Porcupine Ridge Guest House Sabie

... as a pet. They are wild animals, predators and deadly, just like a Lion. To drive her point home, she showed she was missing the larger part of her right index finger: bitten off and eaten by one the Chimpansees in the enclosures. After some more heartfelt warnings regarding general safety and also towards the parents to keep the little children present safe, the tour started.

First she fed the Chimpansees in the "baby" enclosure. Calling all their names ...

... back down
the tar road there she sat, just on the verge watching the goings on
down the road, so camouflaged that I could only just make out the
distinctive outline of the beautiful feline. Unfortunately as I
struggled to turn the car around I spooked her and she quickly 'leopard
crawled' across the road in front of us before disappearing into the
bush......

We couldn't believe our luck and off we went, before
a most unlikely sighting. Another ...

... away at the sight of the vehicle, it CHARGED us. Terrified? No, we were brave. It was a wild hare. The lights confused it so much we couldn't actually get rid of it at the wheels of the jeep. So many amazing stories. Leopards, lion and cheetah so close that we could reach out and touch. Mala Mala was an incredible experience that neither of us shall ever forget. On to the next adventure. I'll try to catch up soon.

... our own design. Along with the omelets came a superb homemade ketchup. He also served us Rooibos Tea, the best tea I have ever tasted in my life. Back to the story at hand - we started the day out slowly, as usual - the common theme of our trip thus far. Our balloon ride safari was canceled this morning because the weather wasn't stable enough. Apparently, it isn't much fun getting blown around when you're hundreds of feet in the air. With ...

... on finding the internet connection tonight (all other places are closed for the game) so we don't have photos to upload tonight. Hopefully, we'll get them on our site tomorrow if we can find an open place on a Sunday. Otherwise, it might be after Kruger National Park. But, there'll be plenty of animal photos to include then. Hope all's well on the other side of the world. We'll write soon!

... grass, paid no mind to us as we marveled at their beauty but simply continued on as before. God lavished so much beauty on Africa, that she wantonly decorates every stone, branch, and crevice. We splashed through waterfalls, slid down moss covered stones and trees amidst the deep serenity of nature. We climbed boulders and leapt into cold mountain pools. Our path snaked its way around, through, and over as the only hint of civilization in the entire ...

... was not a secret for long and Pilgrims Rest was declared a gold field later that year when it became home to about 1,500 miners. It was the social and commercial centre of the diggings in the area and by 1896 temporary tents had been replaced by more permanent buildings including the hotel I was staying in. In the 1880s a company called the Transvaal Gold Mining Estate was formed and the community of Pilgrim's Rest was in its heyday. The success of both the mining ...

... back to Johannesburg where, the day before descending on shoppers' mecca, Hong Kong, a rigged ATM stole the credit card. * He did, nearly. But not in any aggressive, malicious way, he was just standing beside the car and casually swung his head to look at something that caught his attention. We had another encounter outside Letaba. The elephant swung up onto the road and plodded, casually swinging his trunk, towards us. David backed up. Elephant stopped. We ...

... park is experiencing an over population of elephants, there are more than 17000 of them at Kruger. As we continued on our drive to the cottage we saw a giraffe, steenboks, waterbucks, impalas and many exotic birds. After an exciting drive, we finally made it to our camp, Bateleur, just before the gate closed at 6pm. During our 4 days in the park, we saw many species of animals, 18 in all, including elephants, giraffes, wilderbeasts, hippos ...

... we found a herd of giraffes, 20 minutes later, 2 huge white rhinos. The terrain varies quite a bit in different parts of the park and our particular concession, each bend of the road and each individual game drive, brings new and different encounters. Seeing these animals up close, displaying natural behavior in the wild is an even more amazing experience than I expected. Lions, water buffalo, impala, waterbuck, wildebeest, warthog, kudu, crocodiles, 4 foot ...