Afrika

So around my 50th birthday, my wife and I started to get serious about our "bucket list" which included doing a safari in Africa.

Then the big Ebola outbreak occurred and we put the trip on hold.

With our 25th anniversary coming up, and the Ebola outbreak ended, my wife got more insistent and found a good tour group to go with.  Ebola cropped up again in the Congo, but remained contained, and our trip was booked.

I'm not going to say where in Africa we went because apparently it might help poachers to track down animals of interest.  But I do have a few pictures and videos to share.

A Giraffe:

A female lion

A male lion: we encountered this big fellow on our last day.  He changed my perspective on "marking territory" in a big way.

The ubiquitous Cape Buffalo: okay, maybe not ubiquitous, but there were a lot.

A white rhino.

Elephants

And a leopard

So that covers the "Big Five" plus a Giraffe.

We saw a lot of Baboons.

A few Wildebeest.

Some Hyena, including a dead one, killed by a male lion defending its lunch!  We also saw a den with several baby Hyenas.

Cute little mongooses, or is that mongeese?

Hornbills are now the iconic bird of Africa for me.

Here is a warthog - best picture I could get.

I really like this Elephant picture.

And let's not forget Zebra.

We enjoyed the local beer.

I don't think it would be much of a surprise to say we saw "The Smoke That Thunders."

We visited geological wonders.

Running

I got only two short (30-40 minute), back-to-back treadmill runs in during the middle of the trip.  I am now trying to regain my running fitness.  Running on Safari is generally not recommended.  I wouldn't want to be mistaken for prey.

Malaria

For the second time I took malarial medication on a trip where I was never bitten by a mosquito.  Early on in the trip I had a case of "Shaka's Revenge" that put my gastrointestinal system into the worst tail-spin that I can ever remember.  Our guide suggested it was due to the medication, I'm less sure, but I stopped taking it just to be safe.  I began questioning my guide and various natives about malaria.  Long term malarial medication is just a no-go for all of them.  They rely on mosquito netting, and diethyltoluamide (DEET). 

So Africa is checked on my "Bucket list," well, except for Egyptian pyramids.  Still there is a desire to do some more Safari in the future.  My wife was quite keen on all of the birds she got to identify.  Apparently the best time to go birding is during the rainy season, which is also the mosquito season - ugh!

A final picture from our sunset cruise.