We always enjoy our p-days. This day we are back to the Pilanesberg National Park. It is a wonderful game reserve about two hours drive from our flat. If you come to visit us, you will likely get to come here. We love it here. You can see all of the big African animals here in their natural environment. Here with us are The Smith's, from England, The Ashcrofts, from Taylorsville, and The Sagers, from Canada.
Not only is Pilanesberg excellent for viewing the big animals, it is excellent for bird watching. This is a Pied Kingfisher and he is actively plying his fishing skills.
We got a little more adventure here than we bargained for. Anyone who knows animals, knows that when they pin their ears back, as this old bull is doing, they are about to do something drastic. Just after this picture was taken, he let out a loud snort and charged straight for our van. All we saw was 2.5 tons of mad rhino coming at full speed. We don't know why, but he stopped suddenly about 2 feet short of our van and retreated.
After we moved the van down the road a bit, the old boy retreated back into the shade by his two girlfriends. Note the size of that nose horn. It is probably near two feet long. It would have penetrated the door of our van quite easily.
The majestic Dung beetle. He is a most interesting creature. They attack a pile of elephant dung and proceed to make golf ball sized dung balls which they roll away to their homes by pushing the ball from behind using their back legs to push the ball and their front legs to push on the ground, in a backward direction. It is very fascinating to watch the whole operation. It is illegal to run over a pile of animal dung while in the park boundaries.
The always photogenic Giraffe.
Juvenile elephants at play.
Getting a drink.
We found a blind at a water hole and set up for a while to see what would happen along. One of the visitors was this huge bull hippo.
He lumbered right down in front of us and plopped in this mud hole, where he closed his eyes for a nice mid-day nap.
The zebras were warily drinking at the same water hole.
We always enjoy our p-days. This day we are back to the Pilanesberg National Park. It is a wonderful game reserve about two hours drive from our flat. If you come to visit us, you will likely get to come here. We love it here. You can see all of the big African animals here in their natural environment. Here with us are The Smith's, from England, The Ashcrofts, from Taylorsville, and The Sagers, from Canada.
Not only is Pilanesberg excellent for viewing the big animals, it is excellent for bird watching. This is a Pied Kingfisher and he is actively plying his fishing skills.
We got a little more adventure here than we bargained for. Anyone who knows animals, knows that when they pin their ears back, as this old bull is doing, they are about to do something drastic. Just after this picture was taken, he let out a loud snort and charged straight for our van. All we saw was 2.5 tons of mad rhino coming at full speed. We don't know why, but he stopped suddenly about 2 feet short of our van and retreated.
After we moved the van down the road a bit, the old boy retreated back into the shade by his two girlfriends. Note the size of that nose horn. It is probably near two feet long. It would have penetrated the door of our van quite easily.
The majestic Dung beetle. He is a most interesting creature. They attack a pile of elephant dung and proceed to make golf ball sized dung balls which they roll away to their homes by pushing the ball from behind using their back legs to push the ball and their front legs to push on the ground, in a backward direction. It is very fascinating to watch the whole operation. It is illegal to run over a pile of animal dung while in the park boundaries.
The always photogenic Giraffe.
Juvenile elephants at play.
Getting a drink.
We found a blind at a water hole and set up for a while to see what would happen along. One of the visitors was this huge bull hippo.
He lumbered right down in front of us and plopped in this mud hole, where he closed his eyes for a nice mid-day nap.
The zebras were warily drinking at the same water hole.
2 comments:
Bob and Susan
Love these pics of your blog. This is a beautiful kingfisher. You'll need to take more bird photos as you can. We hope you have a wonderful Christmas, and enjoy the warmth while you can.
Miss you both
MarJean and Rich
I love your pictures too! I want to go on a Safari. So adventurous!
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