Looking for Animals

We recently made 2 trips to the the game park 2 1/2 hrs from us. After Christmas, we went camping there with several other families. The whole family enjoys being there. When we're not out looking for animals, the kids run around the campground playing with their friends. Silas and his buddies honed their skills in bocce (lawn bowling... although the "lawn" here is sand).

While our friends, Dan and Edie, were here we made another quick trip to the game park. The kids like to go hiking on the rocky hills around the campground. Up on top, you can look down over the campground, the river and the open expanses along the river.



Kira and Brynn were ready to spot animals. We've seen lots of animals in previous trips, but we'd never seen the king of the park (lions) and we'd only seen a few elephants before. Everyone was bringing their eagle eyes to spot lions and elephants this time.

When you enter the park, you pick up a guide who stays with you until you leave the park. The best way to spot animals is from on top of the vehicle as you drive around. Everyone took turns riding up on top as we drove around the park. You just have to watch out for the tree branches and branches with thorns that hang over some of the trails. Believe me, they can hurt and leave a mark.

Our 2nd trip the park, we came across 6 large elephants right after we entered the park. There's a watering hole near the entrance and these fellas were hanging out right there.

As we left the park, we saw 3 more elephants slinging mud on themselves down in this same water hole.

Earlier that day, we were driving along when the guide said the back up... He spotted elephants. I was on top with Dan, Brynn and the guide. As Krista backed up, we heard an elephant trumpet and out of the bush charged this elephant. Krista quickly drove forward and the elephant stopped his warning charge. We backed up a little and he charged a 2nd time until we moved forward some more.
As we sat there, the elephant went back and led this group of 4 adults and about 8 babies across the road behind us. One of the babies was only about 3 feet tall.
We saw lots of "DLCs" (deer like creatures). This beauty was a roan antelope. We got a hold of a book this year that shows all of the animals in the park with pictures and descriptions, so now we can actually put names to all of the DLCs. In addition to the DLCs, we spotted several warthogs, an African civet, a jackal, baboons, and red monkeys. The red monkeys like to hang out in the bushes around the campground and run out to grab food that's left around.
One night during out 1st trip to the park after Christmas, we asked the guide if we could do a night trek. He agreed, but under several conditions: no one could ride on top of the vehicle and we could only drive the trail nearest the campground. Otherwise, we would need an armed guard to go with us. We piled a bunch of the men into our vehicle and started driving. 600 meters up the road from the campground we came upon a female lion lying in the middle of the road. She was unconcerned with us and stayed right where she was for about 5 min. Then, she rolled onto her back daring us to come rub her tummy. After a few more minutes, she got up and slowly walked a few meters into the tall grass next to the road and lay down. We continued on our trek, but on our way back we stopped at that same spot to see if she was still there. Sure enough, she was... along with another female lion laying next to her!

In light of our successful trek, the ladies and a few others decided to give it a try the next night. Unfortunately, they didn't spot anything. They were disappointed, so when it came to our 2nd trip to the park everyone really wanted to spot a lion. In the morning, we went out looking for animals. After about an hour, we headed to a watering hole and waited there to see if anything showed up. Dan got off the top of the vehicle and started walking around. As he did, I spotted something moving out the other side of some tall grass about 30 meters from Dan. At first, I thought it was a baboon and then the guide said, "lion!" Everyone got off the top and into the vehicle and the guide let us drive down through the tall grass next to the watering hole. As we came out the other side, we came upon the female lion sitting behind a tree. We sat there and watched her.
After a few minutes of watching the female lion, along came this young male lion to join her. The guide said the female was there by the watering hole to hunt.... the male was there to eat whatever she killed.


Right before we spotted the lions, we found a herd of several hundred dwarf red buffalo. They're very similar to and just as aggressive as water buffalo. As they moved along, they created a huge cloud of dust behind them. After we drove along right next to them, we learned that it can be quite dangerous to drive next to a large herd like that. They will often surround a vehicle and then attack it.


They are working hard to improve the road to the park. In this picture you can see the raised section which will be the new road. It will eventually be paved, which will help with tourism for the park. The truck in this picture was a piece of work and a very typical sight here. It's loaded with wood that will be sold for cooking fires. The springs on the left side of the truck were completely shot. Every little dip or slope and the whole truck swayed way over on the left side. We didn't want to pass it for fear that it would fall over onto us.