100 Days of Africa: Safari-ing!

Last Saturday was a long, hot, beautiful whirlwind full of safari adventures. There is no possible way that I could explain how amazing it was to you, but I’ll try!

We began our day at 5:30 am where Jordie picked us up in Big Red. We drove the 45 minutes to Addo Elephant Park and made it just in time for the gates to open- first ones in the park!

Addo is the third-largest national park in Africa, so the acreage was really amazing. The park has about 500 wild elephants and several other species of animals including lions, zebras, kudu, rhinos and warthogs.

We drove around and saw lots of wart hogs, lots of greenery, but nothing really “cool” yet. We rounded a corner and drove up on a watering hole and instantly saw about 60 elephants. It was unbelievably breathtaking! You couldn’t talk loudly or get out of your car (obviously) but Jordie used to work in the park and it was AMAZING how much she knew about the elephants and their families. Our trip wouldn’t have been half as interesting if she hadn’t been with us!

All ready to go, bright and early!

Jordie explaining the elephant families- SO neat!

Just playin' around

Hey, baby!

See how close they were?!

The zebras finally got a sip, too!

Two boys going at it

Kudu in the bushes

Big Paul got too close to the other cars!

After leaving Addo, we drove to Kwantu Elephant Sanctuary where we got to RIDE ELEPHANTS! They are such beautiful, gentle giants but their size is overwhelming when you are right next to them. We got to ride around the game reserve and then we were able to feed them afterwards. So neat!

Beautiful girls

Such a cool experience!

We got to feed the girls after we rode them!

She was stunning

Our last stop was Schotia Game Reserve! This was easily the coolest part of our trip. We hopped on an open safari truck and saw elephants, antelope, ostrich and all sorts of cool animals! There is a seat on the front of the truck called the “tracker seat” and everyone got a turn outside of the truck. We saw antelope warthogs and other small game, but the second I got on the tracker seat we saw a giraffe and two white rhinos! That was my bragging moment for the day!

Walking with a giraffe. Casual.

'Sup, Big Bird?

So cool.

Hey, big fella!

On the tracker seat- maybe more fun than riding
an elephant!

About to eat a TERMITE. Slimy, yet satisfying.

Bachelor Party

Hippos!

2 feet from the truck. Yikes.

We made a stop for dinner and it was DELICIOUS. Lots of good veggies and local game- Kudu is quickly becoming my favorite. After dinner, we drove around looking for lions. We hopped in the truck, drove 2 feet outside of the dinner camp and there were 9 LIONS SITTING OUTSIDE OF OUR DINNER CAMP. They were there the whole time! It was amazing to watch them stalk and hunt antelope.