Africa Photo Safari

Ok, like I said, I'm done with dead animal pictures... Let's move on to the photo safari portion of the trip-- just landscapes and (live) animals!

Big 'ole croc just sunning himself on the rocks.

Check out the Elephant destruction- they decimate the trees. I'm not a big fan of elephants after our trip.

It's interesting how the hills are randomly scattered,  protruding out of the ground like ant mounds. 

Top of the mountain toast!

Sunset.

Warthog.

Young Kudu Bull

Female Waterbuck.

Giraffe. We saw a whole family too!

Female Waterbuck.

Crossing the river is way more scary after seeing a croc.

Ok so here's my South Africa confession... I feel in love with the Cape Buffalo. Don't ask me why because I'm really not sure. I think it has something to do with how dangerous they are.

So, Cape Buffalo are NOTHING like the buffalo roaming the plains on in the USA. No, No. Cape Buffalo are born angry. They have nicknames like "Devil", "Widowmaker", and "Black Death"... Lovely right? Wounded buffalo are notorious to flee, stalk, and kill their pursuer.

Can someone please help me understand why I want one so bad?? It's one of those things where I have warning sirens going off in my head "not a good idea liz, not a good idea. warning!" Meh, I've got years before I have to worry about dealing with my Cape Buffalo dilemma. :)

See the distinct fused base on the horns of the bull?

Female. Just like a cow right? WRONG!

Feel free to imagine steam billowing out of these nostrils. 

What a great trip!

Again, here's the hunting wrap-up... (not for the faint of heart)

0

The last bang-- Gemsbuck

So some of you are going to be relieved, others sad, to know that the hunting pictures will be over after today. No more hunt stories or dead animals... for real.

But for now, let's continue the saga... It was a warm, sunny African morning and we had Gemsbuck on our minds.  We staked out a watering hole and waited.

The blind.

The watering hole.

A couple hours later and   BOOOOOOM!

Time to call reinforcements aka as Renky, the best hunting dog ever. You'd really never guess from looking at this short, stalky little guy either.

After the Gemsbuck ran off, PH Harry called the tracker on the radio to bring the truck around. Harry got Renky out of the car, but his sniffer was already on full alert.

At this point, Renky hasn't been a part of the hunt at all, but he can already sniff where the gemsbuck ran off too....

The moment Harry put him down, Renky was off and running.  We knew we better get a move on it!

Renky is just too good. It wasn't even challenging for him. I think he likes the mile chases more.

All in a days work!

0

The Elusive

I've alluded to the fact that the Kudu was the hardest animal to hunt. We hunted 3 straight days for Kudu. A couple nice animals revealed themselves during our Kudu hunts, so we killed those instead. BUT, it wasn't until the Kudu that I understood what hunting was really all about. I was so focused on getting Kudu, I didn't even snap many pictures that day for fear of spooking Kudu.

The day started out promising, I actually spotted a HUGE Kudu bull just after daybreak. However, Ross just didn't have a clear shot and he got away. I couldn't stop thinking about this guy all day. All I wanted to do is find this big one. For the rest of the day we saw so many Kudu, however none were "That" bull or shooters- rather females and younger males. Or in the words of PH Harry, "That's not what we're looking for...". Evening was approaching and we cornered a big buck in some thick brush. I could barely see at this point, but Ross and the PH were going at it. The next thing I know, the PH says "Take It".. BOOOOOM.

Yep, definitely wasn't covering my ears at that point. "What? Huh? I can't hear!! What's that ringing noise???!"

When we finally got to the Kudu, all of us were slightly disappointed because it wasn't the big one we spooked from the brush, it was a younger one that we'd seen earlier in the day. It was quite odd for me because I had all these hunting emotions (what is that and what are those?!!?).  Ross was explaining that's just the way hunting goes- you don't always get the big one, especially when that's what you want so bad. Sometimes these things just happen.

It was a good lesson, but for the last couple days we'd had such success with big, huge animals I was getting spoiled. Back to reality.

So I have mixed emotions with this Kudu, but I will always have a ton of stories in my head when I look at him staring back at me on my wall...

Kudu LOVE these salt licks

Ross and PH, Harry.

So many memories on this Kudu Bull.

1

"Biggest Impala of the Season" -PH

Let's continue with the safari photos!

I forgot to post this last time... Ross in the blind at the watering hole where we he killed the big 'ole waterbuck. You can't see it, but there's hundreds of these lil tiny flies that sound like bees buzzing all around us. Apparently they like sweat, so they're concentrated around your face. Ewwah. If 10+ hours in a blind doesn't make you go crazy, these fly things will....

Sometimes the "blooper" pictures, turn out to be my favorites...

Rid'in along in the Land Cruiser at sunset.

Celebratory beers occur at any hour. 8:30AM? 7PM? No matter.

See the giraffe bum in the middle of the picture?

Giraffe in the middle- it's little like Where's Waldo.

Ross and PH Harry in the "shooting seats"

Intrepid Safari's is moving into a new Lodge next month. They took us by the new place, so that we could see the amenities where we'd be staying the next time we book a safari with them :)

 

Back to the hunting... on Day 3, Ross killed a pretty awesome impala...

Tracker Old John and PH Harry, getting the impala set-up for some pictures.

Lighter than the Eland!

The impala has a beautiful coat. It was my favorite... so I'm getting a pillow made with the backskin.

Look at those horns!!!

And for some landscape views...

In the afternoon we went to hunt "the river"- the most beautiful concession that we hunted. We actually went back there again with Robby and Steph a couple days later. The river is a tricky place to hunt because the far bank is Botswana, while the closest bank is still S. Africa. Don't want to kill anything that could potentially run to the Botswana side because then you're SOL!!

Pride Rock! This is actually the location that inspired the Disney animators to create Pride Rock in the Lion King.

"Circle of Life..." :)

Croc-o-dile.

Ross and Harry admiring the views.

Great way to see Botswana (aka Elephant Land) on the far side of the river.

I. Love. Giraffes.

PH Harry helped me stalk up on the giraffe. So majestic. I don't want to kill one of these.

It was dusk, just past realistic hunting time, and we heard a series of grunts on our left. We whipped around and saw a family of hippos in the river: Dad, Mom, and babies. Parents were letting us know they're weren't playing around and started to swim towards us. Time to go!

This was definitely my favorite hunting spot!

0