All Day Game Drive

Last Friday I went for an all day game drive with James & Elise (owners of the hostel). And wow...we saw an amazing number of animals. James & Elise have been in the park countless times, and they were shocked by the day we had. We even saw animals that are rarely seen...multiple times!

Elise wrote down each time we saw one or more of an animal. We almost filled up the whole garbage bag (right). You can click on the picture and see exactly what we saw. Unbelievable.


And I continued to be stunned at how often they 'hang' together. It wasn't for lack of other grazing areas. There was plenty of that. Rather, the animals chose to be together. [Maybe I've just seen too much television. :)] Click below to see what I mean.

My favorite animal of the day was the giraffe. I tend to like animals in direct proportion to how odd looking they are (ie...I love warthogs!) The giraffe's big long neck and gangly yet graceful walk is enough to make it a favorite, but then you throw in the long eyelashes and the little fuzzy horns on the top of their head and the curious expression on their face when they stare your way...it's almost overkill. I couldn't have designed a better creature.

We also got close to a troop of baboons, which was a real highlight. (We saw vervet monkeys too but for some reason I was less excited about seeing them. Hmmm.)

And, last animal shot... In keeping with my love for ugly animals, I was fascinated by the odd looking bird, the ground hornbill:

It was an amazing day!

(As for what I have done since...I'm a bit behind on the blogging so I will post this week's activities on Thursday, before leaving for Johannesburg on Friday to start my GAP tour.)