Seeing game…on a game drive… AKA a Safari…

Driving through iTala game reserve was a really fun experience. We weren’t even 1km into the reserve before we spotted two Rhinos by the water’s edge. They stood as if transfixed by us, this allowed us to take a bunch of close up pictures.  Tyler noticed the humps from the hippos in the water and was convinced he would get a good picture of them. Unfortunately hippos love to stay firmly submerged underwater during the day. So, no good hippo pictures for him.

Rhino!

We also spotted warthogs (little pumbas), impala and eland.  A little futher in the park we found herds of zebra (if you are anything other than South African let me tell you how this is pronounced…it’s ZeB-bra NOT Zee-bra.) They were really relaxed and easy to photograph.

Pumba! AKA Warthogs

We noticed some ostrich, as well as some baby ostriches. They are so cute! Although I was a little weary of getting too close to them.

Mom, baby and baby baby!

My great search was for the giraffe. After getting lost (or temporarily misplaced) in the park, and after much exploring I finally realized that Rebecca is (like me…although maybe worse) directionally challenged. Once I decided to ignore her directional “help” and just follow my African 6^th sense, I came across a whole family a giraffe. A few of them seemed a little intimidated by me, while the biggest one, just stood tall majestic as ever.

Giraffe family!

After seeing everything on our checklist we headed to the Natal Lion Park…

How cute are these ZEBra's???

I love that it’s not only Americans that refer to the African wild life with names from the Lion King. J The game drive was a pretty neat experience, I have seen all of these animals before, but never in a natural setting like this, always in American zoo’s, and let me tell you it just isn’t the same. I will however admit that I am disappointed in the hippo’s, I was determined to get a photo, even made everyone sit in the car and wait, but alas, it just wasn’t in the cards for this American man… maybe on my next South African adventure. (I guess he just re-invited himself….I told you not to feed him, they ALWAYS come back if you feed them J)