Day 23: Goodbye Madikwe

I've been home for a few days now and I'm just downloading the last group of photos.  Our plane out of Madikwe was going to be 10 minutes late, so our ranger Visser decided that was plenty of time for one last game drive.  This is what we saw from the lodge on the way (round about) to the air strip.

It was mid-day and really hot.  A time we never were out on a game drive.  This group of elephants was smartly beating the heat in the shade.

I can never get enough elephants.  What a wonderful goodbye to Madikwe.  Then as we made our way to the airstrip, these guys were on the side of the runway.  Right next to it.

As our plane came in, one of these guys wandered onto the side of the runway.  Luckily no problems.

This plane was really a puddle jumper!

I got some photos as we were taking off and flying away.

And back to Johannesburg.

Thanks Peggy Albers for arranging such a terrific trip!!

Day 22: Day 21: Lions, lions, lions

In the afternoon, there was a herd of Zebras that came to Motswiri’s watering hole.  They were really amazing to watch.

Here’s a short video of them coming in.

The watering hole has been a wonderful place to see the animals up close.

As we went out on the evening drive, we saw rhino and kudu.

Our ranger found one of the male lions, but he still hadn’t found his buddy.  I could watch these majestic animals all day.

We came across yellow hornbills—I kept trying to get a good shot of one of these.

There was a huge movement of a herd of 250 Cape buffalo.  Here’s a couple of guys who were with this gigantic herd.

Then we had an elephant come right by our jeep.

And finally, this is a Kori Bustard.  It is the largest flying bird in Africa.

We had a beautiful sunset and an outdoor dinner in the boma, cooked by Visser, our ranger.

The next morning our ranger was following paw prints and finally got to the lions that had been looking for each other.  These are the same two males and 18 year old female that we had seen early in the trip.  Finally reunited.

The female decided she wanted to move. 

Pretty soon the two males followed her.  They were really spectacular. 

We ended the day at a big watering hole with tons of animals coming in to drink together.  I love the elephants—rolling in the mud is a favorite pastime.

This safari has been terrific. 

Day 21: Waterhole, Wild Dogs, Lions, and Black Rhinos

The waterhole at our lodge continues to bring a wealth of wildlife.  After lunch yesterday, these two Cape Buffalo came in for a drink.

This guy was trying to roll in a tiny section of mud.

And this is the result.

Then an Elephant came in and didn’t just want a drink.  It spied a green plant next to Peggy’s hut and was eating away. It was so close to the deck.

This little Klip Springer also came in for a drink.

Our game drive yesterday afternoon was amazing.  It started with a small pack of African Wild Dogs.  This is the most endangered species in the park.  Unfortunately a group of lions killed two pups just before we saw these guys.  Very sad.

We then saw Red Hartebeests, a new sighting for both Peggy and myself.

After that we came upon the pride of lions that killed the African Dog Pups.  There were two males, two females, and 4 seven-month old cubs.  Mom and Dad were completely sacked out, but the cubs wanted to play.

Dad wakes up for a second--literally.  Not sure how I got this photo.

This little guy was trying to get mom to wake up.

We had a beautiful sunset and went back to see the lions.  One of the males was awake.

On our game drive this AM, we started with 2 black rhinos.  They are very rare for this park and also in Africa.  Aside from a size difference, the black rhinos eat leaves so their heads are up higher on their bodies.

The white rhinos eat grass—thus the lower head.

We were able to track the two male lions from a few days ago at the giraffe carcass.  They had gone for water in different directions and were trying to find each other.

It took a while, but we finally found the 2 male cheetahs we had seen before, taking a rest.  Their stomachs were much bigger than we had seen before.

We had lots of Zebra throughout the drive.

When we came back for breakfast, more Cape Buffalo at the watering hole.  I love this place.