Safari!

When people think of Africa, they think Safari. So did Meg yesterday afternoon as we hiked down from table mountain. She suddenly realized that she didn’t want to leave Africa without seeing zebras. She called a tour company from the hillside, and set up a trip for this morning. Ah- the wonders of cell phones!

Kruger National Park is amazing. People say it’s a trip of a lifetime. It’s also on the other side of South Africa - a really long ways away. Near Cape Town, Table Mountain National Park, at 85 square miles, hosts tons of plants and a variety of animals. But not the Big Five - Lions, Leopard, Rhino, Elephant and Buffalo. I’m not exactly sure why those are the big five - I think there are all sorts of other just as interesting animals - which is good, because we saw many of them today. 

We went an hour north of Cape Town to a private game reserve that boasted four of the five. We took a tractor/Jeep game viewing vehicle all over their 10,000 hectares to see giraffes, zebras, eland, springbok, gnu/wildebeest, ostrich, rhino, cheetah, lion, leopard, and a little nocturnal cat. Seeing the herbivores was best - they were loose on most of the property, and mingled freely. The carnivores were in large pens. They looked pretty happy, and most were rescue animals, but it didn’t feel that different from a zoo, except for walking IN the cheetah pen - that was different. 

This guy was just hanging out by himself. 

We saw a couple eland on table mountain, but there were a lot more and they were a lot closer here. I took all of these pictures with my 3x zoom. 

There was a whole herd of eland. 

The springbok were a bit more skittish. 

And finally - zebra! 

They have two rhino - a male and a female. They go everywhere together, but five years later - no babies. These animals are huge - we didn’t get that close. 

Meg didn’t get nearly as close as the toddler and her mother, but this cheetah was pretty chill. He looked at us, rolled over and went back to sleep. But yes, we were IN his enclosure. 

We were not in the lion enclosure. Not even fingers. 

There were ostrich everywhere. They’re a kick. 

On the left is the giraffe dad with the 7 month old baby on the right. 

I think the giraffe were my favorite. So much character! 

To cap off the day, the staff sang Happy Birthday to Meg and brought her sparkling grape juice for her birthday. Happy Birthday Meg!

Next Up: First Day (in Ghana)