On Safari

One of Moholoholo's Lions

A lot can happen in the space of a few weeks. Andy and I went down to South Africa to visit my parents six days after we got back from Yorkshire. It was intensely busy ten days or so with them, which is why I haven't posted anything here during our time there. My mum really enjoyed planning a lot of various things for us to do whilst we were there, as it was Andy's first visit to the continent of Africa and we all wanted it to be a memorable visit for him, and for us as a couple.

In this post I'm going to share some of the photos I took whilst we were there and a few things we got up to whilst we were with my parents. My parents live in a wildlife estate and so we had the warthogs visiting on a daily basis. I had a lot of fun photographing the warthogs when they'd come by. They found my camera quite interesting as I'm not sure they quite knew what to make of it and were really curious about it. I really enjoyed using the gift that Andy gave me and practising the suggestions that Andy had given me. He's been teaching me how to become a better photographer. All the photos in this post (save the last one) have been taken with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1.

Andy and I flew out of London Gatwick Airport, which is right on Crawley's doorstep (and is less than twenty minutes away by car from where we live). Our journey took us via Kigali, Rwanda, as we were flying Rwandair. When we arrived at OR Tambo Airport, Johannesburg, we were collected by my parents, who had just gotten back from a conference in Cape Town. We then collected my younger brother from Nelspruit and then drove to Hoedspruit. We got to my parents home absolutely exhausted from the travelling.

Stoffel

One of the places we went to was the Moholoholo Rehab Centre just outside Hoedspruit, where wild animals are rehabilitated and then released back into the wild. They also provide homes and welfare for animals that aren't able to be returned back into the wild, like the lion pictured above. Andy had two of the items on his bucket list checked off there. He was able to stroke a cheetah (one of the animal ambassadors that go into schools, with their handlers, advocating what to do animal respect) and one of the bateleurs that live permanently at the centre (this is due to an injury it received which means it can't be released into the wild). We really enjoyed the tour. The guide, Moses (if I remember correctly) was a great narrator and passionate about the animals he and the others took care of. A highlight, for me, was seeing Stoffel again. Stoffel is a honey badger (pictured above). He's quite a character and an incredible escape artist. They've even made documentaries, on YouTube, about his exploits (I've found a short one if you're interested in watching it, just click here. If you're interested in watch any more, just type "Stoffel honey badger" into YouTube's search engine). He's one of the permanent residents at Moholoholo and was here when I last visited the centre somewhere in 2013/2014.

Andy Watching The Elephants

We also spent two nights at a bush camp that's owned by friends of my parents. This bush camp is situated on a beautiful game reserve that has the Big Five (lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and buffalo). Whilst we were there we went on two game drives in the evenings, which was truly incredible, and Andy also went on two bush walks, in the mornings, with one of the rangers (I went on the second walk with him). We were able to see quite a large variety of animals during the bush drives. The elephants, pictured here, were incredibly funny. The matriarch, Beckie, had been raised by the rangers and would rumble a greeting when we met them on the first game drive. When we saw them on the second day, they had gotten a drink at the water reservoir, and then Beckie saw that one of the rangers had brought a group of tourists across this bridge to the viewing platform where Andy and I were standing, so went to greet him. She then led her small herd towards the camp entrance so someone had to go and shut it quickly before she actually came into the camp.

These were some of the highlights of our trip to South Africa. I'll write again soon.