St. Lucia--Hippo and Croc Tour

After the game park we drove to St. Lucia and the Isimangaliso Wetland Park. We took a river cruise on Lake St. Lucia and saw lots of hippopotamus' and crocodiles.

Here is one hippo floating in the water. They aren't able to swim, so they go under water and walk on the bottom to move. I am not sure how the 2000+ pounds can float and keep its head above water.

Here they are all basking in the sun. They usually keep the baby hippos in the center of all the adults for protection.
Here is a group stading in the shallow water. They are grazers so they eventually have to get out of the water to eat. They don't eat fish or anything that comes from the water.
Me with a hippo skull! Hippos kill more people every year than any other animal. They don't eat them, they just trample over them if they are in the way.
We also saw lots of crocs.

There weren't any huge ones (I assume that they have all been made into belts and purses,) but there were lots of little ones.
Here is a view of the lake towards the ocean. The 'mountain' in the back is the tallest vegetative sand dune in Africa. That just means that plants can grow all over the sand.

Here is a view of the dunes from the ocean. You can see the sand and the vegetation from this picture.

Here are some native Zulu warrior dancers. They greeted us as we got off the boat. There were some really little guys, and they sure could dance!

Hluhluwe-Imfolozi #2

On my second trip to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve I saw lots of cool animals. Most of them are the same that I saw on my first trip but I was able to see a few new animals too. I still haven't seen any lions or leopards (to finish out the Big 5 count) but hopefully I will on trips 3 and 4. Here are some of my favorite pictures.

Here is the buffalo. Still mean, still aggressive, still ugly.

Here is a good picture of the blue wildebeest. The story is told that as God was creating all of the animals he used the 'leftovers' to make the wildebeest. He used the horns of the buffalo, the stripes of the zebra, and the body of the hyena. However, He forgot to add brains into the creation--wildebeest are said to be very stupid!

One of my favs--Burchell's zebra.

We were able to see lots of elephants this trip. This is the dominant female, the matriarch, leading the pack.

The rest of the group, crossing the road. What a cute baby!

Everybody loves a little piece.

Here is the Waterbuck, a new animal to see. They are able to swim and always retreat to the water when they are threatened. They emit a horrible oily mess from their skin when they are in the water which even deters lions from killing them.

Here is the story...one day the baboons were repainting their house and the waterbuck stopped by. The baboons had just finished painting the bathroom (toilet seat included) when the waterbuck needed to relieve himself. Sure enough, he sat down on the freshly painted toilet seat and was scarred for life with a white toilet seat ring around his hiney.

We saw a bunch of baboons playing in the trees and along the road. These two were perched in a tree eating some sort of green fruit.

Zululand Game Drive

Our lodge offered sunset game drives around the property. They have mostly 'non dangerous' animals except for the occassionaly rowdy white rhino. We were unable to find the pair of rhinos, but we did stumble upon some new animals.

Here is a wild ostrich, I am not sure how he got his neck to do that. I hear they make great biltong (jerky) and their hollowed out eggs are souvenirs in just about every shop.

I think this is a Bontebok-at least it is the closest thing I can find in my book to a Bontebok. I haven't seen anything like it in the game park, so it was pretty cool to see one.

We saw a few giraffe on the drive, here is the big male.

Here is the female and the baby.

This is a Fever Tree. Long ago people would sleep under the fever trees at night and somehow they always ended up with a fever. They blamed it on the trees, when in fact it was the mosquito bites that they got near the wetlands (where the trees grow) that caused them to get sick. The trees are yellowish in color which does make their bark look a bit feverish.

This is a pic of the fever tree at night, I think it looks pretty cool!

Zululand Tree Lodge

This trip we stayed at the Zululand Tree lodge. It was very nice--we slept in netted beds to prevent us from malaria infested mosquito bites. In the winter the weather is cool, so mosquitos aren't really a problem. It was still kind of cool to sleep in nets though.

This is a huge termite mound. I am not sure what is going on inside this mound, but I am pretty sure I don't want to know.

This is a vervet monkey. They are everywhere in Southern Africa and quite cheeky. My dad was taking a nap one afternoon and my mom left the sliding glass door open to their deck. About a 1/2 hour into a deep sleep, some monkeys invaded the bedroom and were later chased out with some loud shouting. It was pretty funny to watch the monkeys scurry off the deck into the trees.
Nyala and Impala were all over the place at the lodge. Here is a picture of a male Nyala.

A male and female Nyala. A whole herd of them were grazing underneath our deck.

The Dyers

My exchange partners parents, Len and Elaine Dyer, invited us to their home for tea. We had a nice visit and walked around their retirement village.

Here is a picture of a pair of black swans at the village. They were really noisy!

They also have a pair of white swans, they are very pretty.

Howick Falls #2

In February I went to Howick Falls with my school (you can look at past pics and see how the water level has changed...barely any water is coming over the falls now!) We saw the falls and did a little shopping in the Midlands Meander.

The water level is low, but perfect for washing clothes. If you look closely you can see people all around and all of the laundry drying on the rocks.

My Family!

Hello! It has been a while since my last post, but my parents and aunt came out for a visit. We traveled around South Africa and parts of Zimbabwe and Zambia. I have lots of stories and pictures, so here goes with all of the updates...