Day 18, Year 6 Wild Wonderful Africa, Day 3
Date: Thursday, November 11, 2010
Weather: Perfectly BEAUTIFUL Day
Location: Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Nature Reserve, South Africa
We won the weather battle today and had an absolutely gorgeous day in the park. But we didn’t win the Big 5. We have seen only BER-buffalo, elephant, and rhino. We have not seen LL-leopard and lion. So the cats have escaped us. We have one more day, so not all is lost. But we are thinking that the heavy rains have provided so much water everywhere that the cats don’t need to come to the traditional watering holes and don’t hold out much hope for tomorrow. We will keep searching, but if we don’t see the cats here, we will hope to see them when we visit Kruger National Park week after next. But cats or no cats, we have seen incredible wildlife here. Everyday we have seen elephants, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, white rhino, warthogs, and hundreds of antelopes, mostly in the form of Impala with a few Kudu thrown into the mix. We have seen baby elephants, baby zebra, baby rhino, baby warthogs, and baby monkeys. And one of the smallest but greatest shows on earth is watching the little dung beetles roll dried pooh into balls that get bigger and bigger as they roll along. This has to be one of the weirdest bugs on earth. The bird life here is prolific and being here just after the rains has given us a beautiful green countryside bursting with spring blossoms. Springtime in the Southern Hemisphere is quite in evidence with the budding trees and baby animals of all sorts. Wild, wonderful Africa has treated us with quite a show this week.
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| 101111 Day 18 South Africa–Hluhluwe-iMfolozi, Day 3 |
