Safari!

Just got back from Kruger National Park. It was a looonnngg weekend of getting up early before sunrise to see the night animals and driving around all day on safaris. It was amazing. I have some incredible pictures of elephants, giraffes, hippos, rhinos, lion cubs, cheetahs, warthogs, baboons, monkeys, and so on. Some of them we right next to our car or even climbing on it.

We did a morning walk where we got up at 4:30 and were able to get out of the vehicle and actually walk around through the grasses as the sun rose. I was really nervous, but our two guides had rifles with them, so I felt better. At one point, we were taking pictures of a rhino and it heard us and started running or charging in our directions. One guide loading his gun, while we quickly ran behind a log. Luckily rhinos cannot see well and changed direction. We also saw a hyena and a bull elephant as well as many huge spiders (I almost vomited a couple times as I have a huge fear of those evil creatures).

On our last night, we did a sunset drive and watched the sunset and got to see the predators come out. They are usually sleeping or laying around during the day, so night is when you can really see them. We saw a group of cheetahs feedings, which is a rare spotting supposedly.

It was such an incredible experience that everyone has to do sometime in their life. I cannot wait to put up all my 500+ pictures. I will probably have to narrow it down to just the really really awesome ones, though.

Back to work tomorrow and one more week to go until I head home to the cold. I heard that a warm front came through Kansas, so I hope you all enjoy the good weather while it lasts. I also heard that the Cats pulled off a great win against the Jayhawks, which made it more bearable to be the only Wildcat among 6 Jayhawks here.