South Africa is definitely a land of living dangerously... You can get 'up close and personal' with a variety of creatures (which would never happen in the UK).
Yesterday we got up at silly o'clock to get to Hluhluwe-iMfolowzi Game Reserve in time for 6.30am to catch the animals early in the day. We spent 7 hours driving round iMfolowzi and didn't even get into Hluhluwe. But it was time well spent, we saw our full quota of zebra, impala, nyalas, warthogs, buffalo and rhino.
One highlight of the day was spotting 2 cheetahs (out of a total of 59 in the whole 2 parks, we did well!) by the river, sunning themselves and then considering chasing an antelope. They were amazing creatures, thankfully we each had our own set of binoculars to follow these magnificent creatures.
We also spotted several rhino and baby rhinos in the bushes, so cute!
A visit to the bomas (holding pens for animals to be transferred to other parks) was interesting and provided us with a way to get dangerously close to white rhino, awaiting sale to other game reserves or safari parks (but not to zoos). For a mere R300,000 you too can entertain a female white rhino in your private game reserve (a male is slightly cheaper at around R200,000!)
And then in the evening back at the appartment, whilst enjoying an game of cards on the balcony, Dad commented that hippos could wander up into the garden, only to look over the balcony and spot 2 of the same grazing very close by... A hippo hunt ensued, but too dark to take any photos.
