Day 3, 4, and 5 - Safari in Pilanesberg Park

It turns out, elephants are really big. Especially when they are crushing entire trees just ten feet away from your car.

After getting picked up by our guide, we drove the 2 1/2 hours into Pilanesberg Park. After setting up camp and having lunch, we went for a drive through the Big 5 area. At the beginning, seeing a wildebeest 100 yards off was super exciting, but after a few hours, it became much more intriguing to see the animals close up. We stoped at a ridge where we could get out of the van without the fear of being eaten by a lion. The adults had some alcohol, while Ben and I played with the binoculars, as we cannot drink.

As the day turned to dusk, the animals got very active, allowing us to see much more than earlier. The first of our close up sightings on the trip were elephants. Ten feet from our van. There was a mom, baby, and adolescent elephant eating some bushes with massive thorns. They were so beautiful and majestic that I almost cried. The pictures don't do them justice.

After the elephants, we went back to camp, where our guide cooked us a traditional African barbecue.

As it took him three hours to make, Ben was asleep by the time dinner was ready, proving my point that he can sleep anywhere.

The next morning, we got up early. I would say bright and early, but it was really dark and early, so... After muffins, tea, and coffee (for addicts such as my dad), we got to the park gate at six-thirty. Ben got to ride shotgun, and we didn't wear seatbelts. Talk about a new experience for my family.

The first of our major sightings on Saturday morning were zebras right next to the car. And yes, that is just as exciting as it sounds. They were spectacular. I had seen pictures of zebras before, but seeing those stripes with my own eyes was amazing. And unlike with the carrot cake, my whole family agreed.

After seeing a few more animals, we returned to camp around eleven. Ben went swimming while I read my book for three straight hours. We ate lunch around two o'clock and then sat around camp until our night drive from 4-7pm. This time, rather than it just being our family and our guide in a van, we joined multiple other families and a new guide in a open-air vehicle. The only new animals we saw were giraffes. And, I know this is very surprising, but it turns out that giraffes are very tall, especially when they are just twenty feet away from you. This isn't our best picture, but the others wouldn't download, so this is the best we have. It should still give you a taste of these beautiful, long-necked and small-brained animals.

After arriving back at camp, Ben when straight to bed, yet again missing a delicious dinner. Sunday morning we woke up, had breakfast, and then went on a drive. We got lucky and saw about 16 hippos in the course of ten minutes. Very unusual for that time of day.

As we began driving to lunch, we ran into a massive line-up of cars. This normally means a rare animal of some kind. Ben and I had our money on leopard. Our guide talked to another car, and they pointed out the brown hyaena eating some sort of animal leg. We watched it for a while, and then suddenly, the hyaena was running away from a blur of spots and fur. Leopard attack! It wanted the leg, but they both ran off, so we don't know who won. Definitely one of the coolest things we saw.

All of us ate lunch at a restaurant in the park, and then returned to camp at one o'clock. We packed up our stuff, and then drove through the park on our way back to Johannesburg. Lions are generally nocturnal animals, though they occasionally come out in the morning or evening, but definitely not in the early afternoon. Apparently, two female lions didn't get the message. We saw them roaming the distant hills just before exiting the park. Unfortunately, they were so far away that we didn't get any pictures. We arrived back at our guest house in Johannesburg around six, and settled in for the night.

Some fun facts about the safari:

• There are over 13 different different species of antelope in South Africa.
• Hippos can hold there breath underwater for six minutes. (My mom was impressed with this until she found out a crocodile can hold it's breath for thirty minutes.)
• We saw 18 different mammals in total, along with about a million birds.

The safari was a great adventure, and we all had a fun time, even Ben with his knack for missing dinner. Seeing the animals listed here, and the many that went unnamed, was amazing, and I would love to do it again sometime. The next post will be about our wonderful tour of Soweto.

Bye for now!

-Abby