Day 1 of our Photo Safari

Even with several short nights of sleep (we had to get up at 4:30 a.m. Sunday morning, couldn't sleep very well in a strange bed/hotel on Sunday night in D.C., slept ON a plane Monday night, had my days and nights mixed up on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, let alone mention that I realized I'M IN AFRICA!!!!), I woke up SO excited about our first morning out on the game drive! I was dressed and outside at 6 a.m.! I wasn't the only one restless and excited, Hal and Verde, and Ted, were the other early risers in our group, so we went for coffee, and a view of the GORGEOUS scenery we have from our lodge at Zulu Nyala.

Hal, Verdi, Ted, and me are the first ones up. Having coffee and excited about our first day on a game drive!

View of the game preserve from the lodge.

At 8 a.m. we met our ranger for the week, Chris. He's a young fellow (26 years old) with a wonderful accent! He speaks English, baby Dutch, and whatever the local African language is around here -- when he talks to the Africans it reminds me of Brad Pitt in the movie Joe Black when he was speaking to the African woman in the hospital!!! :) We load up our land cruiser with 10 of us: Hal and Verde, Ted and Karen, Denis and Pat, Bob and me, and another young couple from Colorado, Shane and Cindy! We are given all the instructions for being out in the wild among the animals: DO NOT get out of the vehicle, DO NOT touch the animals (YIKES!!! Is that possible???), speak softly, etc. In about five minutes, we are already seeing giraffe, impala, nyala, wildebeest, warthogs, zebra, etc. It is AMAZING!!! Seeing a giraffe off in the distance with its neck and head sticking above the trees is so cool!!! We are on a mission this morning to find a cheetah or the elephants!

   Loaded up in our jeep for the week! Bob is in the front with our ranger; Shane, Cindy and me in the front row; Karen, Ted, and Verdi in the second row; and Denis, Pat, and Hal in the back row.

Let the photo taking begin!!! Giraffes, zebras, nyalas, impalas, and warthogs are among the first sightings.