The Big Five at Tau Lodge

I promised that I would blog about Africa and I know you have all been waiting on baited breath for some experiences with the wild life of the "dark continent". I have been busy doing other things during June and realized that I hadn't displayed anything about my adventure. Yes, I did get to see wild animals but and here are some of the pictures.

Africa is famous for the Big Five (5): lets say them together as you probably know them, elephants, lions, leopards, rhinos, and water buffaloes. I was lucky enough to see 3 of the big 5. I did however have to go to a game reserve to see them. This is common in Africa because animals running around tend to make a mess of things. I was in the Kalahari where I thought I would see lots of wild animals but it was along the eastern part of the Kalahari where there is a lot of cattle posts as well as natural boundaries which keep the animals limited in this area. There was a leopard that had been seen by several in the camp before I arrived but I was not fortunate enough to see it even though I took several walks outside of camp by myself. The central Kalahari is where the animals are in greater numbers as well as in northern and southern Botswana.

This is a small group of lions (I don't know if it is a pride or not, can't remember what the ranger said). It is a mother and her four cubs three females and one male.

After seeing the lions we then saw some elephants. There were about 30 and it was interesting to note that where ever there are elephants, the trees are pretty beat up. They destroy the brush and shrub vegetation. The one picture is not very good but it shows a young elephant that is less that a year old.

This loner was seen on the way to the water hole and just kind of stayed out of our way and tried to hide.

This big bruiser came walking up to the water hole that was next to the lodge where I stayed just before coming home. He just wanted a drink. The water bucks that were at the water hole rutting just moved out of his way.

This rhino is standing in the road. We went looking for leopard early in the morning but all we could find were elephants and rhinos. This is a white rhino (you can't see it but his lips are square shaped and not pointed like the black rhinos). You also can see this in the picture but there is a stream of urine as they mark their territory this way. They also walk their feces into their hoofs and then walk it all over. "Fascinating", at least that is what the ranger said.