{"id":3040,"date":"2025-08-16T19:46:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T19:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/?p=3040"},"modified":"2025-08-17T17:50:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T17:50:17","slug":"south-africa-day-9-safari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/2025\/08\/16\/south-africa-day-9-safari\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa – Day 9 Safari"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Up again at 5.45am to set off on our safari drive. It was very atmospheric with the mist filling the valleys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We were on the lookout for lions when we got a call over the radio and Lenny rushed to join the other truck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There were 3 lionesses laying down but they soon left and were lost from view in the bushes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also saw a young male elephant …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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and a family of warthogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We enjoyed our private drive as there was still just the two of us. We arrived back at the Lodge for breakfast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We walked down to the waterhole and spent time relaxing on our private balcony until lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At lunch time we met the new arrivals, a South African extended family and a couple from Germany and a couple from the Netherlands. We now numbered 14 and after lunch set off in two trucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As soon as our group got through the gate we saw an elephant enjoying himself at our waterhole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lenny found some bones – a skull from a gnu and the lower jaw of a warthog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We saw many antelope….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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giraffe …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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and Wildebeest (gnu).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There was a flock of beautiful blue starlings getting ready to roost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had looked for hippo on every drive but they proved very illusive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eventually two were seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the way back to lodge we saw a troop of vervet monkeys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another fascinating drive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a lovely meal and some cake to celebrate Ruby’s 80th birthday we all trooped off to bed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Up again at 5.45am to set off on our safari drive. It was very atmospheric with the mist filling the valleys. We were on the lookout for lions when we got a call over the radio and Lenny rushed to join the other truck. There were 3 lionesses laying down but they soon left and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,95],"tags":[96],"class_list":["post-3040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-foreign-holidays","category-south-africa","tag-south-africa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":328,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Carol","author_link":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/author\/admin\/"},"rttpg_comment":2,"rttpg_category":"Foreign Holidays<\/a> South Africa<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Up again at 5.45am to set off on our safari drive. It was very atmospheric with the mist filling the valleys. We were on the lookout for lions when we got a call over the radio and Lenny rushed to join the other truck. There were 3 lionesses laying down but they soon left and…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3040"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3062,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3040\/revisions\/3062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}