3rd Posting - Safaris continue

This is our group in our safari vehicle with Ranger Ryan. Ryan grew up in the bush and learned a lot from his father, so is able to fill us in on lots of details and information. He is also good at teasing my gals!

We were treated to very close encounters with elephants and even a very young one.

Here the baby thinks he's king of the mountain (on an ant hill).

An elephant crosses in front of our vehicle - just to show you how close!

One of the most exciting things was seeing lion tracks and then hunting for it.

The rangers and trackers of our jeep and another took off looking, leaving us to wait. While they were gone Ellen spotted the female lion town a side road heading away from the searchers. When they got back we took off through the bush searching and following tracks. We finally found her bedded down on a little ridge above the waterhole.

Friday morning we enjoyed bright sunshine and some blue sky.

A Maribu Stork perches in a dead tree benefiting from the warmth of  the sun.

For the first time we could see the Drakensberg Mountains in the distance.

Hippos

We never get tired of giraffes and here a very young one tries to follow Mom.

For Maxine's sake we arrange for an older male to cross the road in front of us.

With all the rain, the flowers and bushes have begun flowering beautifully.

Here a sickle bush is in full bloom.

Tracker Lot serves us coffee in the bush during morning coffee break.

Ryan advises us that every tree is a lava tree (lavatory)!

This must have been Rhino Friday - on our final evening game drive we saw NINE rhinos!

Here you can see the Drakensberg Mountains in the distance. This turned fairly dramatic, as the young male rhino here on the left 'marked territory' when there was a much larger bull rhino off in the distance. We watched as the bull came toward this young rhino and older female, making it very clear whose territory it was! These two managed to clear out before it came to real fireworks.

Later we got very close to two more rhino (see Joyce clenching her hands!)

To finish our final drive we found an extremely rare sighting. This is a pangolin, a type of anteater, and this is only the 3rd one our ranger Ryan has seen in 11 years of guiding! Made his day!

It is a bizarre, scaly creature that moves along on his hind legs and has a tiny head. Sharp scales can cut your finger off if you are not careful, however.

A close-up of the pangolin in the grass.