Camp J - Monday August 10th, 2015

The winds and the lions were loud last night but all had a great sleep. After our 7am wake up, we had breakfast at the lodge—quite yummy. Hannah asked why I was taking my camera to breakfast and I said, “you never know what you might see.” Prophecy. As it turned out there was a Hippo in the pond next to the lodge. Hippos are very dangerous and the staff do not like having it there. Hippos can run over 30 MPH!

Craig then took us on a 45 minute drive to the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Center (HESC). On the way we saw Giraffe, Impala, Vervet (monkey), Wildebeest, Hammerkop (bird).

HESC is located within the game preserve and was founded by the ___family. They will take in any animal and their goal is to release all animals back to the wild. Their premier species is the Cheetah. Besides having over 2000 spots and being the world’s fastest land animal, its’ population has been dwindling. At HESC they rehab them and breed them and get them back into the wild. Here is a picture with Crunchy, a 5 year old Cheetah. His buddy, Bossy, growled at me as I was the first to approach Crunchy. I did not mess my pants but it was close.

We also saw Ostrich, Lions, African Wild Dogs (AKA Cape Hunting Dogs and Painted Dogs). They are the most endangered carnivore in Africa. We also saw African Wild Cats, Southern Ground Wild Hornbill and the Vulture restaurant and the Blue Crane, the National Bird of Africa.

 Then we went back to the villa for a yummy lunch and 3 hours of downtime before the afternoon game drive.

Alex and Felice

We arranged a 3:30 pick up for an afternoon game drive. We went to some of the outer reaches of the park and did not see a lot. The Bee Eater (Green bird) and a Dwarf Mongoose.

 As we headed back there was a lake on our right. We took a left to go into an area to see what we might find. When we came back we saw the three lionesses and their 2 cubs hidden by some bush. More great pics here.

 As we were observing the lions, we heard a very distinctive sound and Craig identified it as a Hippo. We called in the lion sighting so other groups could get a look and circled back around the lake and found these Hippos taking a swim.

We enjoyed a private Sundowners as you can see here.

We headed back to the villa and took a shower and had an amazing closing meal in the Wine Cellar. Chef Alex outdid himself.

We are a bit sad about our last day but we have more excitement in the AM which you can read about tomorrow.