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| epl: liverpool 2, everton 1 (merseyside derby, no less) rwc: south africa 15, england 6 (finals, the boks are world champions) nfl: redskins 21, cardinals 19 (last minute fg missed by cards' kicker)... skins are now 4-2, but have to play the 7-0 patriots next weekend. | | |
| I spent the past weekend with my manager and his wife at King's Camp in the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve, which borders the famous Kruger National Park.... We saw the Big Five (lion, leopard, elephant, rhino, buffalo) within the first two game drives. We also saw giraffe, hyeana, jackal, lots of antelope (steenbok, impala, waterbuck, inyala, kudu), monkey, baboon, hippo, and many other animals. Here's a short video of a lioness playing around with her cub... enjoy!
Here's one of the male lion of the pride letting out a few loud roars and finally, an elephant sniffing around our Land Rover but eventually carrying on.... quite different to my experience with elephants in Madikwe
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| i just spent half an hour composing a post on my trip to namibia with lots of photos... when i clicked "save changes" i got the "Internet Explorer cannot display this webpage" message, so i don't feel like trying again. for namibia photos, check out: http://upenn.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50563&l=05609&id=793815135 
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| sorry for the backlog in updates... i've been posting photos on facebook but not xanga. here are some photos from a crazy weekend at victoria falls (on the zambia side)... the highlight was definitely the 111-meter bungee jump off a bridge connecting zambia to zimbabwe 
my mom was concerned to say the least... 
...while my dad documented on video 
about to take off 
words of advice from the jumpmaster: "the further out from the platform you dive, the better jump you'll have." and with that, i'm off! 
adrenaline rush... 
safely back on the bridge 
...and i did it again, only this time harnessed at the shoulders and waist rather than the legs 
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| My parents flew into Johannesburg early on Friday morning, and after a quick nap in my hotel room I woke them up and put them in the rental car for a brisk 4.5 hour drive to Madikwe. Madikwe is a 75,000-sq hectare (sorry too lazy to convert) private game reserve along the border with Botswana. We stayed at the 5-star game lodge Madikwe Hills (there are about 30 other lodges within the reserve) and were treated to luxury suites, exquisite food, and 2 safari game drives per day (once in the morning just after sunrise and once in the late afternoon/evening). Here are a few photos and stories of our adventures... most of the photos were taken with my dad's SLR which made for much nicer pics than I could've taken with my Canon PowerShot. Enjoy! The suites at Madikwe Hills 
The Land Rover that my parents and I had to ourselves (along with the ranger and tracker) for 3 of our 4 game drives 
With our tracker Max and ranger Sean 
Scenery from "the bush" 
Wildebeest 
10-week old lion cubs at dusk 
The cubs' older siblings 
The lioness 
Male lion attempting (unsuccessfully) to mate with female 
Cheetah 
Warthog 
Jackal 
Giraffe 
Zebra 
Zebras and kudu sharing a watering hole 
Our major incident of the weekend was Saturday afternoon when we were parked near a watering hole in the reservation. We had seen a couple of rhinos that were on their way to the hole so we decided to get there first and wait for them. Before the rhinos arrived, a herd of 6 or 7 elephants came in and had their fill of water. Then out of nowhere, another herd of 8 or so elephants came barreling in - they were clearly thirsty. One of the teenage female elephants was not happy with our presence near the watering holes and approached us with her ears spread out (elephants do this to make themselves appear large), and thus intimidate other animals). Our ranger and tracker banged on the side of the land rover and used other tactics to make the elephant back off. She did a few 'mock charges' where she would take a few steps toward us and then stop. Our tracker Max sits on a seat on the front hood of the land rover, and this elephant's tusks literally came within a few feet of him. Then she went back to the herd at the watering hole but literally 10 seconds later she started charging at us full speed and we were off... the elephant and two others chased us at full sprint for about 50 meters but luckilly the land rover was faster. My dad caught all of this on video tape (up until we sped off) so maybe I'll post on youtube once we all get back to the U.S. 
Other than that brush with injury/impalement, we had a really great time seeing animals in the wild... next weekend it's off to Victoria Falls, one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. | | |
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