Mother and Son Make The World Their Classroom for a School Year: September 29, 2014

After locating Sam's retainer, which was left in a pocket and picked up for laundry this morning, we were on our way to find the Cape Buffalo. Yesterday we had tried to locate the large herd but due to the wind they were laying low and we couldn't find them. We were joined today by the family from Australia, including their son Otto. It was fun to have others join us and they had been on safari for a few weeks and were well versed on the animals but hadn't seen some of the animals here. We saw several more varieties of antelope today including the Sable ,also known as "James Bond" with his black suit- black coat and long arched horns and the Oryx which was beautiful and had long pointy horns. We were lucky enough to run into a "journey" or "trumpet" of giraffes. Think that is so cool that is the name for a group of giraffe. We counted 12 roaming around together. They were a variety of colors, which I thought color came from age, but that is not correct. It is the color they are born. They have light blonde looking ones and then carmel colored and then dark like the older one we saw the other day. We stopped for a while and enjoyed them, until we heard over the radio they had located the herd of Cape Buffalo. They are large and aggressive and they wear almost a helmet of horns, which helps in protecting their heads as they go head to head often. We spotted several birds including the black chested snake eagle which was very large and soared over us at one point this morning. We as usual saw many gazelles, blesboks, kudus, wildebeest, and wart hogs.

For lunch we went to an overlook where we had a great braai- BBQ in South Africas. We enjoyed bbqed lamp chops and corn. Fun to visit with our guide Freddy, who is a 27 year old South African who is very knowledgeable about the wildlife and landscape of this region. He is great with Sam and Sam and him seem to enjoy a good laugh when they are together.

In the afternoon we did our last horseback ride. I hopped on Hercules and Sam rode Leo, “his horse”. We headed towards Ant’s Hill, the other lodge over the mountain. We had improved and could canter longer, which is so much easier than trotting. We were able to see several Sables, Blesbok, Zebras, Impala and Wildebeast. It is true, you really can get much closer on horseback. In a jeep they run away and so it was so fun to just walk right up to a herd of Impala and walk nearly through them.

We ended up at Ant’s Hill where we watched the sunset. It is at the crest of a hill, which in rainy season has a waterfall that flows down below it. The sunset was spectacular, as always, and it was fun to see another beautiful lodge that brings the outside in. That night we enjoyed a great fire pit before dinner and ate under a cover porch and was able to witness the first rain of the summer season and a spectacular lightening and thunder show.