Our Oveland Adventure Begins - The Safari

Yikes, Stripes!
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We left Cape Town and headed for Johannesburg to meet up with the other travellers on our overland adventure.  Friday night, December 10th, we had a introductory meeting with our 2 guides and other 7 travellers - 2 from Australia, 2 from the Netherlands, and 3 from the UK.

The trip had many different aspects - cultural, scenic, and of course the safari.  We've broken them up into three different entries so no one entry is too terribley long!

"We were in true safari vehicles - just like you'd picture in the movies!"

Mama Warthog with her baby
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The safari was awesome!  We visited Kruger national park - the primary game preserve in South Africa - as well as Ulhulhwe and Kilwane Game Reserves.  And the animals were literally RIGHT there - just when you'd least expect it you'd turn your head and have an elephant peering out at you from between the bushes 3 feet from you!

We got to go on numerous drives during the day and even managed to go on one night drive.  We were in true safari vehicles - just like you'd picture in the movies!  We never felt unsafe - all of our vehicles were high off the ground - so the lions felt less threatening!  Plus - we came at just the right time to see all the babies.  It was their spring time so babies were everywhere.

Elephant - Big 5 Number 1!
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So the animals we saw. . .

1.  Elephants - lots and lots of elephants of all sizes.  Adults, Family groups, Teens, Babies.  And they were so cute!  On our first drive we were literally sitting in our truck looking out and passed an elephant that was like 2 feet from the road and we didn't even see it until we were already past!

2.  Giraffes - We had no idea how tall these graceful giants really were until we were looking out across a forest and the only thing above the tree tops was the Giraffe's head - a completely different experience from any zoo/animal habitat we've ever seen.

Crazy Thief Monkeys with a new baby!
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3.  Lions - Only managed to see 2 lions and this was on our night drive.  The pictures didn't turn out because it was just too dark - we had spot lights so we could see them but no pics to share.  It was 2 lionesses - but no males.

4.  Hippos - These were April's personal fave.  The animal reserves had a few but not too many.  However, in St. Lucia at the end of the tour we went on a boat cruise and saw probably 60+ hippos!  They were in huge family pods just lying right on top of one another!  The baby hippo would swim around the cows and the bulls were bigger than you could possibly even imagine.  It was so cute when they twirled their ears after coming out of the water.  Did you know that more humans died last year from hippo attacks than from any other animal in South Africa?

Wild Dogs - more rare than Lions in the park - very vicious!!!
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5.  Rhinos - Rhinos were sometimes difficult to find because they are generally on their own and not in pacts.  But we did manage to run into one during our full day game drive that was right off the side of the road.

6.  Monkeys - Sneaky little things.  The monkeys were generally around the convenience stores as they would try to steal food from us while we were eating it!  If you laid anything down consider it gone.  In fact, as soon as we got out of our safari truck they attacked it looking for food in our backpacks!  Despite the sneaking around - we still liked them.  Animals with that many human characteristics are too cool not to watch.

Cape Buffalo - Big 5 Number 2!
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7.  Antelopes - These were everywhere - especially the impalas.  But we also saw Bush Bucks, Water Deer, Kudu's, etc.  The impalas were actually our fave because they looked the most majestic - very elegant creatures.  Plus the hopping from place to place was pretty cool.

8.  Warthogs - These were surprisingly cute - essentially ugly enough that they become cute.  Especially the little babies.  We saw lots and lots of little ones - each female has like 6 babies so there were plenty to see.

Rhinocerous - Big 5 Number 3!
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9.  Cape Buffalo - Essentially a water buffalo but they call it a Cape Buffalo.  Enormously ugly animal (even the baby ones) but still one of the Big 5 - so an important sighting!

We managed to see all of the big 5, except for the leopard which we just couldn't find.  A bit disappointing that we couldn't find that one but we were so lucky to have gotten to see everything else!

The safari was awesome and we loved every second of it.  We would highly recommend the experience for anyone else that we know - I'm sure you'd love it too!

Family of Hippos - Nap Time
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I'm out of time on my internet card to add pics now - I'll add them later this weekend.

More about the rest of the overland adventure to come!