Thursday, July 2, 2015

An Adventure of a Lifetime, Part 3

I'm glad that so many of you have been enjoying my photos. As you can probably tell, we were amazingly close to the animals. Yes, we had a telephoto lens, but we were often too close to the animals to use it, sometimes within just a few feet of lions and leopards. Despite that, we never felt endangered because our trackers and rangers were experts. We were told what to do and what not to do. For example, we were told not to stand up in the Land Rovers. The animals were used to seeing Land Rovers and thought of the Land Rovers and those inside it as another "animal" who would not threaten them. They are not used to seeing  people standing up in the vehicles. That might startle and scare the animals.

Today I'm showing you photos from the remaining game drives. There will be little text, because I think the photos speak for themselves.

There were lots and  lots of impala.




wildebeest


cape buffalo


The lions were sleeping when we arrived, but slowly began to wake up.

There was a limit of three Land Rovers at any site.




Our tracker, Zulu, heard that there was a cheetah nearby. Since they are rare in the area, he suggested we try to find it. Although it was dark by then, thanks to Zulu and his spot light, we were able to find the cheetah.


The morning game drives began at 6am, before sunrise. Here is a view of sunrise one morning


These people  were so absorbed looking at elephants that they didn't realize there were some also behind  them.


These zebras are black with white and brown stripes.



more cape buffalo



wart hogs


 leopard


hyenna


rhino at night at a watering hole (Zulu shone his spot light on him.)

another sunrise


Do you see the lion in the tree?






more rhinos



lilac breasted roller


And this was the last thing we saw as we were getting ready to leave our Lodge and head to Johannesburg and later to Victoria Falls.


I'll wrap up our amazing adventure in my next blog post.

6 comments:

Brenda in WI said...

Whoa, you are very brave. I could not be. Wonderful trip for you Ellen and Tom.

Christine said...

What an amazing trip! Thank you so much for sharing this with us!

Marilyn said...

Thanks for sharing more gorgeous pics.
Love the zebra!
Marilyn

Robin said...

Thank you for sharing. Just awesome!

Vickie said...

I keep sharing these posts with my family. :) The lilac breasted roller is gorgeous!

Annette-California said...

I loved that you had great trackers & guides. Your photos are just gorgeous. And no I wouldn't of have seen the lion in the tree if you had not pointed it out! I loved seeing the sunrise on your morning safari, just remarkable!!! I too am calling my family over to see all your photos. I have to look at the next post after this:))))
love Annette