Last Week at Kariega

John and I have officially finished our volunteer work in South Africa.  We had an enjoyable time but now will be focusing on Photographic Safaris. 






The highlight of the week was John lying down in the road to take a picture of white mushrooms growing in a rhino midden.  Male rhinos mark their territory by defecating in the same spot over and over.  Mushrooms like to grow in these locations. Why was this a highlight?  Imaging John lying down in the road to get the best angle for his picture.  The ranger and I hear a lion noise and look to the right.  We see two female lions and at least on male cub about 25 feet from where John is lying.  I never knew a 65 year-old man could move so fast.  Fortunately for John the lions were full or weren't interested in tough meat.

This lion is walking down the road John was lying down on. But this picture was taken a day earlier.

The next few pictures are of the three male lion cubs.

Why is that old man lying down on my road?

Zebra, Wildebeest,and Impalas

Unfortunately we never got close enough to the Black Rhino to get a good picture.

Just thinking about taking a chunk out of John makes this lioness gag.

Tried to get a Zebra shot with spacing between all of the animals.  Almost got it.

Nyala baby and mom.

Zebra colt

Elephants don't have great eye sight but they do have a great sense of smell. This young bull is giving us a sniff.

Just like the line up in this picture.

A baby elephant suckling

We spent about 1-1/2 hours watching the elephant herd on Friday.

Those youngsters do the darnedest things.

Panning shot of a helmeted guinea fowl.

One Jackal Buzzard arrive at the nest as the other one leaves.

Male Kudu with two females.

This lioness was only 5 feet from the cruiser.  A little close for comfort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 9th

John and I have been busy with volunteer work most of the week.  We only went on three game drives.  We have been busy setting rodent traps in the fields of the game reserve to help a researcher with a study.  Over four days the 300 traps are baiting and set twice a day.  Any captured rodents are identified and release.

Here a a few pictures from the last week.  There will be better pictures after John and I move to Makalali Game Reserve in 9 days.

Small male Waterbuck

These two male Zebras were in quite a fight. The Wildebeest is oblivious

Vervet Monkey

The Kariega Game Reserve sold most of their lions because they were killing to much of the game.  This is the only adult male. There are two females and three male cubs.

All but one of the lions at Kariega is captured in this one picture.  Quite a change from when we were here last year.

Most of the smaller mammals have not had their babies yet. This area of South Africa was in drought. It just started raining two weeks ago.  Hopefully more babies will arrive next week.

All of the adult Rhinos on the reserve have had their horns cut off so poachers won't kill them.  Over 750 Rhinos have been killed in South Africa this year for their horns.

Baby Ostriches

Only Two Days to Go

Headed back to Kariega Game Reserve on November 3rd with my good friend John Miller. We will be spending two weeks there working with the volunteer program.  We hope to capture some quality wildlife pictures on some of the game drives.  John has been practicing his baking skills so I expect his homemade bread will be better than mine on this trip. Hopefully we will have internet access on November 10th so we can post a blog.

Back to South Africa

John Miller and I will be heading back to South Africa November 2nd for about 5 weeks. We will be spending two weeks volunteering at Kariega Game Reserve. Then it is off to Makalali Game Reserve where we will be joined by Jimmy Day and George Gatz.  Claudia Schnell and Robin van den Berg will be our host for a two week photo safari. George Gatz will leave us after those two weeks but Jimmy, John, and I will end our trip with a five day Leopard Photo Safari in Kruger National Park. Hopefully I will bring back even better pictures than I did last year.

A view of the resort at Hamilton Island

Fourth and Final Blog From Our Australia and New Zealand Holiday

Our fourth week in Australia began on Hamilton Island. A very nice family resort location. Golf carts are everywhere on this island.  They are the primary mode of transportation. And since most of the drivers don’t pay attention to any of the traffic signs it is a pedestrian beware location. Snorkeling was only fair off of Hamilton Island but I did get to snorkel with two large turtles for about 15 minutes with no one else around. Unfortunately one of our boat tours of the Whitsundays Islands that I was looking forward to taking was cancelled because not enough people signed up. Since three meter waves were forecasted for the day Kathy was not too disappointed about the cancellation.  Kathy and I spent the day sea kayaking and hiking to the highest point on Hamilton Island.  Here are some pictures from our hike.

There were quite a few butterflies on our walk to the highest point on the island. This was the prettiest.

This picture is for John Miller.  In Africa he laid down in the dirt to get a picture of mushrooms. This fungi is much prettier and I took this picture standing up.

Sunset shot from one tree hill.  This is such a popular spot for sunset that the resort sets up a bar every evening.

Sunrise from the hotel beach.

After three days on Hamilton Island we flew to Brisbane and spent more of those Hilton points. The highlight of our Brisbane stay was catching up with Susan and Larry Dio.  They cooked us a nice dinner at their home.  It was so nice to see them and have a home cooked meal.

We visited the Botanic Gardens and walked through the city center. Here are a few pictures from Brisbane.

This guy was just hanging around on the south bank of the Brisbane River

Emu with a bad hair day

A lizard who was visiting a Wombat enclosure. I thought he was colorful.  I wish I knew his name.

Our time in Australia spun to a close, now we are off to New Zealand.

Our time in Australia was now complete and we flew to Auckland and spent even more of those Hilton points.  We decided to stay on the North Island this trip. We visited the Auckland Art Gallery to see an exhibit titled from Degas to Dali. It must have inspired me to take the following pictures which are not my typical landscapes.

The picture captures Auckland. Areas of beauty and some areas a little gritty.

After three days in Auckland we caught the bus up to Paihia. I didn’t know we were leaving the sun behind when we left Auckland. Paihia is a resort community set on the shore of the Bay of Islands. Sun makes the world go round in this location. Lucky for us we scheduled a tour of the Ninety Mile Beach and Cape Reinga and left the rain behind. Cape Reinga is the northern most point on the North Island. The souls of Maori people leave New Zealand from this location and head back to their home island. So it is a very sacred location for the Maori.

Cape Reinga Lighthouse

The Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet just beyond the Lighthouse.

After visiting Cape Reinga it was off to the Ninety Mile Beach for a little sand boarding  and a drive down the beach. Since I was the one sand boarding I don’t have any pictures to post. I expect Kathy will be posting some pictures on Facebook. Here is a picture of the bus on the beach.  The speed limit on the beach is 100km/hr.

Rental Car agreements won't let you drive down the beach so this bus is the best way to get here.

Ninety Mile Beach

Kauri Forest Boardwalk

The sun has set on our trip and today we begin the long flights home.