Africa is pretty dam cool.

[left field]

Within one hour.

[Otto]

Wow, very cool!  This trip is definitely on my bucket list. Looking forward to more pictures and what else you see and discover. 

[Bionic]

Elephants!

[SilverLake]

Sweet! Are you hunting? I am booked for ten days in May and can’t wait. 

[Bolt Action]

Looks like a great experience!

What was the setup? Meaning, was it a drive through a fenced in preserve? Or was it through the actual bush?

[grampy]

Great pictures! Hope you have the time of your life!

After retirement, it's on my bucket list to go to Africa with Dinsdale. He has been many times. A great guy too. We did a fishing trip together over the summer and had blast!

Hope to see him on here more.

[left field]

Not hunting. 

Came for a friend's birthday in Tulbagh which is wine country just outside of Cape Town. He arranged for a safari for 25 of us just south of Kruger where we took over an entire lodge within a pretty large concession. Not sure how many hectares but not fences, not even at the lodge. You have to be escorted to your tent/bungalow at night as you can easily see a lion. hippo or elephant in camp. 

This is more bush safari than open savannah and there are two game drives per day: 5-8 am and 4-7 pm. Each afternoon drive ends with a drink over a vista in the bush. I am shocked on just how many animals are here. Saw the Big Five on day one, then just knocked everything else off the list - warthog, crocs, giraffes, hippos, gazelles and antelopes, and this morning a pack of hunting dogs. It got to a point where I would ask out guide to find little silly stuff like a dung beetle. Twenty minutes later, we watched a beetle push a softball-sized ball of dung down the road. 

The animals are also very chill with the landrovers, so we would bust through the brush to come within a metre of a pride of lions with cubs who will come up to the truck. 

My first time, so I can't compare it to anything else but I do know people who have gone on safari and seen very few animals.

[crappyice]

What new article is coming from this trip?!?

[left field]

None. I'm on vacation.

I'd love to write something, but I would need to come back and spend time with a tracker and guide to find a story.

The guides/trackers were great. Find a barely visible track on a dirt road and follow through the brush to find a male lion. Obviously they know the area and animals well, but things don't always work out as planned.

Highlights were the pack of 30 or so African Wild Dogs. (There are only 300 or so left in SA, so that was fortunate.) And following a mother and baby rhinoceros onto a dry river bed, when a large male came out to harass the baby. She wasn't haven't any of that and charged him until he backed off. 

 

If you ever have the opportunity to go, jump on it ... these animals are amazing. Perspective is a funny thing though. One night at the bar, I pulled out some video of a black bear at my cabin and the guides were blown away. Then one of my Swedish friends showed some moose footage and they started high-fiving him.