Wild Animals, Beautiful Scenery, Cape Town

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Hi Everybody!
Our trip has turned out wonderful! We have been to three parks (Kreuger Nat'l Park, Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve Zululand, and St. Lucia Estuary) to see the African animals. I uploaded as many photos as I could today. I had trouble with a few so may try again later. If you happen to be a person who enjoys watching birds, you should consider coming to South Africa and Swaziland. I have seen so many beautiful birds. Yesterday, we saw a number of different kinds of heron. I also saw a couple of African fish eagles and white backed vultures. We passed one tree with about 50 nest hanging from it. They were made by the weaver bird and were hanging at the end of branches. They place them there so snakes can't get them. I haven't seen any snakes on this trip, but some people in my tour group have. We saw several Nile crocodiles yesterday. The guide showed up a hippo tooth and it was easily over a foot long. Hippos eat grass so I don't know why they need any teeth. Many of the animals had oxpicker birds on their backs. These birds eat fleas, lice, and parasites that live on the animals. We visited several botantical gardens. The plants are all tropical and colorful. I expected the weather to be cooler since they are moving into winter but it has been in the 70-80's. Every day has been full of sunshine. The scenery has been beautiful.
Sugar cane is the primary crop in South Africa. I believe lumber is number two. They raise acres and acres of eucalyptus and pine trees. The pine trees are not native to the country. They use the wood in paper making and to make furniture. We have passed pineapple plantations, orchards with tropical fruits, and corn crops. We flew from Durban to Cape Town. Cape Town is very European with many colonial type buildings. It seems safer than Johannesburg but we are constantly warned to be careful. They have encouraged us to take taxis and not walk in the city. This morning we took a cablecar ride to the top of Table Mountain. We had a wonderful view of Cape Town.
Tomorrow, we will be touring the Cape Peninsula and visiting the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. We hope to see some different animals there. We also plan to stop at the penguin colonies on boulders Beach. Many different activities are planned for tomorrow. We have had very little free time. I wish that I had time to write more but I hope my pictures tell their own story.
Take care,
Everette

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Photos

E & Zebra
This is the only time that they let us get out of the safari vehicles. I as able to get up pretty close to the zebra.

Baby Zebra
This zebra's mane looked like it was spiked.

White Rhino
The white rhino look black. They are much more plentiful than the black. It is hard to get a picture of their snout because they are always grazing.

Elephants
A herd of 75 elephants crossed the road in front of us in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve. We saw one elephant in Kreuger Nat'l Park.

Stomping Elephant
This elephant stood in the road stirring up the dust with his foot.

Mother and Baby Elephants
There were young of different sizes in this herd.

Mongoose
We have seen 3 varities of mongoose. This was the largest group that we saw.

Hippo
We saw a group of hippos in the St. Lucia Estuary. They had most of their bodies underwater. Right after this picture, my camera stopped working.

Small Group of Giraffes
The male is darker in color.

Beautiful Flowers
Everywhere you see pretty blooming flowers.

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[RAJA]

ANIMAL
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