Last Full Day of our Safari and a Hot Air Balloon Air!!!!

Today was the last full day or our safari trip. It has been two weeks, but time has certainly flown by. Tomorrow is a travel day. Meredith will travel back to Cincinnati and we will travel to Cape Town South Africa to extend our African Adventure.

We started the day with a 4:30am wake up call, as we needed to meet at 5:15am for a safari jeep ride to our hot air ballon take off point. We had about a one hour ride to the point. As we got there the sun was starting to rise. This was the first balloon ride for Meredith, Don, and me. We were all very excited but a little scared. But as Eleanor Roosevelt says " Do one thing that scares you each day!" The balloon ride was so amazingly calm so peaceful, we were in the air for 45 minutes. I felt like bird. We got to ride over the area we had been through in our safari jeeps. We saw the sunrise and animals on the ground. As we were going to land the pilot said "I have a surprise for you guys. There is a hippo pound near our landing site let's go see it!" YAY we saw so many fun hippos from our balloon. We took off like astronauts and then landed standing up in the basket. The take off and landing were both extremely smooth. The first pic is us in astronaut position ready to take off!

After our ride we had a wonderful bush breakfast not far from where we landed. All and all an incredible experience I would definitely do another ballon ride!

We drove back to our hotel and of course saw animals along the way. Some beautiful giraffes. They are so social they look like they are watching you and asking 'What are you looking at?'.

A few fun facts about giraffes:

• the world's tallest mammal status

• distinctive spot patterns like human fingerprints

• ability to sleep standing up for short periods, sometimes only minutes at a time

• newborn giraffes are born standing up, falling about 5 feet to the ground before quickly getting on their feet

• have unique physiological adaptations like one-way valves in their jugular veins to manage blood pressure

• get most of their water from their food, allowing them to drink infrequently

We got back to our hotel. They have an area called the hippo pond / viewing area. We saw so many hippos.

A few facts about hippos:

• hippos kill most people of all safari animals.  LARGE teeth

• have a substance on their skin like an antiseptic that protects the hippo.   Sometimes it can look pink, which explains why sometimes it's said that hippos sweat blood. 

• hippos can't swim and do not stay in deep water-normally they can touch the ground when in water

• feed on grass at night

• group of Hippos=Raft

• very sensitive skin and can get sunburned

• their milk for their babies is pink in color

• hippos open their mouths to show aggression and dominance, to communicate warnings, to play or show affection, for thermoregulation (cooling off), and for yawning to relieve tiredness

After dinner we went for our last game drive. We were all sad. Although we had been so very lucky and saw so many animals it was sad to be finished. We also had made so many friends! We headed out and saw a herds of elephants. They had two very young (maybe only 2 -3 week old) babies and the herd was protecting them as we watched - we kept our distance. See how the baby mimicks it's mom with it's trunk!

We also saw our favorite lion pair that were 'honeymooning'. We actually did see them 'making babies' but since my blog is PG rated I am not including that photo :-) It was definitely a unique thing to see!

We ended the last full day with a Tauck surprise. We went to the top of a small mountain for cocktails, a bonfire and sunset. What a spectacular day! Our tour guide gave us our last briefing! She was outstanding and had a great sense of humor, which everyone enjoyed.

I wanted to include one BONUS animal that is very unique and I never found a day to highlight. It is the hyenas. We didn't ever see them up close - only in the Animal Orphanage. Here are a few pictures and some very interesting facts.

Hyena fun facts:

• A group of Hyenas are called a clan or pack

• Female hyenas are larger & more beautiful & dominate - like humans hahaha :-)

• Females have a penis

  • Great advantage to having a penis for a female is that she cannot be raped-the female hyena gets to decide when and who they get busy with.  

• When they hunt they work as a pack

• Can eat 5-8 lbs of food a day.

• Can bring down Zebras and Willdebeasts 

• Great smelling ability-can smell miles away

• Their poop is white because they eat the bones

• VERY strong stomachs

• Mothers nurse for more than 1 year-they have the richest milk of all animals.  

• Their laughing sound means that they are nervous. 

• Hyenas are known to “clean up” the savannah by leaving no left-overs after kills. 

• Hyenas follow the scents and they watch the vultures circleing above.

• 2 types- striped and spotted

The first picture is the baby we saw in the orphanage, the second and third are striped hyenas in the orphanage , the fourth is a spotted hyena in the orphanage and the last two picture are hyenas we saw on safari.

Tomorrow we fly to Nairobi and we will be at our hotel for the day and night. Meredith will fly to Cincinnati that night. We will fly to Cape Town the next day. I'll continue to blog from Cape Town. I will also do an animal highlight blog with our best animal photos!

Thanks so much for following.