Blog

For the last part of the day, we took a sunse river cruise.  Markus and Brett…this river is a whole lot cleaner than the Nile…no dead bodies in here.

This river is loaded with crocs, hippos and a lot of other wildlife.

Hippos doing what they do…

Last scenes of the mist of the falls…

Overall…the best trip I have ever taken.  Lynne and Jeff…I will be back with the both of you.

Jules…thanks for a fabulous trip and thank you for bidding at the auction.  Let me know the next one you bid on and I am in!

A massive male giraffe trying to stay cool in the shade.  Riaan, our guide, estimates this one is 18 feet tall.

A very large mother rhino with her calf.  Riaan estimates that her front horn is 2 1/2 feet long!  

Beautiful scenery and a couple of bird shots.

Other wise known as Mosi-oa-Tunya (the Smoke that Thunders), is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and it really is.  It is like the Earth cracked and moved, and the falls were created.  While it is not the highest nor the widest waterfall in the world, it is classified as the largest, based on its width of 5,604 ft and height of 354 ft, resulting in the world’s largest sheet of falling water.  

The middle point in the below pic is what as known as Devils Pool.  Individuals will traverse and swim to this pool and literally hang themselves over the edge with some really good friend holding their ankles.  The river is too high for us to that…and not really sure we would have.  Thank God we did not need to think more about that.  

Memorial to David Livingstone, the first European to have discovered the falls on November 17, 1855.

Photoshop chic for Jules – 

Photoshop chic for moi – 

Completing this rendezvous, we set out on our own to get different viewings of the falls.  Our hotel is actually one of two, ant they are the closet hotels to the very end of the falls and the views are incredible.

We will cross on this bridge, but at the point the mist is so strong that no photos can be taken.

Wake up time for us was 3:00 am to catch the 3:30 am-3 hour transport to Durban.  The lodge receptionist did ask Julie why did we book such an early flight…and since we did zero research regarding the locations of where we are, she had no real good comment back to the dude…oh well (I actually said my plutonic friend booked it and had no idea we were 3 hours from the airport)

Sunsets are a big thing here…hanging out on the sun deck and watching the sungo down…so here a a few of the billion shots that I took.  Yes, I know that we have all taken sunset shots…blah…blah…blah…but let’s admit thatlthese are pretty cool since they are from Zambia and with zebras in the foreground.

In the hopes of seeing lions, we all decided to travel to this park.  Departure time was 4:00 am!  This reserve park was established in 1895 and has 24,000 hectas of land.  It is beautiful!  We did not luck out to see lions but saw some other spatacular sights.

Large bull elephants.  For most of the time these are solitary animals except when it is time to mate.  A pride of elephants consist of one bull elephant, multiple females and the young.  Only when the bull elephants is challenged and defeated will another take is place.

This dude just romped in the mud to cool himself off and is then spraying dirt all over himself to keep the bugs and tics off.  I mentioned this way of showering to Jules, but she passed…

Hyenna returning from his night searches for a kill.  They will separate at night to cover more ground and territory looking for prey and will regroup during the day.

Vultures cooling themselves in a tree prior to taking flight.  These animals are extremely important in the  circle of life.  They are scavengers and without them, there would be a lot of disease due to the decaying carcasses.  They will float in the sky using the thermals to extreme heights looking for pray and then will float down to eat.  Their eyesight is better then eagles.

Warthogs and zebras sharing a water hole…no Poland Springs here.  The zebras will commonly stand together this way so that they each have a different lookout for lions and other critters that want to eat them.  They defend themselves with strong leg kicks.

Departure time was 6:00…no lie or rest for the wary.  With the summer heat, the animals will be up and about in the early morning…rest for most of the day…and pick themselves up in the evening…so we are off.  I will only identify new animals by name…the rest will be just pics…

A mom rhino and her calf.  These things are eating machines…and that’s all they eat are greens…but a lot of them.  RyRy, Seano and Jackie…I plan on taking one home so you will not have to mow the lawn any more…they are the best lawn mowers around.  Just make sure you do not get between the mom and her calf because she will take you down.

These beautiful and ancient creatures are being hunted to extinction for their horns only.  Marc informed us that all of the crime family nations…from the Chinese to the Irish to the Italians and the Japanese are all involved with the killing of rhinos for their horns only.  The black market price is $75,000/kilo and an average size of a horn has 5 kilos…so you do the math.

Miscellaneous pics –

For the afternoon we headed to a cat rehabilitation center – Pam and Kate…you would have loved this!  This is an organization that will take stray or orphaned cats, nurse them back to health, raise them for a time and either release them to the wild or keep them for breeding.  

One of these is top of my list for next years Christmas card

Yes…the cat is alive!  She just ate and really has no interest in us.  Human attacks by cheetahs are very rare…we just kill them for the sport of it!  

The major concern for cheetahs is that as their population continues to decrease, their gene pool continues to decrease as well and they are then susceptible to more and more diseases.  They are down to a population of less than 10,000 so alot has to be done to protect these beautiful creatures.  They reach 70 miles per hour unless than 4 seconds…they beat NASCAR.

Zebras hanging out.  The baby zebra just a couple of weeks old.  A mother zebra will constantly surround the calf so that the calf will recognize her strip pattern as no two zebras are alike.  A mother zebra will only nurse it’s own calf so it is very important that the calf knows who it’s mother is.

Impalas chilling.  Some of these babies are just a few days old.

Couple of elephants and a baby chowing on some trees…they eat for 18-22 hours a day –

Two male giraffes sparing across a fence…

This could be one of my favorite pics…a perfect way to end an unbelievable day…

The safari tours are going to be with Mark, who is the leader of this reserve park.  The park is very small…only 5,000 acres.  We found out in the morning this this reserve does not have lions…it has elephants, leopards, cheetahs, rhinos, hippos, African buffalo and a whole lot more but no lions.  For that we will have to go to another park and are in the process of coordinating that.  The reasons for no lions is that they need an average of 12,500 acres per lion to support them, and given this parks size…no can do.

Storks watching the hippos.  Because they burn in the sun due to their skin, they stay underwater for most of the day.  Hippos and crocodiles kill more people in SA than lions and all other cats put together –

Black wildebeest and their calfs – 

Giraffes hanging out –

Masked weavers and their nests –

Vultures – we were hoping that they would land on a kill…no such luck.

Game lodge – 

Warthogs right outside of our patio – 

Worked a little slow due to the preveious nights whiskey shot…thank you Jules…it’s always good to be reminded why I do not do these…and no one should.

For New Years Eve we headed to a sister lodge for dinner and celebrations.  Some of the locals danced and sang for us…which was pretty cool to see some local customs.

The ending night’s entertainment included beer guzzling contests.  Since Jules does not drink beer…she was so kind and nominated me to participate.  Our team included Summer (mentioned before) and Evi and McKenna, who are a couple and traveling with McKenna’s parents.  By the end of the evening, Julie got the entire scoop of their wedding, family history and their plan to have babies…I kid you not!  Oh…she also is considering hiring McKenna to be her wedding planner…as my duties of the maid of honor are significantly lacking!

All in all…we tied for first and it was not too bad…sorry mom.

We were home by 11:30 and in bed before the New Year rang.  We wish everyone a Happy and Healthy one for 2014 from SA!!!!!!