More Safari Adventures

Well just two days after our horseback riding in the bush, we scored some seats on a safari ride in a “Big Five” private game park. The Big Five are a big deal here. They are: Elephant, rhino, lion, leopard, and wildebeest. Anyway, going to a big five game park is a “must do” for everyone visiting South Africa. We were pretty stoked at the possibility of seeing these amazing creatures. Around noon we headed out to the game park with an Aussie couple, and a family from Belgium now living in SA.

Our tour guide was probably OVER qualified. He had taken 6 years to work every national game park in all of Africa. He grandpa and his father were both game park guides so this guy knew he stuff. The first stop was the lodge, after checking on a family of hippos lounging in the sun. The lodge was right in the middle of the game park with no fences separating it from the wilderness all around. You are not allowed to walk more than a few feet away from the buildings because the animals can come right up there. Elephants like to drink from their pond, and a hyena killed an impala about 3 feet from one of the guest rooms deck. Pretty crazy stuff.

We went on a Wednesday, so there was NO ONE else at the lodge. We got supreme service! When we arrived they had iced drinks waiting for us and drums to announce our arrival (to no one but the animals) Eli and I took a quick dip in the pond, tried to dry off (slightly unsuccessful) and enjoyed a delicious meal. After that we headed out into the park for 3 hours hoping to see at least a few of the big 5. Wanna know how many we saw? ZERO. Yup that’s right. We got skunked. It was a bummer because we were going all out to find the elephants and we saw signs of their presence all around us. It just wasn’t meant to happen. It was exciting though because we were briefed about what to do when we saw lions, and elephants and such. We didn’t have the most amazing stories, but hearing all of our tour guides crazy adventures almost made up for it.