Our African Adventure

by Stefanie (Eyeore)

Getting to visit a private game lodge at the amazing creatures out in the wild was  everything I could  have hoped for and more. Seeing and hearing the lions within a stone’s throw of the vehicle, having a 8 gig memory card and my trusty Nikon. I felt blessed beyond measure and totally in awe of God’s creativity.

I know that I needed to get my eyes tested when everyone else in the car can see that red rock over there as an elephant before me. However I believe that even if my eyes had seen him, my brain would have said  Ellies aren’t that red – they’re grey!We watched as he dug repeatedly with the back side of his front foot, scraping and

scraping, unearthing a root similar in size to a sweet potato and then tapped in on his right tusk a few times before chomping. I suppose if you’re eating that much crunchy stuff all the time those extra sandy bits won’t freak you out like they do me. He looked permanently half asleep. The naughty bull ellies get injected to prevent them from coming into must and causing trouble with the ladies and Shamwari’s guests. Male ellies have a head that is rounded. Female ellies have a more angular shape to their heads, 45 degrees.

This beauty walked right passed us. I snapped many pics.  She walked past showing that side, I could have reached out and touched her, but chose not to.

This baby was less that a month old and we were told was still learning to control his trunk. He kept trying to catch the tail of the baby in front of him. Naughty little bugger.

Sweet and such a gentle giant. Round head =boy, even though it may look like a girl.

These beautiful buffalo cost R400 000 each so when the wild dogs took to killing them for sport the wild dogs were shipped off Shamwari and the buffalo were secluded to begin breeding and increasing their numbers again.  They don’t look very bright and apparently give no warning before they charge (think Rottweiler) so the ranger stayed far far away from them.

Then from further away we saw these. Some snuck into the water as we approached but these stayed and watched us, unnervingly.

We were coached on the differences between male and female warthogs. Either way they are ugly~. The females had beards and the males had two lots of wart-like protrusions on their faces. Fred began calling them bacon boys.  Here is female with beard -enough to scar Fred for life.

Thanks for letting me share a little bit of what was one of the most exicting trips of my life!