Thursday is the day of the lion!

5 March 2009

05.03.2009 80 °F

The day started with a beautiful sunrise.

It made for beautiful silhoutte photos.
For the rest of my life Thursday will be known as the day of the lions.

I was so excited my hands were shaking when we turned a corner and saw 3 lions near the road. They were in the tall grasses but we were still able to watch them at a close distance and get some photos.

This young male watched us closely before getting up to joing his family.

It was magnificent and a beautiful day.

Today was certainly our lucky day. I also saw my elephant I had been hoping for. In fact he followed us down the road for quite a while.

I think he was a little angry at us for disturbing his snack.

We had to keep backing up the van as he walked toward us

I loved this photo of a bird flying out of the fountain.

Another rarity happened today when we saw six hyenas walking down the road together.

He stopped right next to the van for photos.

This one was curious about us too.

We followed them for a good distance as well.

A tree we passed was full of vultures. They hang out on the dead trees for better viewing.

This picture shows how easily a huge elephant can get lost in the bush.

Zebras often show affection to each other.

Genie took us to a hippo hang out where many were gathered in the river.

One opened his mouth to show his huge teeth and tell the others he was in charge.

After the big one swam away a smaller one tried to imitate him.
Another one rolled over and had his stubby legs out of the water for a second.

Thursday is also elephant day and several showed themselves for photos.

Buffalo is part of the big 5. (Lion, rhino, leopard, buffalo and elephant. The leopard was the only one that alluded us.

We thought these "blonde" warthogs looked funny.

Some more zebras posed for us.

The blue on this lizard was so colorful.

The rhino looked really fat from the front.

We came across a family of elephants at the end of the drive.

On the way home in Marloth Park a family of giraffe crossed the road to chow.

Here was father....

with child.

THis giraffe is very old. They get more bumps on their face with age.
Other sightings were crocodile, squirrel, kudu bull, wildebeest, kingfisher bird and vultures. The day was completed with a rainbow as we arrived home.
Dinner was a traditional South African meal called bobotie. This is a curried beef bake over rice with peas. I couldn’t stop looking at the 352 photos I took throughout the day.