PILANESBERG GAME RESERVE 20 August 2016

On August 20th we took a day and went to Pilanesberg.  I was feeling a little blue.  For months we had planned a weekend with our good friends from Swaziland, Solomon and Busi Mahlalela. Dennis and I had asked for Friday and Monday off so we could show them around Joburg and take them to a game reserve.  Spending some quality time with good friends was just what I needed.  Friday morning as they were getting ready to leave for the kombi rank to come here, Solomon got a call from his boss telling him he had to come into work.  The other employee was sick and couldn't come in. That call was so difficult to receive. Busi and I were just so sad. Needless to say, our such anticipated weekend came to a screechy halt. After the initial disappointment, we decided that we would go ahead with the plans to drive to Pilanesberg early Saturday morning.  It was delightful spending time with my husband enjoying the magnificent African animals.  And boy did we see animals.  We drove on our own but Dennis is the best animal tracker I have ever been with.  He saw animals that were hidden and would take me five minutes to focus on.  Eish, we had a great time.

We had made plans with the Mahlalela's to try again the following week, but the same employee did not return to work and Solomon could not get away.  We only have a few months left to get them here.  I am praying that they can find the time. (Busi had taken her week vacation time to come and had to use it up.)  Side note:  Busi works 10 hour days 6 days a week with Sunday off.  Can you imagine her disappointment.  

Enjoy the majesty of these amazing African animals that let us quietly encroach into their lives....

 These two elephants were playing.  It was the funniest thing to watch.  Kept us very entertained.

 We saw LIONS!  There are some couples that have come to Pilanesburg many times during their mission and have never seen lions.  We were so lucky to have seen 15 of them in three different sightings on our first time.  Our first sighting was right after a kill.  If you look closely, you can see the wildebeests leg.  It was the funniest thing to see them flip up the legs of the wildebeest to get the flesh under the legs.  We counted 7 lions enjoying their afternoon meal.

 Tug of war

 Our second sighting was along the road where there were 6 lions strolling.....two lions and 4 lionesses.  The third sighting was in some bushes and we couldn't get a picture because the camera kept focusing on the bushes.

 One of the big 5 ugliest African animals - the warthog.

 Scenes in Africa

We returned to work on Monday in hopes that there would be another day to enjoy the company of the Mahlalelas.