Vacation! Bukabong Bush Lodge

We spent the last two days of our vacation staying at Bakubung Bush Lodge, located inside of Pilanesberg National Park. Bakubung means "People of the Hippo".

Will, Zach and Colby went on a safari the first day and then I went on a safari the following day. A quick summary of the safari experience is to say it was amazing. Some of the animals were right next to our safari truck! Here are some of our favorite safari pictures...

It is kind of difficult to see some of the animals in these pictures because they were far off in the distance and these pictures are pretty small. If you would like to them larger, or view all 110 pictures we took, here is a link to the album:

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=496298013/a=132428679_132428679/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

This last photo, of the lake, is one of my personal favorites from my safari trip. Although it is difficult to see, this is a picture of a hippo. He came up out of the water and opened his mouth super wide and I just happened to have my camera on and ready. It was so cool! I still can't believe how wide he could open his mouth! Everyone was in awe of having been at the right place and the right time- I felt like I had just witnessed a solar eclipse or something!

The elephants were definitely the closest, the most plentiful and one of the neatest to just sit and watch (they're so big!!) However...

At the end of my safari trip we got caught up in a "traffic jam." We were gridlocked in the middle of about 25 cars, just parked at a stand-still. The safari guide used her CB to contact other guides and discovered that there was a herd of elephants blocking the route to get out of the park gate. So, we sat patiently (it was pictch dark by this time) and waited for the elephants to move along. Then all of a sudden people were honking their car horns and sticking there heads out of their car windows while yelling, "Move! Back up! Go!" I had visions of being in the middle of an elephant stampede flashing through my head as everyone scooted around in a state of panic. Turns out the people at the front where just sick of waiting for them to move, so they were trying to get the whole line of people to back up. All the commotion made the elephants move so it turned out not to be a big problem. But I kept wondering what would happen if they just sat down and settled in for a good night's sleep while we were waiting in line?!

The giraffees were pretty far off in the distant, but it was still really neat watching a group of them walk across the terrain. So tall and elegant.

The youngest of our three wild animals was not allowed to go on the safaris (too young = too noisy!) so while Will, Zach and Colby were on their safari the two of us just hung out around the lodge. While walking around at a leisurely pace checking out naturey things like weird bugs, tall birds and dirt piles, I heard some scuffling right across the path. I looked up and there were 7 zebra just hanging out! It was so weird! So we sat together and just watched them munch away on dinner. Nolan got a kick out of them neighing at each other! I was bummed I didn't have my camera with me- Will and the boys had it on the safari!

I was really bummed I didn't have my camera with me when Nolan made friends with a baby monkey! When the zebras wandered off Nolan and I continued walking around. At one point Nolan sat in the grass under a tree and started picking at the grass and then he started rolling around. This little 5 inch monkey jumped up in the tree above Nolan and started watching him from a branch. Then the monkey started following him. When Nolan rolled to the right, the monkey scurried down the tree after him. They went back and forth four or five times before a bigger monkey came and jumped up in the tree too. I think he was guarding the little guy. I looked up and thought, "If I wanted to, I could reach out and touch him." Crazy! It really is amazing being out in the wild!