AN UPDATE - FINALLY!!!

Hi Everyone!
We are back home. Been home for about a week now (it's taken that long to catch up on sleep)! Just kidding - although I did have some serious jet lag. But I am back home now and went right back into the full swing of things. I've been debating on how to do the next post. There are so many pictures we wanted to share and I didn't want it to be a HUGE post, so I guess I'm going to break it down the way I would've if I were able to blog in South Africa. Today I'll finish the safari post. I know we left off on Day 1 of Safari, to continue that story, we woke up early the next morning and went on the sunrise safari. It was gorgeous!!! We went to a different area of the game lodge - we went up the mountain and checked out the animals there.


This is where we had all our meals. It was so beautiful, and nice and quiet. I especially enjoyed eating outside - it was wonderful.One thing that I thought was really cool, was just about everywhere we went folks used skeleton keys. How cool! Even in the hotels. I think they're such neat keys.When we got back to our room there was this big, green, bug in our room. So we called one of the gentlemen over to remove the bug. He kind of laughed at us - and then told us a Praying Mantis is considered a good luck sign if you find one in your house. Obviously we are foreigners - we just wanted the bug out.Day two we started out on the Sunrise Safari. It was beautiful. I actually much prefer the sunrise safari to the sunset safari. We came across this pond on our drive out. It was so beautiful. There was steam on the water and the sun was just coming up. The water reflected the surrounding scene - it was almost magical. As we went up the mountainside we came across some Kudu. These are beautiful little animals. (They also make a tasty Biltong! *Biltong is their version of Jerky - it's way better too.)Next we saw the Rhinos. VERY cool. There were 4 of them all traveling together. At one point we were so close I took a picture of one of the Rhinos and my shadow is on the Rhinos face - we were that close.Then we were driving around and I saw these Wart Hogs coming out of the ground. There was a whole pile of them in that hole! They just kept coming out. As ugly as they are - I think they're just super cute!Here's a shot from the front. Aren't they cool looking!?!Here's a shot of Leah and I being silly.We came upon a herd of Zebras. They were beautiful. They seemed very peaceful and content to graze in the sun. Michelle told us when her family goes on safari the kids get points for each animal they spot. But if they spot a zebra they get docked points because there are so many zebras around. (So here's my zebra picture, you'll have to dock me!) :)Directly after spending time with the peaceful zebras we came upon a group of Water Buffalo. The ranger told us more people are killed by each year by Water Buffalo than any other creature in South Africa. So as we came upon them this buffalo started to charge us. Luckily his friends took off the other way and he got distracted, but it was really scary there for a bit!We stopped for a restroom break and just outside the walkway to the bathroom was this little beauty. It's called a Black and Yellow Argiope Spider. Thank goodness none of us walked into it's web!Here's a picture of us in the Land Cruiser.

After our encounter with the Water Buffalo and the big spider, Leah and I decided we needed to relax. So we signed up for a massage and one of the neighboring camps. We were driven over and along with an amazing massage we got to enjoy this view. It was so peaceful and quiet. What an absolutely wonderful time we had on safari!!!