more safari talk

We saw all of the following animals while on the safari (and lots of baby animals):
(All of these animals were less than 20 yards away from our truck and most were even closer than that! Our guide, Gondwa, said that as long as we all stayed in the truck, the animals didn’t think of us as humans but rather as a single creature, so they didn't feel threatened)

1. Tons of elephants (and a very small baby elephant that was less than 1 year old!) (so cute!)
2. Tons of Zebras (and baby zebras)
3. Giraffes (and cute baby giraffes)
4. Tons of Impalas (with baby impalas)
5. Hippos
6. Cape Buffalo
7. Warthogs (and Jack the warthog...read previous blog)
8. Bush Bucks
9. Velmet monkeys
10. Baboons (and adorable baby baboons)
11. Puku
12. Water bucks
13. Land moniter lizard (Our guide had only seen one before in his 6 years as a guide)
14. Spotted hyena
15. Elephant shrew
16. Scrub hare
17. Genet
18. Black stork
19. Saddle beaked stork
20. Crocodile
21. Bee-eating birds
22. Cameleon (Kim, Katie and Shant all held it)
23. Water buffalo
24. Tree squirrel
25. King fisher
26. Gray Heron
27. Yellow billed stork
28. Porcupine
29. Kudu
30. Water monitor lizard

I did not realize how much I liked zebras until I saw them in the wild. They are truly beautiful, exotic creatures. Probably my favorite! I liked the hippos too. They are huge, but since they can swim underwater you don't even know they are there until all of a sudden they come up for a breath. Very cool! Unfortunately, there were no rhinos at this park. They have all been illegally poached. Gondwa said that if you catch a rhino and sell its parts you are rich for life, so they are a hot commodity...poor rhinos.
One of the most remarkable parts of the whole safari was how well the animals lived together. In one part of the park there would be baboons playing right next to impalas and zebras. I guess I wasn't expecting there to be such harmony between the animals.

Here are some of my safari pictures. I will post all of my pictures on facebook when I return (uploading photos here is painfully slow)












This last one is the view from our cabin! SO beautiful!