Easter in Omfolozi Hluhluwe Game Reserve

3/23/08

Happy Easter! I am exhausted but it was by far the best Easter ever! We had to wake up at 4:45 AM to be ready to leave at 5:30. All of us piled into these trucks and left for the game reserve that was ~30 minutes away. The game drive was 6 hours long through this huge reserve. There was a bunch of roads, dirt and semipaved, that were interconnected and we went on whatever one the driver thought animals would be on. For the things we saw: warthogs, tons of zebras, tons of giraffes, rhinos (black and white), water buffalo (all I could think of was 'everybody's got a water buffallo, yours is fat but mine is slow. Where they get them I don't know but everybody's got a water bufallooooooo'), impalas, a cheetah (really far away), vultures, antelope and wildebeast. oh and a vervet monkey! Plus some baboons in a tree. No lions, hippos or elephants today. :( Hopefully we will be seeing hippos tomorrow on our St. Lucia estuary tour. At first, seeing all of the animals was really exciting but after our millionth zebra and giraffe, it wasn't as exciting anymore. Both the zebra and giraffe came really close to us. When we stopped for breakfast, there was a zebra family, running around and I could almost touch the zebra (John did and they ran away scared). Often, we got stuck behind zebra, buffalo or a giraffe that was walking down the road. I do have to say that I love zebras and giraffes now though. Giraffes are so majestic and peaceful. Our driver explained to us that zebra and giraffe are usually seen together because the zebra use giraffe as protection. Since giraffes are so tall and can see farther, they can notice an approaching predator and will warn the other giraffes. This is also a warning to the zebra. I thought that the learned relationship was really interesting. We got caught in another downpour while driving around the game reserve but within an hour, it was blue skies again. The weather changes so quickly here, it is unbelievable! Anyways, I have tons of pictures of animals, particularly giraffes for Ari. Hope she enjoys them! No polar bears yet :)