We’ve got to day 3 of the Safari, and have now seen four of the big five – Lion, Buffallo, Elephant, and thanks to the balloon ride this morning Rhino. We’re aren’t holding out too much hope for a Leopard since they are notouriously hard to spot. We’ve also seen plenty of giraffe, warthogs, impala and grey dacher – they are so frequent that they aren’t that notable any more – surprising how fast you can get used to stuff. The earlier post of the picture of a Kudu was really taken straight down from our tents – turns out they roam around there quite a bit. Other posts are from a phone, so they are brief, and due to technology limitations they MUST have a phone camera photo attached – please forgive poor quality, but we’ve taken loads of photos with proper cameras.
We are settling into the routine here – it’s a really early start – wake-up at 5:30 and leave by about 6:15. It’s only a few degrees when we get up, so the kids have been dressing under the sheets (wimps). Then we have about 3 hours on a game drive as dawn breaks which is a good time to see animals before it gets so hot that they all hide. Then return for breaky, and the rest of the day is free until about 4 when we head of again on the evening game drive. It’s hot as we leave, but it quickly gets very cold and dark, so by the time we return at about 7, we are all wrapped in gloves and hats etc. and spotting animals by the light of a large searchlight.
While we have come this far, we thought we’d try out both the balloon ride and what we are all really looking forward to – an Elephant back safari (that’s tomorrow morning). The ballon ride was this morning, and meant a specially early start at 5:15 (!). It’s fair to say that there was some trepidation, but in the end we all loved it, and it gives a simply superb view.
Greg Pyes blog 