We got up early again – around 6am – to depart for our walking safari which started at 7:15 and was to last 3 hours.  Fortunately the chefs at the Waterfront opened the restaurant early (sweet!) and we were able to eat before loading up on the safari vehicle.  It was our first safari 4×4 – seemingly a converted pickup truck with 4 rows of 3 seats in the back.  They very considerately provided poncho-like blankets for the drive to the park, which was fairly cold in an open-air vehicle early in the morning.

En Route to Safari

Then we reached the park.  We had thought that it wouldn’t be a very good park – after all we had never heard of it – but we were really pleasantly surprised.  There are no big predators in the park, so seeing cats was out of the question, but that meant that the prey animals were able to flourish and were less nervous than they might otherwise be.

Vultures

We immediately saw several cool birds upon entering the park.  We saw vultures, a fish eagle, and a heron from the safari vehicle.  Then we spotted some elephant, impala, and hippopotamus at a  distance.  We were shocked at how much there was to see!

We arrived at the spot where our walking tour was to begin, and were given a safety talk with some hot beverages and cookies.  We were told to walk single-file behind the two rangers (one armed with a sub-machine gun to be used as a last resort) and started off.  Before long our ranger was showing us tracks…

Hazel in an Elephant Track

dung, and then – Buffaloes!  (#2 of the Big Five)

Buffalo Family

We found a small family group with around 8 adults and a few juveniles.  They were very aware of us, at least one constantly keeping an eye on us.  We noticed the flies and the oxpecker birds that were constantly swarming them.  The birds would crawl all over the animals (including inside their ears and nose) and eat ticks and other parasites they’d find on the buffalo’s hide.  Weird!

We continued on, taking a wide berth, and came across even more animals in the next field over: zebras, impala, and wildebeest!

First Zebras

First Wildebeest!

The real surprise, though, was the sight that awaited us as we got closer to the zebras and wildebeest – a huge herd of hundreds of buffalo!  The guides were immediately on our guard, and we had to make a huge circle to get out of its way.  They were still clearly concerned about us, and we really felt small and weak in the face of such large, powerful animals.

Hundreds of Buffalo

We're Being Watched

Eventually the herd moved on and so did we.  The wonders didn’t stop because then we got to see a group of baboons, which still had young babies!

Baboons with Babies

This baby is old enough to ride on it’s mother’s back – but we did see some tiny ones still clinging on to their moms’ bellies!

After we saw the baboons, our guides let us know that we might in fact get to see a relatively rare sight in this park – rhinos.  Another group’s guide had found recent tracks, and we were going to hop in the car, drive to the other side of the park, and help in the search.  Sweet!  We all piled in and drove a while (20 minutes) to the other side, which was far more dry and sparse in vegetation.  We tracked for a while, finding only day-old dung and tracks, until we got a radio call that another group had found the rhinos.  So we hurried in the car over there and sure enough, there they were – a mom and a baby!

Rhino Familiy

The mom was clearly used to people coming up and photographing it, but the juvenile (7 months old) was clearly unhappy about us getting so close.  And we were close!  Probably closer than 30 feet away, we could easily see details on the rhinos’ skin, hear them breathing, and take it all in.  Here are a few more views we got:

Nervous Baby

We're Close!

Evenually another group got there, and that got the mom’s attention since they were on her opposite side.  She stood up – and then we backed off, to calm her and to allow the other group a chance on their own.

Others came, causing tension..

On the way out, we got another – closer – glimpse of the elephants and some antelope, including waterbuck.  We returned just before noon – almost 2 hours later than we expected!  This was a great tour and we had a blast seeing hordes of large animals for the first time in Africa!

Elephant