Elephunk - 11/08/2012

My favorite picture I've taken so far

Hands down the weirdest animal in the whole kingdom

BEN - Saweeeet!  Somehow Sarel got  John and Cheryl to agree to let us tag along on another full day game drive in the national park!  Gabby and I jumped at the chance, thankful to get away from the paint fumes and reception desk.  We packed up and headed out with Sarel and a timid, but friendly English couple.  We listened to Sarel's spiel; listing facts, picking up a dung beetle and letting it crawl around, etc. Eventually, we started spotting some animals.  Our first elephant was a giant, lone male bull.  He was definitely in heat, as he had a massive prominent feature that no one could miss, dangling and dragging on the ground (hint: it wasn't his trunk).  We moved on and spotted the requisite varieties of antelope; zebra, kudu, red hearted beast.  Finally we spotted a large herd of elephants moving through the bush towards a road.  We stationed ourselves right in the herds path and waited.  This was the largest herd we've seen so far with lots of young teenage elephants, and the smallest baby we have seen.  It was amazing watching the entire herd circle up around the little guy to cross the road safely.  The baby was too cute, all floppy ears and swinging trunk, marching proudly as close as possible to his momma.  After a few more elephant encounters we went to the picnic site for another lekker braii.  The day was beautiful and hot and our mission for the afternoon was to spot a lion, which was said to be seen in the southern section of the park.  We drove into this less tread upon and less touristy section and started our search.  Almost immediately, Sarel called 'Lion' and we all jumped to one side of the vehicle scanning the grasslands.  We saw what he was looking at, a small patch of white that didn't seem to be moving.  We waited a bit before calling it a rock and moving on.  We drove the long, hilly loops of the southern side with the occasional warthog or ostrich sighting.  Gabby even got in a nice dos in the backseat.  With no lions in sight, we decided to return to the first area.  Again we returned to the mysterious, white rock.  It hadn't moved in the hour or two since were last there.  This made us certain that it was a rock, "when all of a sardine", the rock rolled over, and put a giant paw in the air.  Boom lions!  Sarel couldn't have been more proud of himself.  The combination of telephoto lenses and binoculars allowed us to just make out that there were two males and a female, probably the same we had seen on our first trip to the park.  We watched for awhile and got an occasional scratch, head lift, or upturned paw, but it seemed that the cats were going to nap the day away and not move any closer (lions sleep 19 hours a day).   We called it a day and exited the park.  When we returned to the backpackers, Andries (family friend and professional photographer) had arrived again, so we sat and talked for a bit, Gabby even earning herself the endearing nickname 'Cupcake.'  John and Cheryl got back and asked if we could whip up something for dinner.  Gabby proved herself once again, making a creamy tomato sauce with mushrooms that we drizzled over pasta.  Later it was decided that Andries must experience some good old fashioned American drinking games, so we set up a table and taught everyone chesties, the most hilarious and ridiculous drinking game we know.  Everyone loved it and we had a blast, Andries taking beautiful portraits the whole time (when he wasn't playing).  Great day!