There is a lady here in South Africa named Lynne who has been our saving grace since arriving in this country over a mobth ago. She has helped us get plugged in with all of our ministries and has been there to help us through all the transportation woes and extended planning sessions along the way. Well Lynne does all of that for free…and the only thing she asks in return for squads like ours that demand so much of her time and resources…is that we use her company for going on a Safari! Done. She’s quite multi-talented…missions coordinator and safari driver…I’m not gonna lie, I kinda want her life 🙂 So, here are some pictures of H-squad going SAFARI!!
5am – Picked up at our house in 6 open aired safari trucks, all bundled up in layers ready for a cold morning. Africa in winter is surprisingly chilly!
6am – Enter Kruger Park. This park is on the Northeastern side of South Africa and is roughly the size of Israel. It takes a year of training to be certified as an official tour guide of this park. But each driver can not only identify and tell you all about each animal in the park, but can also educate you on all of the terrain and plant life too…if you so desired the information. We were most interested in the animals though…and had our hearts set on the BIG 5. These are the top five animals considered most difficult to hunt…and are typically most desirable to see because of that claim to fame.
They are 1) Lion, 2) Leopard, 3) Elephant, 4) Rhino, 5) African Buffalo
The first sight of the day was this big guy. We got a call got the call that one of the teams had spotted a lion, so Lynne put it in high gear and within 5 minutes we pulled up to a crowd of cars looking at this lion just chilling on the corner of the intersection.. We crept forward to within 10 feet of him and he just looked at us. The cars and cameras didn’t phase him a bit. He stayed just long enough for us to see him, then he moved on. By then, we received another call that just down the road they found a cheetah. There are only about 300 in the whole park and they are rare to see, so to come across one posing for us on the side of the road like this was AMAZING!
Zebras. Giraffes.
Black Rhino. Pumba booking it across the road.
A crocodile sun bathing and displaying his teeth. Some baboons playing on the shore.
African Buffalo. And Zazu 🙂
The leopard was the last on our list of the Big 5 that we hadn’t seen by mid morning, then we heard the call on the radio that someone found one. So we flew down the dirt roads weaving all throughout the park until we came to the spot this guy was strolling along the river bank. After that find, we were just having fun thinking of fun things we’d like to see. Lynne said she really wanted to see a herd of elephants crossing the road. Within the half hour, we stumbled upon that very thing!
Since we had already seen one lion early in the day, a male lion, I thought it would be cool to see a female lion. As soon as I said that out loud in the truck, we turned the corner to see an entire PRIDE of lions! 2 cubs, 4 females, and 3 males. At one point the cub got up from sitting with his momma and walked over and curled up with his daddy. It was incredible!
Jen and I happened to get in the same truck, so that was fun. And this pic was of everyone in our safari truck. I personally think it was the best group…and certainly the best driver – Lynne!! It was an AMAZING day!
