Some holiday highlights...

I've said it so many times before - how does one narrow holiday pictures down?  I'm sure you're sick of seeing more animal pictures too.  I promise just 1 more holiday post after this one!  And I'll throw some other pictures in between, so that these aren't all just animal snaps.  My blog is my diary, so it's nice to be able to look back on our holiday pictures in time to come.

The pictures above and below were taken on our way to the elephant capture - Jake took them with my new lens and I think he has the makings of a great photographer!

A baby baboon - they're a pest in cities and on farms and  tourist attractions in Cape Town, but in the wild, they're actually very cute...

This is where we stopped for the elephant capture.  We flew beyond those mountains...

Pretty zebras...

A warthog in our campsite...

And a Nyala Bull at Kruger's Wildlife Veterinary Services Offices...

Rhino poop - Steven went through this in detail, showing Jake the difference between white & black rhino poop, which were mixed up together here...

A huge baobab, or upside down tree...

The trunk of the baobab tree - you can't believe how big this tree is.  It must be very old...

Poor old Jerry Giraffe, he's very, very tall.  When all the others laugh at him, they make him feel soooo small.  Look at how many ox-peckers are feasting on this boy...

Sunrise from our bungalow at Satara.  This hasn't been edited at all - I just under-exposed it a bit...

Nini and Pa got locked in their bungalow one morning.  We'd decided to get up early to get out the gates before sunrise and their key broke off in the lock.  They'd locked the mosquito door too, which we had to break open and we managed to get a maintenance guy of sorts to come and free them.  Jake saw the funny side, even if Nini didn't...

We saw this big giraffe early one morning.  If you look carefully, you can see how badly injured he has been - right from his chest, up his neck, to the top of his head.  The ox-peckers were doing a good job of helping him to keep his injuries clean, but I can only imagine how sore he must've been...

I mean, seriously!  He was lucky to be alive...

Croccies lying in the sun...

Giraffes at a waterhole...

These are all boys - the girls have fluffy horns...

A Wildebeest taking a mud bath - nature's sun cream...

He listened to his mommy - don't forget to cover your face properly too...

Thirsty giraffes...

And thirsty impalas.  The park is so dry at this time of the year - I think they're all fairly excited to see some water.  Most of the rivers were completely dried up...

 Naughty vervet monkeys in our campsite at Satara...

 The view of the bush from the lawns in front of our bungalow...

 The rondavels...

 Chris & Kathy preparing our toasties.  Jake and I absolutely love stopping off at picnic spots and making toasties on the skottles you rent there...

 Jake & I at the Olifants River on a bridge, where you're allowed out of your car.  We were surprised by how few crocs there were and learned that a factory further upstream had offloaded their waste into the river.  The toxins had built up in the crocodile's livers and they'd just about all died.  Believe it or not, the factory got off with an apology and a donation to conservation.  Buggers.  Please note Jake's anti-poaching t-shirt that he bought with money he'd saved from his birthday for his holiday...

Jake up early and out on our balcony at Olifants, watching the water buck, hippos and birds...

Early morning water buck taking a stroll...

Jake with Nini & Pa...

There are a few places in the park, where you're allowed to get out of your car.  This view point was one of them...

A bubbling stream - there were quite a few hippos grunting in the water too...

Oh look!  I have a monkey of my own to take home with me...

We thought this was a one-horned impala, but turns out it's second horn is deformed - you can see it curling in front of it's ear, just above it's eye.  I hope it's finished growing and doesn't curl into his brain...

This was at Letaba rest camp.  We didn't stay there, but have previously.  It's actually a really nice site and I'd like to stay there next time.  We picnicked as day visitors...

Looking at these photos, the fences make me a little nervous - they don't look very high, do they...

The picnic site...

Jake heading into the main rest camp...

Every campsite is different, which makes visiting more than one essential.  It's also nice to stop in at camps you pass along the way, to see where you'd like to go next time...

Jake with the bush buck in Letaba...

Letaba has an awesome elephant museum, so we stopped in there for a quick squizz.  Check out the cool bat box in behind the statue of the elephant.  You can hear them squeaking inside and there are apparently about 200 bats in there!

Beautiful boy...

The museum is simple, but it's also very informative...

Jake with a full sized elephant skeleton...

In a back room, they've got a few stuffed animals, skulls and pelts...

The cheetah is so well done, it almost looks alive...

An elephant skull...

On display is the skull of an elephant that was killed in battle,when it's opponents tusk broke off in his head...

They also have tusks and sklls on display from the really big tuskers.  These mostly died of natural causes...

The tusks above belonged to Shawu.  His left tusk was 317cm and weighed 52.6kgs.  The right tusk was 305cm, weighing 50.8kgs.  Because the right tusk is smaller than the left, Shawu was right-handed.  Shawu's tusks are the biggest ever recorded in Southern Africa...

This is the Letaba River bed - it's just so dry...

There were quite a few baby hippos too.  This one had a growth of sorts just behind his front leg.  While his mommy slept standing, he kept a close eye on the Blacksmith Plover (I hope)...

This is possibly one of my favourite holiday pics...

More to follow later, maybe even later today...

Love Sue X