Bungle In The Jungle (Part One)

I was standing in the jungle, 
I was feeling alright,
Mmm Hmmm, Mmm Hmmm... (Electric Light Orchestra, Jungle)

Sorry it took so long to update, but we didn't have internet part of the time.

After seeing the dam, Apartheid Museum, etc. we took off from Jo'burg with Abby's childhood friend Rob and his girlfriend Candice and headed to Timbavati Game Reserve (see web site), where Abby's friend Wendy and her husband Grant have a Game Farm.

It took ten hours because we had some delays; some two-legged (we missed some turns) and some four-legged (we saw some eyes reflecting in the distance, and Wendy's son Michael said based on their color it's probably impala; except it was a small herd of elephants, with the baby on one side and the mom on the other. We decided to wait for them to meet up. Then we ran across a group of buffalo, who seemed to be afraid of the headlights. Oh, and a hyena).

The next morning, it was time for our first sojourn into the reserve (it actually connects to Kruger Park, it acts as a buffer for the western part of the park).

Our first spotting!

Hungry Hungry Hippos!

We then drove along, and saw various eagles, impalas, etc. then we ran across this guy :

I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide

A bull elephant in rut (in heat). They get quite temperamental during this time, and he was no exception. We were driving on the path, came around the bend, and he was right there. We were deathly silent waiting to see what he was going to do (I knew that WE were going to do, and that was change our underwear later when we got back to the camp). The following video I taped shows what happened (grab the popcorn, kiddies!)

Whew! But wait, there's more to the story...

Could anything top that? Possibly! About 15 minutes later we ran into these "deviants" chilling in the late morning sun...

"Oh Damn, It's Humans"

"Yup, definitely humans!"

Synchronized Ignoring

Next was the night drive, where you drive and can't see anything except in this case we were sober. We saw a mongoose and more impalas, and even saw a honey badger (but he didn't give a sh*t). We also saw this guy, wandering round on his own:

"Where Are All The Chicks?"

The next day, scuttlebutt around the camp was that a pride of lions had killed a buffalo, and they were having a Fancy Feast. So we made surreptitious plans to check it out. Success!!! (Note that shadows on bottom of photo are from the car window, plus Abby was taking the photos in rapid-fire fashion).

"Who Dares To Bother The King of the Jungle"?

Next is a snippet of video of his lordship (NOTE: it includes a bit of the carcass, might not be for the squeamish):

Well, that was pretty cool. We felt much safer being in a Land Rover that wasn't open.

Next, we knew there were rhinos about, because, well, they leave large piles of rhino poop (they are BIG animals). So our mission was to find the rhino without the poop. We drove around for several hour, when suddenly...

Those suckers move real fast for such hulking, lumbering dinosaur-like relics!!!

That ended our excitement at the Game Park, because the next day we were off to stay at a hotel near the Kruger Gate, at the South end of the park.

But before I sign off, a side note. When Grant & Wendy were leaving the Game Park with their kids Michael & Lauren (after we had already left), they ran into the same elephant you see above. Grant floored it in reverse faster than he ever has, because that pachyderm had a score to settle with us. Happy to report both people and car escaped unscathed.