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| Bone chewing Giraffe |
Its birthday time for Mum and Dad, well not really birthday time, but birthday pressie time!!
This time of the year is very precious for me, I take my parents for a birthday treat to Imfolozi.
Mum, Dad, Gwen and I set off early on 17th August for Imfolozi, our first stop is Umvoti Plaza where dad treats us to breakfast. After we have all refueled we set off for the park. Our next stop is the Umbondwe Picnic site where we have another snack and coffee, we go to the edge of the site and scan the valley below for critters large and small. Hyena scats are around the picnic site so we know they have visited the area. We also know that Ellie and lion have been through this site. After our snack we set off again for Mpila Camp, as we cross the Black Imfolozi we stop and wonder what is in store for us.
For a change this year we decided to try the Safari Tents, Gwen and I shared a tent, Mum and Dad have another tent which is just up the hill from ours. Monkeys are on hand to help us off load the vehicle when we arrive. Mum is nominated as a car guard. She does a good job as we take load after load of food into the kitchen which is then locked and secured. The Safari tents are fun and very comfortable, Mum finds it a little chilly to shower in the open.
Our trip was such fun, we shared breakfast and supper together in one tent, lunch was packed and eaten on the trot. We had some lovely sightings of God's amazing creation, The drive around Sontuli loop brings back memories of being charged by an unfriendly Ellie about three years ago. I find it interesting how good Dad's 81 year old memory is, as we drive around he chats about what we saw on which bend two years ago!!! I wish I could say the same about my memory.
The park was very different this year to what it was in 2011, firstly Peter and Mo were not with us, and secondly much of the park had been burnt, these were not controlled burns but runaway fires from outside the park area. I'm not sure how the game manage to escape this type of fire, do they run like crazy, or succumb to the flames!!
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| Mum, Dad and Gwen |
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| Most of the park looked like this burnt from runaway fires |
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| More burnt area |
Some of the creatures that we saw during our stay
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| Mother and Child |
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| This Lioness walked across the road behind us, called her 'kids' and disappeared into the bush | |
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| The big ones |
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| The small ones |
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| The ugly ones |
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| The sun baking ones | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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| The huge ones |
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