Safari Day 2

July 3

First, the bad news: for the second straight day we went without a lion sighting. It may have helped had our guide stuck to our side of the park instead of traversing all the way across to the other side in the middle of the afternoon, it may just be bad luck, but it was definitely a bummer to not have seen any lions. The good news: it was another amazing day. We saw a cheetah, of which there are very few in the park. For the second straight day we almost got charged by animals again – this time elephants. We saw a pack of about 6 elephants – one mom and the rest her children. The mom and the smallest one were on one side of the road, and the other smaller ones were on the other side of the road. I guess because we got caught between them one of the baby elephants flipped out and started to make a lot of noise and started moving towards us rather briskly, followed by two of her siblings. Needless to say we got out of there as quick as we could, but that was definitely a scary moment being trapped on both sides again. The highlight of the morning was watching an array of wildlife – including a huge elephant, two kudu, four zebras, and countless warthogs – drinking and eating around a huge water hole. According to the other people there we had just missed a lion by five minutes. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. That said, it was still another incredible day and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. The final list of animals we saw today: giraffe, zebra, kudu, nyala, impala (about 300 of them throughout the day), white rhino, cheetah, wildebeest, baboon, warthog, buffalo, elephant, water lizard, vulture, and countless other birds. Tomorrow we travel back to Durban and continue onto Cape Town, where I’ll be for the next four and a half months. ’Til then…