Lunch with the elephants was amazing! I am glad we ate first though... it's messy feeding them and they started going after our leftovers pulling fruit right from the bowl with their trunk. (They got a reprimand for that.) So I was the first volunteer to feed Sam. First he sucked the pellets from my hand which felt like a very powerful Hoover vacuum. Then Sam wanted me to pour the pellets into his trunk for which he kept sucking them in his trunk to make room for more - quite greedy. They do need to eat a lot!

Then Sam was instructed to lift his trunk over it's head to allow me to hand feed the pellets into his mouth. At first I just put it at the edge and most of the pellets fell out of his mouth. (Notice Sam's "get on with it" look as if saying will you learn to feed me right?) The trainer told me to put it way into the back of his mouth and feel the smooth tongue. It was smooth alright and slimy! But way cool!!!

So let me show you my husband feeding him in his mouth at the side angle to get a feel of how far you actually go in. It's quite scary to be that close to an animal so large. When they first walked up, as he got close to me, I immediately backed away - very intimidating.

So while we spoke to the trainer, I had to ask about the jewelry that is made from the elephant hair. I have a bracelet with a strand of elephant hair in it. A friend from work had said that elephants have no hair and that it came from his butt... that I have an elephant butt hair bracelet. Well I got close enough to the elephant to see he had hair on this tail and chin whiskers (many of them). So Damien, no longer do I wear an elephant butt hair bracelet!

So the two elephants we met were actually in the movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy" where they get drunk off the amarula berries, which makes a great liquor by the way!

So back to the safari...The rhinos are a beautiful beast. They definitely have my respect. The last time I saw one over 9 years ago, we were being transported by jeep from a canoe trip through a small reserve which had rhinos. We rounded a bend and came face to face with one angry rhino. He started trotting faster and faster after us... we couldn't back up fast enough. Finally our driver managed a three point turn in the road, which was the rhinos chance to charge us. He decided to let us go. As one guide joked in the past, "How do you know when a rhino's doing a mock charge? If you are still left standing!" I was happy to have a peaceful sighting with these rhinos this time round!

I started an Easter tradition last year that everyone loved so this year it got a little bit bigger... so we decided to do it at the park. We have an Easter Eve Flashlight Egg Hunt with some of the local kids in our neighborhood. They come in their pajamas with flashlights and scout for eggs just as it's starting to get dark. They exchange their eggs for non-edible prizes (as it is close to their bedtime and they'll be getting a lot of candy the next day anyway). They sure enjoyed themselves this year as seen in the pic!

The giraffes are one of my favorites. For being as tall as they are, they are so graceful. We saw a family of them, what looked to be a dad, mom and two small ones. It was wonderful to see one drinking as in the pic to the left. They can't stay down very long as they can get a blood clot in their neck and die.





It was neat to see a giraffe run, another first for me. The other interesting thing was that they walk both right legs then left but run front legs then back legs, galloping like a horse.

Nothing says the "wild" more than hearing the sound of bones crunching by a female lion eating a carcass! (pic at left) I'll admit it was thrilling although we were all cringing at the same time hearing all that crunching bone.


She was only allowed to eat after the dominant male had his fill. See him here growling at us protecting his food. The low deep growl was quite fascinating. We did not hear him roar though.

I did really do some work while I was there and am still working on that as it will take longer than I thought, but I do have to tell you about the great safari we went on! The place was beautiful!
It's called Botlierskop Private Game Reserve. Once we arrived, our bags are taken away to our room while we leisurely ride a small boat to our Tree tent (top left).


The picture of the room at left is exactly like they show (our pic matches close to theirs). Check out their website. This is not like any tent accommodation you have ever seen! Don't think we were roughing it out there. And if you're feeling a little bit adventurous, you can take a shower outside! (I am not telling whether I did or not, but I will tell you the bath tub was great too.)


Some say Botlierskop was named after the rock formation as seen in the pic - a Dutch word meaning bottle top. Others say it was named after the original owner of the land. Supposably the owner did not get along with the surveyor, who incorrectly spelled the land owner's name as Botlierskop.

Stay tuned for the a glimpse of one of our safari rides...

What a beautiful country and a wonderful trip! Although I'll have many blogs about the trip, I thought I'd sum it up with two pictures to start it off... breathtaking beaches around every turn and spectacular sunsets by night.

Did you know my husband is an excellent photographer? I think so anyway.

I've been back for a couple days now but it took a while to recover from the 3 flights which took 29 hours to get back home!

More to come...