African penguins at Boulder Beach.

the crowd

mom & baby

walkin’

swimmin’

“i can kick your ass” penguin

Cape of Good Hope, the most south-west point of the African continent.

(Though not the “southern” most point – that’s Cape Agulhas… which I didn’t see.)

bird

kudu

chameleon.  this guy had the craziest walk.  he was swaying back & forth, trying to look like a leaf to those predators flying above.

weaver

warthog

almost

hippo

rhino, by john

After a couple quick glimpses, baby elephants were topping my “cuties of Africa” list.  I had seen Asian baby elephants before, but African baby elephants – with their HUGE ears – were just too much. 

However, by our 5th game drive, we still hadn’t gotten a good look at them – they were always hidden or running off.

Then, as we were off attempting to track a rhino, a large herd of 30 or so elephants came marching towards us.  They went around the truck like it was no big deal.  And we got to see all of their little babies.

elephants and elephants and elephants

going around the truck

three ages

i’m cute!

*melt*

The scene:

A leopard, having just eaten, rests at the foot of a tree.

The remains of the impala still hang in the branches above.

A young hyena patiently waits for falling scraps.

We saw three different leopards.  Here are photos of the first two.

The first leopard…

… and the second.  Who alternated between yawning and preparing to pounce.

On our very first game drive, we saw a pride of lions eating their kill from the night before.  Dinner was a tasty wildebeest. 

The more difficult sighting though came the next day.  We saw the orphaned baby wildebeest.  None of the other female wildebeest would feed it, and not knowing what to do, it had strayed from the herd.  As our guide said, his odds were not very good.