Safari #1!!

Wow! What an AMAZING first safari experience! We went out in an open-air jeep (really?!) with 6 guests total, our driver/guide, Lucian, and our tracker. We went our around 3:30. We had unusually cool weather today (yay!) so it was very comfortable, and even on the cool side, which is nice. Tomorrow is supposed to be slightly cooler, then it's going to warm up again on Monday and Tuesday. I'll take the cooler temps, while we can!


today's cooler temps during safari time

We really lucked out: we saw LOTS of animals today: a hippo, rhinos, and lions to name a few. We also saw zebra and giraffe, but it was very dark by that time, and hard to see them.


Dick, all decked out in his safari gear, and ready to go!


Yay, Safari!


there is a large, injured hippo in the water. he's amazingly camouflaged


beautiful brush


a pair of Rhino crossing the road


one of my favorite photos (from my phone's camera) of the day.


we spotted this male lion....


then saw a whole pride of lions right near him


lionesses


The whole pride of lions started to get more active, and walked right past us!


Dick took this picture to give you an idea of how close we were to the lions


stretchy cat!


we spotted four male lions today - they are all brothers who have grown up in this area


Big Cat

We actually did some pretty heavy-duty off-roading to follow the pride of lions and the male lions. It was pretty amazing to see how the driver took us off the path, and right into the heart of the brush. Very exciting!

Eventually, we lost the trail, and our guide decided to have us take a break near a watering hole while the sunset.


Our guide, Lucian, busting out the refreshments


I promised so many friends that I would "stay inside the jeep". Alas, I broke my promise on the very first day. (he told us to!)


Pete and Richard, enjoying their mid-safari refreshments


the spread

our jeep with the refreshment spread

It started to get dark on our way back. We actually passed by a lot of animals along the way back, but we didn't want to scare them, or draw attention to them with our flashlights. Hopefully, we'll see more of them tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning, we have a 5:00am wake-up call for a 5:30 safari before breakfast! Should be another grand adventure!

By the way, all of these photos were taken with the camera on my iPhone 5. Some with zoom, some without. We were really close to the animals! Dick and Pete both have big, fancy cameras that they are taking loads of photos with. I'm sure the quality of their photos will be really nice. I wanted to take some with my phone's camera for easy posting/sharing. :)