Late Afternoon Safari -- Just a Bunch of Animals

I think that I will let pictures paint their thousand words, but I should frame this, I guess! After lunch today, we had a little time to relax and get to know Aquila, our home for two days. The place is beautiful with a variety of interesting lodging possibilities. We met at 4:45 to do the late afternoon/early evening safari ride. Chatham Hall took up two of the vehicles and we set off eagerly hoping to come across some animals.


We were not disappointed. Early on, we saw springbok and learned about them from our very knowledgeable interpreter. As we looked to the left, in the distance, we could see black and white stripes. Upon closer inspection, they were, of course, zebras. A whole "desert" of them. In the pool across from the zebras, seven hippos stayed mostly below water, but one very large animal rose up out of the water only to slowly sink back into the pond.

Enough about the animals! This area is absolutely stunning. It is mostly red soil, brush, and what I believe to be granite mountains. Against a blue sky, the red of the soil jumps out. As we approached sunset, the shadows became more dramatic. The sun, however, kept us nice and warm, as it has for the past two days.


Okay, enough about the landscape, let's get back to the animals. We saw two giraffes. The amazing thing is how close we can get the Jeeps to the animals. They are wild animals, clearly, but are used to seeing the vehicles. This did not mean that we did not respect the power and swiftness of these wild animals. When you look at the photos, if there appear to be animals who were only a few feet away, that is absolutely true. Some of the most dangerous animals were photographed from a mere ten feet away.













We saw rhinos, which are just always a marvel to me. Elephants appeared and walked right toward us. Gnus rubbed their faces in mud, zebras rolled in the dirt, giraffes stared us down and, and, and lions sidled right up to the vehicles. Well, not right up, but we photographed several of them from less than ten feet.

The ride, in and of itself, was pretty exciting. And bumpy. I kept hoping that I would not lose a tooth as we were jarred back and forth and up and down, and the bars we held on to seemed to move right up to greet our faces. We were uncertain, at one point, if we'd make it up a rocky and very steep hill, but the big safari vehicle that could, did.

We stopped for a very civilized snack -- more sparkling grape juice and some fruit -- and then packed off and headed for the lion enclosure. I have to say it: Lions are beautiful and strong and fuzzy and, I reiterate, beautiful. There were a few moments of fear as the animals moved near the vehicle, but rather than come and rip our heads off, they would lie down by the side of the road and act super-cool by yawning and turning their heads away from us as we tried to capture it all on film.




Leaving on a high point (we saw all seven lions), we headed back to the lodging area and went our various ways until dinner. I know some of us participated in the African drumming clinic. Others, wisely, might be in bed. I'm going to add the photos and let them do the rest of the talking. More tomorrow.

It's tomorrow and I'll add on this morning's wild animal contact: cheetahs, a tired (it was early) leopard, and some more lions -- all rescue animals that are being cared for at the reserve. As it was early, and as we still had to get breakfast, and as we then had to head to our service project, we spent about an hour with the animals -- all beautiful. It was wonderful to see them in their natural habitat -- the brush -- has see how their coloring worked for them. The high point was when Kathleen took hold of someone's camera to get a better shot leaning over the barrier. She fell forward and the lion who had been lying down for about 30 minutes, jumped up to either see if she were okay or to eat her. Kathleen was never in any danger as there are double barriers, but it was nice to see the lion still had some sort of instinct.

After breakfast, we left for Braveheart Home in De Doorns, about 30 minutes from Aquila.