May '15 - Our 12th Trip to Africa

Arriving in Zambia, our favorite country in Africa!	We saw a pack of 15 wild dogs!	Carrying sticks for fun	Yipping quietly at each other
Romping!	Playing chase	Leaping over logs	Lovely white tails
Such gorgeous animals	Large teeth!	Hooded vultures hung around, hoping to eat dog poo (eek)	The dogs playfully chased the vultures
At sunset, the dogs gathered in a bonding "greeting ceremony"	Lots of nuzzling	Even standing and "hugging"	Such amazing embraces
Priceless moment	Sublime!	We saw the dogs the next day, too	And were amazed when a lioness burst from the bushes!
After the dogs outran the lioness, they bonded once again	We saw elephants playing too!	Youngsters focus on each other	This young one squared off to us
Mud bath	In the dambo (lagoon)	I love watching elephants walk towards us	Just walking by
Peaceful	Grammie and grandbaby?	We saw lots of large groups of elies	Family on the move
Up on the Jeki plain	We saw lots of lions! (69 individuals, to be exact)	Beginning to wake up	Snuggle with mom
Stretching prior to a hunt	Gathering in the dry riverbed	The men of the pride	Gorgeous male
The lions walked right next to us, intent on their own lives	Time for some "romance"	Female grimace	Male grimace!
Scratching claws in preparation for the hunt	We saw many leopards too!	The classic leopard pose	Waking up
Time to go "forage"	Walking down from the perch	On the hunt	Mom and son meet up
Resting for a bit	So evocative in the green foliage	I love the sound of hippos!	Baby yawn
Adult yawns	Covered with ox peckers	Who you looking at?	Still staring
Giraffe baby nurses	A giraffe cat nap	Baby zebra!	A baboon checks us out
Strolling at sunset	Hanging out at sunset	Mom holds baby	A baboon kiss?
Vervet monkey male (blue!)	A quiet vervet moment	Vervets eating	A "new perspective" (see the leopard between the puku horns?)
Mother and baby puku	Pukus eat	Pukus look at us	We saw so many impalas!
Impala boys in mock battle	Lots of mock fighting going on	Impalas leap SO HIGH!!	Takes my breath away
Unbelievable heights!	Male kudu	Baby kudu scampers	Kudu family
Waterbuck gals	Waterbuck boys	King of the herd	Warthog eats on his "wrists"
A face only a mom could love?	Mom warthog with adorable babies	We saw many monitor lizards	Monitor lizard basking
Dwarf mongooses at sunset	Elephant shrew!	Bull buffalo "dugger boy" (covered in mud)	We saw lots of birds!
Yellow-billed stork	Yellow-billed stork with babies	Mom feeding babies	Stork baby eating fish
Ground hornbill	Lilac-breasted roller	Lilac-breasted roller	White-browed coucal
White-browed coucal	Hooded vulture in fado stance	Hooded vulture flamenco dancer	Hooded vulture "dancers" resting
Vultures on a carcass	White-faced whistling ducks (they really whistled!)	Blue-cheeked bee-eater	Little egret
Black egret "umbrella fishing"	The fish may think they are safe, under a river bank?	Red-billed hornbill (an appropriate name, no?)	Green wood hoopoe bringing a worm to a nest
Martial eagle	Two martial eagles	Squacco heron	White-necked stilt
Rufous-bellied heron	Crowned plover	Crowned plover with baby!	Fish eagle flying
Fish eagle checking things out	Fish eagle with landing gear down	Fish eagle soaring	Egret fly-by
Fork-tailed drongo	Crested guinea fowl	Egyptian geese with babies	Crowned crane
Hadeda ibis	Birds at sunset	Gorgeous	All our sunsets were magnificent
I even like the trees at sunset!	Wattled plovers	Water dikkop with babies	Mozambique night jar
Giant eagle owl	We even saw a few chameleons!	Large spotted genet	White-tailed mongoose
This was the first time we traveled early in the season, when all was green	The green foliage was fabulous!	Out on a game drive, where we spent most of our time	Cyn worked the video
And Jim took most of the photos	Our guides helped us to learn SO much	We love our safari hats	Cyn photo bombed Jim's selfies
We loved that the lions hung out around our vehicle	Our guide, Dispencer, trying to get a shot of the lioness	Lion sniffs for gals	Male "flehmening"
Patrick and lion	Patrick, Amarula, and lions (above the bottle cap)	A typical day on safari	Another fun lion walk-by
Elephants came to visit our first camp, Kaingo	Our bathroom sink at Kaingo	At Kaingo we had our own deck, near hippos!	We enjoyed taking our annual "jammie shot"
Our outdoor tub looked out on the river	Every year I pose for Jim in the main "sitenge" (gathering room)	We were often treated to "brunch in the bush"	The guys at Kiango cut the top off, to make a new game drive vehicle!
We love the outdoor bathrooms at our next camp, Tena Tena	As at all the camps, the meals were extensive and scrumptious	So many delicious choices!	Bertie took us on a "sunrise safari" and cooked breakfast
Not a bad life!	A wonderful full meal, all cooked over a small campfire!	There were sweet little frogs in our tent at Tena Tena	And there was a black spitting cobra! (slithered right past Jim's bare feet)
The snake hid under our sink	Nyambe and Julius came to assist its removal	Christobel was thrilled to watch (although she stayed in the tent!)	Leaving Tena Tena via canoe
Our chalet at Old Mondoro	Elegant	We were right on a small lagoon	We love the openness to the wild!
Bathroom view	Cyn delighted in the outdoor tub on the lagoon	We enjoyed taking our annual "shower photo" (quite tasteful, though, right?)	Elephants visit Old Mondoro every day
The elies really make themselves at home	I love that the elephants aren't bothered by our being there	Arriving at our last camp, Chiawa	Another elegant tent!
Our tent is right on the bank of the mighty Zambezi River	Chiawa's outdoor shower	A private brunch in a tree house!	One of the many delicious courses
We celebrated every sunset with Amarula!	Another spectacular sunset	Chiawa treated us to a private dinner on a barge in the middle of the Zambezi River! SO thrilling!	We took a day trip to the Benguelu Swamp, to look for shoebills
Poling through the thick reeds	They provided us with "gum boots"	We didn't do a lot of walking, but needed the boots when we got out!	We DID see a wild shoebill, and also this captive one (being released back to the wild)
They are majestic, large birds	Prehistoric looking!	Who, me?!	We met lots of kids who live in the swampy area
The kids were thrilled by our arrival by small plane	The kids loved seeing their photos	These houses are temporary, used only in the fishing season	A bag of fish being carried via "mokorro"
Whole families were able to travel on these tiny canoes	The waters were covered with beautiful lilies	Before Zambia, we stopped in Cape Town to get over jet lag	Our room at the Cape View Clifton
A sumptous place to relax!	Amazing view from our deck	A pool on the ground floor was very refreshing (see Cyn?)	We took a day trip down the Cape Peninsula
Petting a wild fur seal (kids, don't do this at home)	Ostriches on the beach!	Cyn cried upon reaching this iconic spot	Selfie view of the Cape coast
Jim feeds red-winged starlings	The lighthouse at Cape point	Wild African penguins at Boulders Beach!	We loved watching them waddle
Adorable!	Note the pretty little black spots on the tummy	Note the pink eye lids!	A penguin kiss
Lunch at Harbor House, Kalk Bay	We took the gondola up Table Mountain	It was foggy on top!	But we saw lots of rock daisies
The view coming down was fabulous	Ships in the harbor, Cape Town	The "ferry" to Robben Island (the one Mandela was taken on!)	It was a rough day and a tiny boat
Arriving at Robben Island	Nelson Mandela's cell, where he stayed for 18 of his 27 years of incarceration. I cried.	Our guide, a former political prisoner kept here for 8 years	The trip back to Cape Town was much calmer
Sunset from our balcony	The lights come on in Clifton	We LOVED hearing the wild surf all night!