Kruger Day 5...

Slowly, but surely, I'm getting there. Not many more holiday photos to show, just 3 days to go. I know I'm behind and I know I should've posted these while I was away, but I couldn't. I promise to be more efficient next time!! The picture above was the view from our balcony at the Olifants rest camp.

Lazy hippos, enjoying the sunshine. Seriously, I've never seen any animal move so slowly, it's really hard to believe they're extremely vicious animals...

All in a row from biggest to smallest... A Baobab (or upside-down) tree...A Red Headed Weaver weaving his nest...These buck, Impala, are extremely common in the park. They're commonly referred to as bush burgers due to the 'M' on their bums...A Hammerkop (hammer head) with an iguana in the back ground. The Hammerkop was very sceptical and only moved when the iguana was completely out of sight... Some scenery...And then this! We came across 4 lions, a mother and three juveniles, enjoying a meal of kudu... They put on such a beautiful show for us, it was a dream come true for me and it's been really tough selecting my favourite photos to put up here. And even though some of these aren't 100%, they're still great in my books. This is a young female, licking her lips after her feast...

She seemed intrigued by the gathering of cars (we were probably about 150 - 200m away from them)...

Purrrrrfect... After a drink, she lazed, enjoying the last few rays of sunshine for the day... Her sister came over to join her and they enjoyed some sisterly bonding time... This is their brother, typical boy, he'd messed his food all over his face...As the sun set, the vultures flocked in, no doubt to claim their share of the lion's prize. This is a lappet faced vulture. They're REALLY ugly...The moon came up and we raced back to our campsite, just before the gates closed for the night. Incidentally, this kill was just along the river from where we were staying and you could actually see the cars from our balcony...

I want my daddy...

Paul's due home again tomorrow and I'm pretty sure that he's more than missed his young family over the last week. Even I feel like he's been gone for a long time, so I can only imagine how long it must seem to Connor. These pics of Connor were taken this morning, before (above) and after breakfast.

Paul, I'm sure you can't wait any more to hold your little boy in your arms again. Just a few more hours! Oh and don't forget to pick me up something at duty free for all my hard work; Cote d'Or or Lindt will do nicely, thanks. Just kidding!! Did you see the bridesmaid's dress I have to squash into for Rosanne's wedding?? Sharing photos of my nephew on my blog has been thanks enough!! We're all thinking about you and wish you a safe flight home and a happy reunion with Jo and Connor tomorrow.

Sue XXX

Connor Over Kill...

Till next week, at least. Unless I get a spare moment at home over the weekend. Just don't want Paul to be disappointed when he checks the blog...

Ejoy the weekend! Sue XXX

Hi Dada...

My brother-in-law, Paul is in London at the moment on a business trip. I don't know how he managed to get on the plane, knowing he was leaving this beautiful face behind for 5 days, but he did. I promised him I'd try update my blog with photos of his gorgeous son while he was away, so in sticking to my word, here they are. Hope they don't make him too homesick...

Kruger Day 4...

Another glorious day in the bush. While I don't have photos of everything, this was probably the most spectacular day we had, seeing the big 5 twice over in one day. Gruesome, I know, but the vertebra picture above is another of my holiday favourites. Photos speak for themselves...

We came across this magnificent pair of lions. Generally, lions are territorial, but these two weren't bothered by a second mating pair within a 100m of them... They just can't keep their eyes open...He's gone. Lights out... This is the male from the second pair. The female is lying on the ground in the background. Did you know that lions can mate up to 50 times a day?? They'd just finished the deed here. And no, I don't have any pictures, they were very discreet...

Since there are only something like 200 cheetah in the whole of the Kruger National Park (and it's a pretty big place), we'd been told that there was virtually no chance of us seeing cheetah whilst in the park. Our luck was up though. We stopped at a water hole and were watching an elephant making his way to the reservoir, when someone spotted a cheetah lying in the shade of the reservoir. The cheetah didn't hear the elephant approaching and were taken totally by surprise by his loud slurping. They watched him from a distance for a while, keeping a close eye on him and eventually opted to slink off into the bushes. This picture isn't great, they were really far off, but you can still see them. There were 4 in total... This is another very curious, cheeky inhabitant. It's a ground hornbill...This series of photos are my favourite elephant snaps. It was such a huge herd...We'd spent most of the day travelling from Shingwedzi to Olifants (Elephants). This was definitely my favourite camp and the view we had from our bungalow was spectacular. Those are my blurred toes on the balcony...

We could hear the hippos grunting and bats squeaking all night. It was incredible...

Mom, Jake & Kathy, relaxing with drinks after our long journey...

We'd been there a little while already, when one of our neighbours came and asked if we'd spotted the lions yet. These pictures also aren't spectacular, but we had lions! To give you an idea, if you look at the picture above of Jake on his own, there are some trees to his left, the 4 lions were just past there. That's far. That's very, very far...The day ended off with another spectacular sunset...

5 Days to go. Bored yet??