The next morning we were awakened by monkeys.  I jumped up in bed to the sound of quick steps on the metal roof of our room.  I ran to the sliding glass window to see what was happening when I noticed them.  Maybe 20, maybe more, in the trees above the glass.  They were jumping on and off the roof, almost teasing us.  It was 4:53 am.  Luckily, we had a wake-up call at 5:00 am for our early morning game drive.  All of us were up and out of the door at 5:30 for breakfast.  Julius (who Mark had been calling Caesar by now) and Excellent were extremely chipper for being up and ready to go that early in the morning.  We had only been driving around for 15 minutes when we ran across some giraffes.

They were leisurely eating right along our path.  We also saw a herd of zebras running through the trees and passing right in front of us.

I have to admit that at the time the whole experience reminded me SO much of Jurassic Park, but more on that later.  It was actually quite chilly in the early mornings and we were all bundled up in the few layers we had packed.  We came across some beautiful birds who made their hanging nests above the water to protect themselves from predators.  They were bright yellow and moved extremely fast.  Also, tons of tree frog nests.

We went along another path to find a whole family of giraffes:  two adults, male and female, and five little babies.  They weren’t scared of us in our vehicle at all, almost still sleepy from the night before.

We also came across several nyala and impala along the trails.  We stopped to have a snack:  dried fruit, muffins, and hot chocolate, before heading back to the lodge.  The four of us decided to head back to our rooms for a power nap before lunch time.  We had lunch in the dining room, explored the area a bit, and then had lunch before heading back out on our evening game drive.  We spotted three hippos in a watering hole and had another encounter with the lionesses and the male cub.

Julius asked us what we wanted to see next and Mark informed him we really wanted to see some rhino.  The animals are completely free and roam as they please, so we were warned you might not see all you planned to see due to the fact that they are just so hard to find certain days.  Sure enough though, right before the sun was setting, we found three rhino in a field on the opposite end of the reserve.

We also spotted the most beautiful kudu.  Besides the elephants and the giraffes, the kudu was my favorite.  They have the body of an elk, but grey in color with thin, white stripes on their backs.  The males also had these gorgeous horns, huge and black shaped like corkscrews.  I am going to get a set for my home one day!  Julius then found another watering hole to have our evening snack before the night drive.

Mark loved our safari vehicle and kept telling the rest of us how he was going to get a spot light for his Ranger at the cabin to do animal tours with.

It started to get dark and we had only been driving for a few minutes until Julius spotted a leopard track.  Leopards are the most difficult to spot of all the Big 5 because of the fact that they hide deep in the brush or in trees.  We tried to located the leopard clan, but it got dark too fast.  Excellent got out his spot light and we searched for a few more small nocturnal animals before ending our drive for the night.   We had our Thanksgiving dinner in the dining room.  Since they don’t have American turkeys in Africa, we settled for Tuna.  It was Zach and I’s first Thanksgiving with our family in four years.

We loved being with Mark and Jeanene for the holiday and were so grateful to make memories in this amazing place!