Best of the Safari Highlights

Our African Safari was a incredible adventure. So many new experiences, so many new friends and oh my so many animals. This trip has always been a dream for Meredith, Don and I. It was supposed to be for my 60th birthday then COVID, then my cancer and then my mom's illness and passing. So finally we were able to go to Africa and celebrate life and a fabulous trip together!

In this last blog I wanted to highlight the best of our trip. I have spent at least an hour ++ going through photos and trying to trim it down to just a few photos, which was so difficult! So here are the highlights!

THE EXPERIENCES

Just to name a few; bumpy safari jeep rides, horseback safaris, small planes on air strips with animals, hot air balloon rides, sunsets on mountains, meeting the Maasai Tribe, crossing the equator, a hotel with an animal watering hole and more sunrises and sunsets too!

We saw so many amazing animals. We did see the Big Five ( Lion, Elephant, Buffalo, Leopard and Rhino). however, I learned the term originated with Big Game hunters as these were the hardest to track and kill. So I don't really like the term. Rhinos and leopards are hard to see up close and we were fortunate to see both several times and very close.

ELEPHANTS

We were so lucky to see so many elephants. We saw herds, we saw babies just weeks old with a herd protecting the babies and we saw elephants playing in water too! Incredible animals.

LIONS

We saw so many lions. Baby lions, mom with.baby lions, adult male lions, an every combination. We even saw lions breeding but since my blog is PG we won't show that scene!

LEOPARDS

Leopards are very rare to see when they aren't hiding in a tree. We did see that and thought that was all we'd see but no the next day we saw a leopard walking around and jumping into the tree with her warthog kill! See the video Don got below too! Wow!

The amazing video Don captured!

GIRAFFES

Such beautiful creatures. So graceful. Again we saw babies, we saw them running (see Don's video), we saw reticulated and the Maasai giraffe and we saw them while we were on horseback too! Also I got to feed one!

RHNIOS

We saw white and black rhinos. White are VERY rare and we saw they up so close. We went to area where they were protecting them from poachers and got to stand very near them.

CAPE BUFFALO

HIPPOS

We saw hippos from our hot air balloon, hippos at our tented hotel and hippos everywhere!! Hard to believe they kill the most people on safari due to their big dangerous teeth. They seem so nice.

WARTHOGS - AKA - Pumbaa

Yes Pumbaa does mean absent minded and not very smart, but I really like the warthogs! We saw adults and babies and yes we got to see them very close too!

WILDEBEEST

MONKEYS, BIRDS, HYENNAS AND SOME HOOFED ANIMALS TOO

AND SOME PENGUINS FROM SOUTH AFRICA

You know I can't resist one last chance to get my favorite penguins in!! Enjoy!!

Don's fun penguin video!

What an amazing adventure. I hope you have enjoyed following along with our journey. If you are considering a safari, go ahead and do it you won't regret it! I really would love to go back to Africa for another incredible experience and hope I do someday!

This was Don and my journey back from Cape Town! WOW hard to believe we were that far away. Although it does seem like another world!

Goodbye for now from the Happy Safari Trio!