Gate 1, South Africa - Day 10, one last Safari.

As we weren't leaving until midnight, Chris and I decided we wanted one last game drive. Jason and Tessa opted to go to a spa and then relax at the hotel pool. Kristen and Noah went to the Cradle of Humanity, the cave and museum where the oldest human remains were found.
We were up at 5, picked up our breakfast boxes at the hotel reception and were met by David, our driver in a very swish car. He drove us the 2 1/2 hours to Pelanisberg Game Preserve. There we boarded a bigger vehicle than we were used to. It could hold about 25 but there were 14 of us.

The scenery was different from the previous 2 game parks; more open grassland, dryer and scattered with small lakes. This shot has, in the distance,  a herd of elephant running towards the lake. We had just missed seeing them cross the road.

Our driver said he thought he could get to another road and see them before we got to the water. He drove like a maniac, on dirt roads, with Chris and I, in the far back seat, holding on for dear life (great fun). He did get ahead of them and parked so they broke around us. With that many people in the vehicle it was more difficult to get good pictures and I had decided to spend more time enjoying watching the animals and less time looking at the camera screen.

I was also enjoying the group of young people in the vehicle (from the US and Mexico) who were on their first game drive and so excited, especially about getting "selfies" with the animals behind them.

A Springbok. National animal of South Africa but this was the only one I saw.

Lots of Wildebeest  and Zebra herds in this park.

Including a baby.

One of the other tourists pointed out that the markings on their tails makes them look braided.

Another young one.

We had driven around to the other side of the lake and this elephant had been down there and was making her way back up from the shore.

We realized there was more, a herd, making their way through the brush

and, coming from the other direction, another herd. Our driver said that the different colouring of the 2 herds was because they had been spraying different coloured dirt on their backs. It made it easy to differentiate between the 2 herds.

As they met they trumpeted and entwined trunks. I had expected to hear more noises from the animals but the snorting/honking from the impala the night they noticed the leopard and this trumpeting were the only sounds we heard.

They continued to mill around each other for a while

and then moved on, in their respective directions, the grey ones, down towards the lake and the brown ones away from it.

It amazes me that we were able to be this close, watch the interaction and they totally ignored us.

Not alot of zoom on this shot, you can see the roof of the vehicle.

We took a short bathroom and snack break and then were back on the road.

This was something we hadn't seen before

a baby hippo.

I think he is a Marabou Stork

So impressive that I had to try a video....

Back in the parking lot I saw what I thought was a squirrel but may have been a Mongoose. Chris had to be dragged away from taking pictures of baby velvet monkeys (I'm surprised there have been none up on her blog yet) for the return drive to the hotel and our flight home.

Chris and I fell in love with game drives and both of us vowed to come back and do more.