Our first day on Safari

After an early breakfast, we met our Ranger Werner. We were one of three couples at the Tented camp, (amazingly, all of us were from the Seattle area) the other two couples in our group were staying at the main lodge, so we had a short drive to pick up the rest of our group. Soon after entering the Game Reserve we spotted Curious George. George is a fourteen year old Giraffe. He was once the dominant Bull of the herd, but was recently deposed by a younger male. George only has one horn, the result of his fight with the other male. Now an outcast, George lives by himself. Much to our delight, we saw him daily. For the most part, the South Africans don't name wild animals, George got his name from an American film crew while filming the movie "I Dreamed of Africa". George was always hanging around checking out what was going on so they named him Curious George.

The rest of the morning we were treated to Rhino, Hippo, lots of Impala and Nyala, and many different bird species. We searched for elephants without luck all morning, so headed back in for lunch.

After a couple of hours to relax, it was back into Bessie, our Safari vehicle for more exploring. Late in the evening Werner decided to try the water hole before quiting for the night. We found the elephants nearby. We actually heard them in the bush before we saw them.

As the sun started to set, Werner drove to a ridgetop where we saw an amazing sunset.

Our first day was amazing, leaving both of us in total wonder, and excited at the prospects of each coming day.