"And the baby hippopotamus got shat upon."

Friday we had another early start, heading out for our rescheduled half-day safari at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi. We left a little earlier, the weather was great, and it was a holiday so there was little foot or car traffic, making the drive much better (it was only slightly scary). 

We keep talking about things being awesome but this preserve is incredibly spectacular – over 96,000 hectares of land, nearly a third of which is by law only accessible on foot and the biodiversity is astounding. It first became protected land in the early 1800’s because it was King Shaka Zulu’s favorite hunting grounds and any who made the mistake of hunting there were hunted by his warriors! This protection brought the white rhino back from extinction. They were assumed to be long gone, until a dozen of them were found at this park. The population is going in the wrong direction again though thanks to poaching – last year more than 1,000 of the 18,000 white rhinos were killed for their horns. The horn is worth up to $12 million/pound because you are a total badass if you have a knife with a rhino horn handle and you will have many babies if you sprinkle this in your tea?

We booked a tour at Hluhluwe because our private reserve does not have lions, so one of the biggest bummers of the trip is that we didn't end up seeing any. We were both pretty bummed for a bit, then told ourselves A) this is a total first world problem B) if it’s that important we can see a lion at the zoo, and C) we’ll just have to come back to Africa and do another safari at some point J

We did end up seeing a ton of other animals though, including lots of prey:

vultures:

Baby rhinos and elephants, and we had a fun encounter with a large bull elephant right on the road. He was pretty sleepy and just munching along until he wandered into the road.

A driver of a passenger vehicle was made uncomfortable by the approaching elephant and started backing up. Wrong choice! Apparently elephants get a kick out of this sort of dominance game, and that car could well have spent hours backing away from the elephant J

It was really fantastic seeing these animals in a space that allows them to be who they are; they cannot be allowed to roam freely as there is mutual danger if they interact with humans, but this park is so large that I suspect most of them never realize they were penned in.

We drove in to St Lucia again, had some lunch and got grumpy because we were having internet troubles here too (again, first world problems). We also discovered that South Africa really isn't so different from the USA.

We headed over to the loading area for our river tour, and found art. This piece is the least likely to keep you up with nightmares (and it was one of the few made with flesh rather than metal so that tells you how creepy the rest were!)

In the late afternoon we did a river boat tour to check out crocs:

Lots and lots of hippos including this hungry guy in the first of 3 pods. This was the smallest family group, we saw well over 100 hippos:

Rare birds such as the African Fish Eagle (looks familiar, eh?):

A Pied Kingfisher:

A rare Mangrove Kingfisher:

and much flora. This was a really cool tour where we poked around a bit along Africa’s largest estuary that runs in to Lake St Lucia.  Every evening the hippo pods come out of the river and graze on the delicious lawns of the St. Lucia residents. You and I say hello to make sure everyone knows we are around, hippos swish their tails while they poo so that their scent is spread far and wide  - even if said poo will land on their baby ("And that baby hippopotamus just got shat upon" said our guide at one point). It was seriously like shit hitting the fan. I am REALLY glad that Holly doesn’t do this…

On our drive home we saw a genet that we weren't fast enough to take a pic of and an endangered African Spotted Owl:

On Saturday, our last day on at Zulu Nyala, our guide Amon went out of his way (as usual) to make the trip special for us. He found the rhinos playing:

The mama with her baby that we hadn't yet seen:

The elephants (that he always seems to be able to find!)

He found the baboons we wanted to see:

And we got to ask him a bunch of final questions. He’s only about 5’2” and wears an adorable safari outfit (complete with hat) but is a total badass. We also learned he teaches other guides (and went to school himself for three years to become a guide). His specialty is butterflies, which we didn't find out until this evening!

Zulu Nyala does their best to make sure that the guests stay in the same group as much as possible. We had an absolutely amazing group!!! Left to right we have Henry and his wife Ing with their adorable girls Viola and Thalia, with Tim and his awesome wife Cindy on the other side. They were quite the group and this trip would not have been the same without them!

While planning this trip that began with a spur of the moment wine-induced purchase we often said “this is the only time we will go to Africa so we should definitely xyz” but we are already contemplating where our next safari location will be.

Tomorrow we’re off to Durban and where we plan on exploring the largest port city in Africa, enjoying some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, taking in a shark tour, and eating too much good food!

Thanks for following along with this crazy adventure J