Blogs from Limpopo, South Africa, Africa - page 8

we went to a animal rehab center this morning. It was great seeing the animals but sad to know the reason they are there. I think we all learned a lot. Tonight (3:30 - ) we go on a late afternoon evening game drive on a private reserve. we shouls see lions in the wild then. I can't wait. Tomorrow if the weather is good, I will be doing a flight in an ultra light plane, then we fly to port elizabeth for the next part of the trip. today, Shelly and I both got the have a vulture land on our gloved arm. They were heavy and 2 landed on my arm and knocked my glasses off. yes, we have pictures. we also got to touch a leapord and a rhino. this trip has been ... read more

Geo: -24.7435, 26.2573This afternoon we finished work early as we had no guests tonight. Paul had to guide for Tree Lodge. I spent two hours at the hide enjoying the warm African winter sun. There was a large adult warthog drinking and eating the grass around the hide. I was hoping to see elephants. This time yesterday there were elephants at the waterhole. But unfortunately there were none today. I sat there reading a magazine and frequently looked around to spot animals. In the wetland area there were two bushbuck.There were no other animals. In the trees surrounding the hide there were four grey go-away birds. They seemed unfazed by my company. So I managed to get some close up photos of them. Two Southern Yellow Billed Hornbills came quite close to me too. It was ... read more

I left Zambia in the morning and headed to Johannesburg. I headed to this huge B&B about 15 minutes from the airport. Turns out I am the only guest. My host for the night was a 22 year old, Francois. He was my new BFF for the night. I spent half the day on the internet uploading videos and pictures while we gossiped like 2 teenage girls. I ordered in dinner and ate in front of the TV while watching Grey’s Anatomy from 2 seasons back. I felt as if I was in my apt in NYC. I woke up bright and early to head back to the airport. I flew to the east gate entrance of Kruger National Park (about a 50 minute flight). After much research, I chose to stay at a private game ... read more

Geo: -23.9986, 31.8026This morning we went for a game drive. It was a short and boring one. Some of the few things we saw was a hippo walking by the river and about to enter it after a night out grazing. There was also a tortoise walking on the road. We stopped and waited until it safely crossed. Then we came across a Southern Reedbuck, a zebra with a Red Billed Oxpecker on its rump, a giraffe under a tall tree and an elephant also under a tree with its rear end facing us.We got back to camp just after 9am. For the next half an hour we followed and photographed a Tree Agama and a Water Monitor around the rest camp. I witnessed that Water Monitors are very good at climbing trees and have sharp ... read more

Geo: -23.0026, 31.3426This morning once again we left the campsite as soon as the gate opened. We saw a beautiful sunrise with shades of blue, pink and purple. The first interesting sighting we saw was a Southern Ground Hornbill. It is a large bird with black feathers and a large red thing on its face. We didn't see much else on our short morning drive. We drove back to camp to eat breakfast and pack up. Just after 9am we left Punda Maria and drove south. We drove past many dried up rivers. On our drive we saw- a male nyala, vervet monkeys, a baby impala drinking milk from its mother, hippos floating in a river, tree squirrel and a dagga boy (old male buffalo). It was now around midday and we had arrived at Shingwedzi ... read more