was the dry season here, and all the grazing animals were congregated around the diminishing water holes, making wildlife spotting easy.
In Halali camp, within the park, we could observe the animals’ nocturnal activities by a (subtly) floodlit waterhole. We whiled away a whole evening watching dozens of elephants splashing about, along with 8 black rhino! There’s only a couple of thousand black rhino left in the world, so to see 8 of them, including several calves, was pretty unexpected and extremely special.
And last, but not least, Otjitotongwe Cheetah Park, Namibia! Cheetah Park is a working
Leopard Kill, Serengeti
Leopard climbs a tree to feast on the Grants gazelle it dragged up there earlier farm, where the owners initially trapped a few problem wild cheetahs, one of which was pregnant. They raised the cubs as pets and have since started a sanctuary for cheetahs that would otherwise be shot by farmers. The have 17 of them now, 3 of which live in their house! Santa, are you listening? I don't want a puppy anymore, I want a cheetah cub!😊
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acharee
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great photos
i love all of the photos taken and what you post make me really like to go somewhere!