Monday evening, Jan 5th

We’re off for the evening game drive. We’ve got it down now. X-T1_Africa_XTGF0684_150105That’s Tim Trautman on the left with Joe Studlick beside him. Lynn’s in the back and to her right in front is Tim’s spouse Diane . Liz is hidden and I don’t know where Mary is, but we’re all decked out in the recommended safari clothing. Micato sent us great suggestions for safari wear but I swear we were the only group in Sabi Sabi that looked like we were on safari! Too funny to see bright colored clothes, short shorts, and maybe evening wear out in the bush. We dressed the part and had a great time.

So we’re back in the bush and stuck on three of the Big 5. We’ve seen lions, leopards, and elephant and this afternoon is no different. We come upon another elephant blocking the road, there’s impala just waiting to get ambushed, the dogs are still lounging around, and more zebras who photograph really well in the late afternoon sunlight. This is good for me because I will be entering photos in the Micato monthly contest.

But wait, we come around a corner and here’s a bunch of big ole boys, Cape Buffalo, wallowing in a mud puddle.X-T1_Africa_XTGF0754_150105 These guys are definitely enjoying their late afternoon bath and were not all that excited about us disturbing them. Eventually the dominant bull rousts them all up and they move out through the bush. Took lots of pictures of them but most are not suitable for sqeamish audiences since they involve poopy behaviors. I’ll probably frame one for my friend Joe.

That was pretty cool, but then we came across a mama white rhino and her baby!X-T1_Africa_XTGF0882_150105 Incredible. We’re here only 24 hours or so and we’ve now seen the Big 5 up close. I never in my wildest imagined that we would get this close or see so many animals. Sitting here in the back of a Land Rover watching a mother and her baby grazing with no thought about us and the potential for harm that we pose I’m just stunned. These animals are slaughtered by poachers for their tusks because some Asian guy thinks it will help him get it up for his girlfriend. The good news is that we saw a couple of wardens and a couple of planes out looking for poachers and it is shoot on sight in the bush. It hasn’t stopped the poaching but maybe has slowed it down. It’s been suggested that the way to stop it is to poison the tusks and if several thousand Vietnamese or Chinese die then maybe the poaching will stop. After watching this baby and it’s mother it’s hard to argue against that.

After a late afternoon gin and tonic we’re back to the lodge for dinner. Oh yeah, tonight was a full moon. Great day in the bush.

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