Friday, March 5, 2010

Johannesburg, Gold Reef City

With Theresa, who hand made tapestries of African Women for our cnm callrooms.

with Sarah and Rory on the UFO ride


Ice Cream with Dad



With the Zulu Dancers


The native dance of the Zulu tribes

Enjoying our last day before heading back to California. It was an amazing time, and we learned alot about South Africa. It will be good to get home, and I'll have lots of stories to tell.......

Alex, (with help on the blog from Debbie and Craig Ross)






Safari- Last Day

Our last friendly face as we left Manyleti Reserve
Wildebeast crossing our roadGiraffes and Zebra's

With Chef Kinsani and Selby, our butler

John Nott - Our Ranger

With John and Alfie
The Manor House Verandah and Outsid Bar



Our Safari was over - dad took over 3000 pictures, and I've shared a few of our memories. We were lucky enough to see the rare pangolin (like an anteater) which all the guides hadn't seen in years. We had great food and company, and learned about the animals in the wild. We were the ones caged in this week, for our protection. Our watering hole had hippo and buffalo laying around during the day, and we made new friends. It was sad to say goodbye. But this is the real Africa, and my mom and dad plan a return visit in the future. Hope I can go.






Safari- Friday


Cape Buffalo

Lions with their kill


Our last night drive
Flat tire on evening drive
Going on a nature walk with John
Morning tea time
John showing us a foam nest frog
Cape Buffalo

Egrets

Lions with their kill - a wildebeast
Morning drive - before the sun is up











Safari -Thursday

Getting to sit in the tracker seat at night looking for animals

Lions at a watering hole
Sunset across the savannah

Swimming in our pool in the afternoon

Africa - on our drive

The manor house. There is an electric fence surrounding it to keep out the animals


Here we are in the bush

John and Alfie always had "Sundowners" - our evening snack when the sun went down.

With a Rhino
Morning tea time

We went through the bush after this leopard

Lots of zebras














Safari- Wednesday

Dinner table waiting our return from night drive

Leopard

Ranger John looking for " Happy Bush"



Golden Orb Spider = we must have met millions of these guys, as we drove through their webs while off roading after the animals. Whe used "Alfies bush" (Alfie was our tracker) a branch with leafs we held above our heads to catch any webs he missed
That would have been alot.


Hippos in the water. They come out at night.

In our jeep, ready for morning ride (5:30 am)


Lions- we saw them every day; 2 days with a kill, eating.

Poncho's for the rain. Nothing stops the drives.

Rhino

Zebra's




Our first day, John shook me awake at 5am. He had tea ready for us, and we went out at 5:30. For the next 3 hours we followed animals. The lions were eating a zebra they caught the night before, and the vultures started coming to the trees to wait. It was really exciting. I was scared alittle being so close to the lions. We came back to breakfast, then homework, lunch, pool, and then night drive. Dinner was always ready when we got back. Kinsani our chef made us great food the whole week. Then to bed.






Feb 23 Kruger National Park & Tinswalo Safari

We drove through Kruger Park on the way to our lodge on a private game reserve.
Kudo


Cape Buffalo


Zebra on the road




Giraffe



Crocodile

Babboon
Elephants

Impala
More Elephants
This was the start of our safari adventure - before we even got there. It was so exciting to see the animals so close. We couldn't wait for the next several days...