Safari

It's going to be hard to do this one justice with words, so I'm going to let the pictures do the talking. We've just finished a three-day safari at the Pilanesberg National Park in North West Province, not too far from the border with Botswana. It was an amazing experience. We saw all of the "Big Five" game -- the lion, African elephant, Cape Buffalo, the cheetah, and rhinoceros -- and hundreds of other species.



The highlight had to be this morning, when before breakfast, we took an early morning swing through a corner of the park where we had seen lots of animals before. Until now we hadn't gotten a good view of lions. Our only sighting so far was during a night ride with a tour guide. We had seen two young males just leaving the carcass of a hippo, but our view was limited. This morning made up for it all. Coming down a road we noticed a herd of giraffes on a hillside across a ravine from us. We noticed that they were all standing still with necks straining -- all in the same direction. Not far from them was a herd of wildebeest (or gnu), also facing all in one direction. Looking closely we saw four lions -- two female, two male -- walking in a line along the bottom of the hill about a quarter of a mile from us. We sat patiently, following them and watching as the giraffe and wildebeest nervously reacted to their presence. We backed the car back up the hill we had just come down to be able to keep them all in view. At one point the herd of wildebeest ran and scattered as the nervous giraffes, by now feeling somewhat safer themselves, looked on. We continued following the lions as the wildebeest kept moving away -- in our direction. Eventually the herd ended up right where we were sitting, the lions by now quite a ways behind them. But we knew the lions would keep coming in their direction, and as they did, we were able to watch the two pairs separate to try to outflank the wildebeest. We were sure we were going to see them get their breakfast from the herd.



That did not happen, but we did get to follow the lions -- only three of them by now, one of the females having left the group -- as they came right past us and the other cars who by now had also gathered in the area. We sat for about a half hour watching the three of them, sometimes no more than ten feet from our car. It was an unforgettable experience.