Safari Insights II

Safari adventures continue with our search for lions. We were quite tired of seeing the same sets of animals on the second day. We went out early morning at 7am and at 3pm for 3 hours in hope to sight the lion. We would pass by elephants, gazelles, and hills of termites. So I would think I spotted the back of a lion laying in tall grass in the distance and then realize it was only a termite hill. They are either termites or ants, but most likely termites. These are huge hills of sand with many holes in them. Imagine a coral reef on land. They can get quite big, as large as 4-5 ft tall. You never want to disturb these hills or run over them. (below)

below is a natural spring created from a WWII bomb dropped from the Germans in hopes to destroy a British camp.

 a sunset on our 4-6pm safari drive

 Watch as these two young elephants play with each other

 Due to the long neck of giraffes, there is a valve in the heart that shuts off blood supply to the the rest of the head region when the giraffe bends over like this below. Due to the fact that when the giraffe bends over (below the heart), giraffes can get premature hypertension if the valve was not in place.

There are also strange plants on the safari. Besides the usual safari tree you would imagine in more classical depiction of safari Africa, there are these trees that have 6-8inch long thorns. It's like an over grown rose bush but more tree-like. Odd even, there are these bee-hive round shape nest made of hay and grass that these birds or sparrows live in. The nests are always located at the edge of the tree so in the distance it looks like the tree is decorated with ornaments. The thorns are probably serves the purpose of protection for these birds, but man are they scary.

Another thing about safari is the sand or in more casual terminology: safari powder. It can get dusty with all the sand that gets picked up into the air as your van drives behind another one. However, our drivers this year were much smarter and drove farther apart from each other. But, trust me, you will get sand on your face and sunglasses. It was not hot as you may think. It was warm but there was always this huge breeze of cool wind as you stood in the van. 
 
On the last day (more like the morning we were driving out), we finally saw the lion. We are such stalkers because it was literally 5 vans surrounding this one female lion who is trying to take her nap next to the river. I bet she got annoyed by us and all the cameras pointed at her. She started walking away and we just kept on her trails. We were so desperate to see a predator! I hope this will support a video (coming soon)

above is a elephant corpse with a bunch of vultures (don't worry, the elephant looked like it died of a natural death, not eaten alive)