Safari Time!

We all had SO much fun going on safari! We were able to find the "Big 5" (Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Rhino and Buffalo), as well as many other animals during our four day stay at a safari lodge (Lukimbi Safari Lodge) inside of Kruger National Park in South Africa. Here are some of our favorite pictures...

While watching the zebras up close we all came to the same conclusion....they are definitely white with black stripes (and still Zach's favorite animal)!

"You wanna mess with me?!" Nolan watching the "big, big pigs" (white rhinos).

Photographer Will at work- here he's taking 1 of the 3,000 pictures he took!

Hakuna Matata...warthogs are a lot uglier and a lot hairier than Pumba was in The Lion King (and this one didn't sing for us either)! Our safari lodge.

We followed these fresh paw prints to find these guys...

We pulled up into a circular clearing where 1 fremale lion and 5 male lions were just lying around. We sat and watched them (from inside the safari vehicle, of course) for about 25 minutes, from about 15 feet away. Once in awhile a lion would get up to stretch or find a new place to hang out, but for the most part they were just lion around. The lions really did not seem to be bothered by us at all. I actually think they enjoyed the paparazzi-ish attention. Look how well the posed for us.

We went out on two safari drives each day, for about 3 hours each time. Every trip we stopped about halfway through and got out of the vehicle (actually got out in the middle of the wild!) and had a drink and a snack. One time Lisa, Our Ranger, challenged us to put a piece of dried up antelope poop in our mouth and spit it as far as possible. And every one of us did it- all so we could get a "Junior Ranger Certificate" at the end of our stay (well, Will and I didn't get a certificate, so don't ask me why we did it!) The funny part is Nolan accidently picked up a wet piece of poop, so it got stuck in his mouth!

Can you find the leopard? He is a bit hard to see, but we were ecstatic when we spotted him (espcially Colby, since spotted cats are his favorite animal)! Our Tracker actually found him crouched down low in the bush. It's amazing he found him...although I guess that's what he gets paid for, right?

Our Tracker, Giddean, showing the boys how to make a toothbrush out of a certain kind of tree branch!

This was my favorite memory of the whole trip. We stumbled upon a journey of 13 giraffes, or as Zach named it, "our baker's dozen of giraffes". First we saw one tall, tall creature coming out of the bush, then another and then they just kept coming. It was so cool. They all crossed right in front of our safari vehicle and then stopped for a little leaf snack on the other side of us. They are beautiful and so fun to watch because they are so tall and elegant (sounds a bit like me! :)

Want to exactly which animals we found? Just ask Zach! He was a very efficient at checking off all the animals on his official Lukimbi Animal Checklist!

Family photo out in the middle of the bush.

Birds, birds, birds.

We stopped to look at a lot of different types of birds. We are not "bird people", but we did kind of get into it, as there are some really cool birds out there. Above is our pick for the prettiest bird we found and below- well, he gets the award for "not so pretty."

"What are you looking at boys?"

We found this family of baboons hanging out in the trees. Our Ranger, Lisa, estimated the baby baboon was only 5 days old!