Good Morning!

Most of the time winter in North Dakota is just grey and depressing....One has to take advantage of seeing spectacular sights!  Mother Nature has the best paint pallet!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

To all our friends, and family, may your day day be filled with laughter and great times surrounded by the ones most important to you.

Remember to be true to yourself and positive in all you do.

Life is good!

Our Final Game Drive #10 - Sept. 13, 2011

Our last evening we had an impromptu "Booze Cruise, BYOB". Welcome had never heard the term, "BYOB" so we were able to teach him something! We didn't see much game this night, as we stopped at a spot that was going to be a great sunset watching place if the clouds hadn't of rolled in, but we did get some great pictures of the elephants. Things got a little dicey with the elephants at one point - someone buzzed them in a helicopter, and needless to say they didn't like it. None of us was real happy about it. For a short bit, Welcome was literally hiding us behind some trees as we weren't sure they weren't going to charge us.

Notice, he is NOT close enough to steal my sunglasses!  LOL

Elephant butt!

Right about now, they aren't real happy.

By now, they have calmed down and are showing themselves again.

I think I'll just push you over, Mr. Tree.

Playing with the exposure on the camera, I was really able to bring the colors out.

I had to pay Welcome for his ball cap this night.  It's part of the uniform, so he had to have an "issued" hat.

Katie and Pat

Penny, Welcome and Bill O'Connell

Welcome joined us for dinner our final evening. 

Saying good-bye to our new friend.

Spending a week in the bush of South Africa was an absolute spectacular, amazing experience.  Bill and I have talked about it, and given the chance, we would absolutely go back again!  However, with that said, there are so many things here in the states and around the world we haven't seen, unless we fall into another deal like this one, we'd rather continue expanding our travel horizons.  Africa was never a spot on my bucket list to experience, but I am so glad and thankful for the opportunity.  If you ever have the chance.....jump on it!  You will not be disappointed.  Just understand, you are in the bush, and you will see many of the same things a lot, but each sighting is it's own unique experience.

Next up.....a week in the Cape Town area.

Elephant Interaction Side Excurtion, Day 6 (Sept. 13, 2011)

Elephants are one of the coolest animals on the planet! There was no way I was going to go ALL the way to South Africa and find out I had the opportunity to get slobbered on by an elephant and NOT take it! The first thing I asked when we got there was "Can I ride one?!" Sorry to say I didn't get to, so am very jealous of everyone out there that has been able to fill my bucket list item. These three elephants are wild, and just decided one day to be tame.

Cow on the left, baby in the shadows in the middle and the bull on the right.

The baby's stay with the bull's as they are so much bigger than the cows they provide far more shade.

 

You can see on her ivory how it has a little bit of damage on the end.  Elephants are very side dominate; cows are left handed and bulls are right handed.  You tell their gender by looking to see which ivory has been used the most over time.  (Now, just as in humans, this doesn't ALWAYS ring true!)

This baby was a little poop.  If you didn't feed him fast enough, he would just steal the pellets out of the bowl.  Obviously, Bill was NOT feeding him fast enough!

Elephants have really BIG  feet.  Don't let anybody tell you any different!

Splashin' some water to cool off a little. 

This excursion was horribly over priced, but I am S-O-O-O-O glad we did it!  The bull is the tamest of the three, and after feeding we were able to put our head's up in his mouth and look at his mollers and I swear I saw elephant tonsils!  Their hide was bristly, but not as rough as I had expected it to be; it felt like it just have millions of stiff hairs all over it.  The ivory was super smooth, and when you put your hand up under the skin that covers the end of the ivory, the skin was incredibly smooth.  They "flap" their ears to cool themselves and it was amazing how much air is moved.  Yes, you feel that air moving, while having your head stuck in it's mouth.

Game Drive #9, Day 6 (Sept. 13, 2011)

Our last morning at Zulu Nyala the group decided to take an early morning drive. We were hoping to get another glimpse of the elephants, baby rhino, and well, one of each, but it just wasn't in the cards. I did get a couple of nice shots of the sun rise, and we found 2 additional cheetahs that we hadn't see before.

The last glimpse of the moon.

Mama and baby.

Sunrise over one of the "hotel" facilities on the preserve,  I'm very sure this is one of the facilities that is used to house hunters when they are on the preserve.  (The hunting operation is done under a different name.)

Geese just taking flight.

Wildebeest!  No, he wasn't fixin' to charge us.

"What are you lookin' at?!?!??!"

We saw a lot of birds this morning, but it was difficult to get good pictures of them.

Two brother cheetahs.

Marking his territory.

Even as painted and deliberately marked as they look, it is amazing how they just blend into their surroundings.

It was time for breakfast this morning.

This guy has an injured foot or leg.  When the guides first noticed there was a problem, they had a vet come out to the preserve but he didn't feel anything needed done other than to watch him and just see how Mother Nature handled the situation.  His brother now hunts for him, keeping him relatively healthy.  There are no lions on Zulu Nyala so he doesn't have any predators to worry about (other than poachers) and appears to be doing just fine.

With the vegetation really starting to show some green, I think it gives more depth to the vastness of the country.

Zulu Dancers, Evening #5 (Sept. 12, 2011)

Zulu Nyala has a small "village" at the Heritage Lodge that if you want you can go visit. We choose not to as when we arrived at the preserve and dropped one couple off there, we could see that it wasn't a true village, but more like a "museum". The people that are working there, did however, come over to the Game Lodge (where we stayed) and danced the traditional Zulu dances during dinner on Day 5. You might remember me referencing the traditional dance earlier as the restaurant staff had done an impromptu performance for us the night of the birthday party. 

The girls played the drums while the guys danced......

......and vice verse.

I don't know how "traditional" the costumes were, but the dance was.

This guys was such an athlete.  He would go into a back flip basically from a sitting position.  I wasn't quick enough to get a shot of it.  :(

Game Drive #8, Day 5 (Evening, Sept. 12, 2011)

It may seem like I am showing the same thing over and over again, if so, I apologize for that. Each drive, even though we were seeing the same species, every sighting was different.

Sophie sending us off on our evening drive.

I just thought this guy was so cool with one horn broke off.  Definitely an old "warrior".

Now, how can you NOT think that's cute?!??!?

If it weren't for the umbrella tree, it would like Wyoming!  LOL

Kudu cow.

You've seen this giraffe before in the very first Africa post I made.

He gave some great photo ops!

A descent sized cape buffalo.

This is out of order, supposed to be above the last one.  Such a spectacular sunset this night!

This is probably the BIGGEST bull we saw.  He was nothing short of H-U-G-E!

Look at the size of his boss.

See the baby rhino?

Everything was at the watering hole this night.

When the male rhino realized the female had left, he put a move on it.

It is amazing how fast they can move for as huge as they are!