Southern Red Bishop

African Hoopoe

Blacksmith Lapwing

Ostrich

Southern Masked Weaver

Southern Masked Weaver (f)

Black Legged Golden Orb

On the Road

Just like home, if you keep an eye out you can find wildlife as you are driving.

Here are a few that I was able to capture. We had long drives to the game reserves where we saw some of roadside wildlife was close enough to identify. The baboons were on the road to Golden Gate Park but the antelopes were quite far off and are hard to see.

Most of the birds I was able to identify were found while we were on the road.

Enjoy!

Greater Kudu

Turtle

Warthogs

Common Wildebeest

Springbok

Giraffe

White Backed Mousebird

Crocodile

Elephant

Giraffe

Hippopotamus

Warthogs

Jackal

Rhinoceros

See - only 1/3

Turtle

With a dragonfly

Warthogs

and a common wildebeest

Common Wildebeest

Zebra

Springbok

Giraffe

Elephant

Giraffe

Common Wildebeest

Pilanesburg National Park

On our first trip we took the bus to Pilanesburg National Park in the Bojanala Region of North West Province.

The park is situated in a rich transition zone between the Kalahari and the low veld, With an an area of 550km² (136,000 acres), Pilanesberg is the fourth largest park in South Africa.

This vast park delivers thrilling big game viewing. We saw a number of elephants, giraffes, zebras, warthogs, wildebeests and antelopes plus one jackal and 1/3 of a rhinoceros.

Doorndraai Lodge

Doorndraai Lodge in Limpopo was was our home for our last trip to South Africa.

Located in the foothills of the Waterburg Mountain Range, Doorndraai is a game farm on with 5000 hectares, room for a wide variety of wildlife.

We arrived in time for lunch, had a swim and explored the compound. In the late afternoon, when the wildlife becomes more active, we jumped in Land Rovers and Land Cruisers for a brief safari tour. While blue wildebeest and kudu were the most common species viewed. the most fascinating was a new born giraffe. We waited for it to get up on its feet for the first time.

Doorndraai, at the time of our visit was involved in a cape buffalo captive breeding program. You may notice ear tags on the animals in the photos.

As we were returning to the lodge we were treated to a truly glorious sunset.