Africa Day 16, 17, & 18

We spent the next 3 days at Mosethla Bush Camp in the Madikwe Game Reserve on a safari.  It was awesome.  We saw all the Big 5 animals-rhinoceros, Cape buffalo, leopard, elephant and lion-plus lots of other animals.  We had 4 guided game drives (an evening drive on the 18^th, a morning and evening drive on the 19^th, and a morning drive on the 20^th) and learned lots about the African animals from our guide Kgmotso.  (The kids are planning to do a power point slide show with pictures and information about the animals when we get home.  If any of you are really bored, I’m sure they will show it to you.)  During the middle of the day, we played games, napped, showered, and read.  The camp was very primitive, but nice at the same time.  There was no electricity or running water, but our meals were all catered and the staff took great care of us.  The owner Caroline was hilarious and full of great stories.   If we wanted to take a shower, we had to get water in a bucket out of the big water tanks and take it and pour it into the donkey boiler.  The water would displace the hot water in the donkey boiler and come out the other side boiling hot.  Then you would add a little cold water to that and take it to the shower and pour it in the hanging bucket that had a spout attached to it.  It was worth the work to have a nice hot shower because it was so cold there.  The staff brought us boiling hot water bottles at night so we could stay warm since there was no heat.  We all wore about 3 or 4 layers on the game drives. 

 The zebra seemed to like to follow the giraffes

 Vultures

 This lion had just killed a wildebeest and was now resting with a full belly

 This black backed jackal was waiting around for the lion to leave so he could scavenge the wildebeest 

 They call the Impala the McDonald's of the game reserve because they have an M on their behind and because there are tons of them and they are easy to catch

 Baby elephant

 Cape buffalo

 Vulture

 Another recently killed wildebeest that the lions are feeding on

 This was a bull elephant that was mad, mad, mad.  He charged us and we had to turn around and drive off very quickly

 Zebra drinking at the water hole.  Look at the cute baby at the bak.

 Gemsbok

 They built this statue of the rhino in memory of the rhinos who had been poached for their horns.  

 Leopord!!

 Male lion

 Yellow beaked hornbill

 Rhino!  We looked forever for them.  They are very common but we never could seem to find any.  We found them on the last day of our drive.  Unfortunately we didn't get a very good picture of them.  We had just driven off the road to get close to them, when a male elephant came out of nowhere and started towards us so we had to get away quickly. 

 Another male lion.  His right leg was hurt and he was very skinny.  Another group of lions had killed his brother and now they were after him.

 Kudo.  Aren't their horns awesome?

 Caroline the owner

Our cabin

The donkey boiler

 Shower

 "Lounge" where we rested between game drives

 Our vehicle for the game drives

Cute Garret looking at animals through the binoculars

On the 20^th after our morning game drive, we drove back to Sun City and did a zip line.  The zip line was 1.25 miles long and at it’s fastest, it went 95 miles an hour.  It sounds scary, but it really was just plain fun.  It didn’t feel like you were going that fast.  It just felt like you were flying. 

After the zip line, we drove back to South Africa and stayed the night at the Emerald Guest House again so that we could be close to the airport for our flight to Zambia in the morning.