Kiwiblog

I’ve had a fair number of people ask me about how I arranged the trip to Africa, saying they are keen to visit there also.

Normally I prefer to arrange my trips myself, and research places, activities and accommodation through sources such as Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor. I tried to do this with the Africa trip, but I found it too challenging for a first time visitor to Africa. There were three significant challenges:

1. Safety – I wanted to minimise safety risks such as travel in unsafe areas, dodgy internal airlines, being exposed to touts etc
2. Connections – it was difficult to work out by myself how one would actually get to and from certain safari camps
3. Variety – there are so many different lodges and camps to choose from, that even with Trip Advisor, deciding where to go was challenging – even deciding what countries to go to was a challenge

So in my googling I came across a package from World Journeys for The Cape, Kruger & Victoria Falls. Now these were three of the places I wanted to go to. However I was dubious, as I am not really into group tours, as you lose flexibility. However I filled in the form to see what they could do.

This put me in touch with Kirstine from World Journeys. She informed me that their packages are not all group tours, but in this case they put together individually tailored trips. So over the next few weeks I probably drove them crazy with my “Can we do Chobe also” and “How difficult would it be to also go into the Okavango Delta” and “Would a couple of days at Sun City blow the price out much” and they dealt with all my variations. They knew all about how you could fly from one camp to another via small safari planes to and from obscure air strips.

What was very useful is that Kisrtine had actually been to Africa, and stayed at all the places I was staying at. This was very reassuring when making decisions about whether to stay in a lodge or under canvass in certain areas. I’m glad she pushed me into the under canvass options.

After it was all agreed, World Journeys sent out a very helpful package of itinerary, travel advice, medical requirements, tipping guidelines, baggage guidelines (you need to travel with soft bags) etc. They were great to deal with, and I highly recommend them for this sort of trip.

But the really useful them is they were partnered with &Beyond in Africa. What this meant was from they point I arrived in Africa, &Beyond took over responsibility for my trip. They had a driver met me at Cape Town airport, who gave me vouchers for the rest of the trip. They had their own reps or other companies meet me at every destination where a transfer was needed. And when something happened such as a strike at one safari camp, they arranged me to stay at another camp at no extra cost. Knowing that no matter what happened, they would take responsibility for making sure the trip all fitted together was hugely reassuring.

&Beyond also owned several of the safari camps I stayed at. I will do a seperate detailed post on the four camps I stayed at, but suffice to say for now they were all great. In my travels I chatted to many other people staying at the various camps, and many of them were return visitors who swear by &Beyond and say they will only stay at their lodges and camps. They are at the higher end of the market, but have a mixture of price packages over their 35 lodges and camps.

So for someone who normally likes to do it all myself, I was very happy with the service I got from World Journeys and &Beyond. It was really good having both a company to deal with in NZ, and a company to deal with when actually in Africa. If you are a first time traveller especially, I would highly recommend both companies. I had nothing but good experiences with them.

Nxabega means Land of the Giraffes. This was my final full day in Africa. I went out on the morning drive but as I had undertaken 21 safari drives to date, I decided not to go out in the afternoon, and spend the day relaxing at the camp. It was one of my better decisions.

So the day consisted of an outdoor African massage, reading a biography of David Livingstone in the sun, and cooling off in the pool, plus food and drinks.

This is a view of one of the tents, merged into the surrounding area

This is the view from my balcony

The inside of the tent. Camping was never this fun when I was a kid!

A monkey making himself at home in the communal area

This is where I spent most of the day. Just fantastic. Great sun, amazing views, the sounds of Africa and no disturbances except refilling drinks.

The swimming pool.

This is the hat I wore pretty much non-stop when I was outdoors. It is a hand-me-down from my father (I think he saw it more as a temporary one off loan:-) ) and was fabulous. For it is not just any hat, but a Tilley Hat. They are well known, and quite a few people commented on it.

It handles sun and rain equally well. Highly recommended for travels in Africa.

A little tree snake. I was very grateful that I saw very few snakes and spiders during my three weeks in Africa.

After that I flew home. Four flights. A small Safari plane from Pompom air strip to Maun. A Botswana Air flight from Maun to Johannesburg. Then Qantas to Sydney and from Sydney to Wellington. Qantas had the entire Series 4 of The Big Bang theory, so that kept me busy, along with reading George RR Martin’s A Dance with Dragons on my iPad.

Another new bird, we had not seen before.

This large feathered beast is another type of Eagle. I would not want to get into a fight with one!

That afternoon we headed out back onto the delta. But rather than being in the relative safety of a motorboat, we were in traditional African canoes, called mokoro, where your method of locomotion is punting sticks.

Me pretending to be relaxed as we headed out. I wasn’t worried about any crocodiles as in theory they can’t jump up and get you unless you hang your arms over the edge, but the hippos are a major concern. Just two months ago a guide was almost killed by a hippo after it attacked them.

The trick is to not get close to them, as they can move a lot faster than you in the water. They are aggressive beasts, and are credited with killing more people than any other animal in Africa.

This frog is tiny – this is taken at close range with 12x zoom. It is smaller than a finger nail, yet can make quite a noise.

Another water lily.

This frog is slightly larger and more yellow than green. Still less than twice a finger nail in size. You find them on the reed stems.

Oh dear. They were hoping we would encounter no hippos, but this hippo was directly ahead of us, in the middle of the waterway we needed to go down. The lead boat, which was a guide only, spotted it at the same time as we did. I started to get nervous when my guide took us ahead of the lead boat to observe the hippo better. We were still a few score of metres away, but I was definitely getting bloody nervous as there was no land mass close to hand.

After around a minute the hippo submerged and we could tell from the bubbles it was heading towards us. I was much relieved when we decided to go back to the launch area and call it a day. Hippos move far faster than mokoro.

On the way back to camp we saw one of the largest beasts – a well tusked elephant.

And one of the smallest – a steenbok. This is a fully grown one. I guess lions see them as a plain hamburger, compared to say impala which is more a quarter pounder.

We tried the mokoro again the next day, and glad to say the hippo had gone, so we had a very pleasant journey

A fig tree

You can see here how it is covered with figs – and they unusually grow off the main branches.

My final destination was the Nxabega Under Canvas Camp. Also in the Okavango Delta.

The Safari Air plane. Half the pilots are kiwis, and the other half South African. They are really good at flying low, so you get magnificent views as you fly.

Shot from the plane.

A view of two elephants from above.

And a final aerial shot.

Due to flooding they have had to construct some bridges. But these are not bridges as we know them – more some poles secured together that you drive over – very slowly.

Some Tsessebe antelopes

A baby warthog

This was amazing. All this damage has been done from elephants rubbing their tusks against the tree. They have chopped away more than half the mass, and I reckon at some stage in the next few years some elephant will actually bring the tree down on them.

A great sighting as we drove in from the airport. A leopard up a tree, eating an impala it had killed.

The same leopard later that day out looking for more food. The cats have to kill regularly or they starve.

Nxabega stands for Land of the Giraffes, and there are plenty about.

We went out on an eight seater for a cruise up the delta. Saw one hippo which we avoided. The boat is not that large that it would come out best.

Close up of a water lily.

The guides showed us how to make a necklace from a water lily, by breaking the stem every couple of cm.

They told us we would have a coffee break on an island – but didn’t tell us it was about 5 square metres in size, sitting in the middle of nowhere. I asked if the island had a name, and when they said no, declared it to now be called Kiwi Island, which it now is.

The early sunset over the delta.

And the later sunset. Sigh.

The next morning we saw six hyenas.

They were tracking a leopard hoping to find its kill.

And they did.

Another type of antelope.

This little pool had over 100 birds in it – it must have been packed full of fish, so it was sort of like McDonalds for birds.

I liked the reflection in the water of this bird.

We had drinks here. Nice.

The buffalo is well hidden here. It could be fatal not to notice one, if you were on foot.

Another colourful bird.

Lots of monkeys at Nxabega – in the trees, on the paths and specifically in the tree next to my tent, which means they often jump up and down on the roof of my tent!

Not many laundry services have to warn that hyenas may raid the laundry room.

This is the open lounge area at Sandibe.

This tree overlooks our breakfast table and our cousins look down at us.

They quite make themselves at home in the lounge.

This is a giant eagle owl. The tracker did well to spot him in the tree.

I loved this tree – a sausage tree.

We ran into those five lions for the third day running – by accident the last two times. We were tracking a leopard and instead of finding the leopard, we saw the lions again, but …

Someone then looked up a tree, and saw the leopard. The lions must have turned up suddenly and the leopard did not want to risk a confrontation, so he headed up the tree. Lions will not eat leopards but they might kill them, as it reduces the competition for food. I guess deep down lions are socialists who don’t like competition

The leopard came down the tree after around 15 minutes, and sure enough one of the lions set off after it, and chased it for 600 metres or so.

Now this is a truly rare daytime sighting – a porcupine. Don’t get too close to it unless you want a face full of quills.

Some giraffes.

A crimson breasted stripe.

Didn’t note this one’s name down.

A red lechwe antelope (I think).

This is a hammerhead, for obvious reasons

Another colourful feathered friend

We heard the lion roar from around 100 metres away, otherwise would not have known it was there. At one point he stood up and stared at us which was unnerving.

But then he went back to the customary lion position

A typical landscape.

Some Marabou storks

Yay we spotted a cheetah – the last of the big cats I had to see. Not as large or strong as the others, but very fast. The collar is for some research programme.

She got joined by her son who had been unsuccessfully trying to hunt prey.

So mum consoled him with a good hug and kiss.

Also came across a group of five lions. Three of them here.

And the other two here.

It’s dark but this is another jackal

A frog we almost ran over

And a hyena out at night – their normal hunting time. Of course their idea of hunting is normally to scavenge.

I’m not normally a big bird watcher but I can’t get enough of the variety they have here

A Kudu staring out at us

A hippo moving alongside

And another up ahead

In an ideal world the camera would also be a dictaphone so I could record down the names as I get told them.

Some tsessebe, another species of antelope

This is the second day at Sandibe. We had been driving around three hours and I needed a bush toilet break. The guide said that we were only 30 minutes from where he planned to have the morning tea, so I agreed to hold off until then. However as we got to the planned spot for morning tea, we found to our surprise the five lions from yesterday were there. This was 20 kms away from where we saw them yesterday. As you can imagine I had to hold on for another 20 minutes or so, as me marking out the lions’ sleeping place could be a bad idea.

They got quite playful with each other.

Lots of licking and pawing

But their idea of a friendly nibble is not one I’d like to try

This is one of the many crossings the landcruiser makes through slightly flooded areas. This is the wake from the vehicle. Sometimes the water gets close to coming in over the sides.

Then at the end of day two, went out on a small boat in the delta

This is the boat – seats eight

Some truly beautiful sights

After Chobe I flew by small safari plane to the Okavangi Delta – the world’s largest inland delta. Stayed two nights at Sandibe, which is an @Beyond lodge.

This is the villa I stayed in. It has an outdoor shower which is very nice.

The view from the bathroom at the back

The view from the front

The bed

And the swimming pool

And this was the sunset. It is great not having hills. Africa is so beautiful, even without the wildlife.

I love mongooses as they kill snakes. Even the small dwarf mongooses will do it. They all team up against the snake. I’ve been lucky not to see any snakes so far (I hate them), and the only time I want to see one is getting killed by a band of mongooses.

A banded mongoose.

Pretending he is a meerkat

Crossing the road.

We did a boat cruise along the Chobe River. A great way to see some hippos, without having them able to get at you.

Mum, Dad and the kid going into the river to have a drink

He’s giving us the evil eye

A group of hippos grazing by the water. Chobe is unusual in that the hippos come out during the day. In most areas they stay in the water during the day and only come out at night.

Quite common to see birds on hippos eating bugs off them in a symbiotic relationship.

Nice colouring on this crocodile. Quite large – a bit over two metres.

A hippo getting out of the water. This is a younger once as he failed at first and had to try three times.

The crocodiles never move, hoping you won’t notice them. However having your mouth open like this gives it away.

Funny story around this photo. The boat pulled up on shore to let us take it. Then reversed into a sumbmerged rock, which killed the engine. An animated discussion followed on who would get out to fix the engine. Luckily they finally got it working again with no one having to bet crocodile bait. The croc looked very upset when we left!

There are elephants everywhere in Chobe. I would have seen several hundred over two days.

These are very new born elephants. You can see their size compared to their parents.

This gives a better idea of how tiny the baby ones are – barely taller than the grass. Very cute.

Had lots of fun seeing in the New Year. Despite the fact we still had to go out driving at 5.30 am, a small group of us stayed up until 1 am to see 2012 in, with a mixture of Tequila and Champagne.  The whole camp had a group dinner outdoors around the swimming pool, and it was a beautiful cloudless night where the stars were shining, the frogs were humming and you are hundreds of kilometres from the nearest town. Truly superb – even magical.

The camp is a fun mixture of people – French, American, Mexican, Canadian and South African. Only myself and the South Africans lasted until midnight though – the others were sensible! There was a python on the path to the tents, which is rather disconcerting. But the locals says the pythons are fine – it’s the Black Mambas to avoid.

Felt slightly queasy this morning as driving around bumpy fields in a landcruiser at 6 am is not the recommended cure for a hangover.

A jackal.

You can see the jackal behind the impala but the jackal is too small to threaten them so they just ignore it.

I’ve been very lucky. It had been five months since they saw the African Wild Dog at Chobe. I thought I was lucky seeing three of them at Kruger, but here we saw a pack of 18 of them. Fabulous.

I love their colouring.

You can see them moving out here.

The next day we got lucky again – we saw some impala running silently and quickly. Our guide had told us that when chased by lions or leopards they will run and make noise as the lions and leopards like stealth and will give up after a while. If you see them running silently then it is probably being chased by wild dogs, and it was.

You can’t see it here but they have just killed an impala. I’d say it was dead within 10 seconds. The pack just savaged it.

Within probably 90 seconds there was nothing left. You can see one of them here with a bone – they literally tore it to pieces.

Around half an hour after that kill by the adults, the younger dogs got an impala also. Here they can’t actually tear it apart so they all sit around eating it. Was a bit gruesome but fascinating.

Another shot of them after the kill. I’d love to bring back to NZ a pack of 18 African wild dogs and buy a house next dooe to a gang hq. The next time one of their pit bulls bites a kid, then let lose the pack! These dogs don’t attack humans and only attack for food.

So many birds. This is just a few.

The Southern Ground Hornbill

This stork does the most graceful landings. They glide in from around 100 metres away and then just pull up as they land.

A European bee-eater.

 And this lovely bird is a white-fronted bee-eater.

You can see the lion stalking the warthogs. Fortunately for them, they saw him and got away. The lions like to get very close to their prey – they are fast but lack some stamina.

Two lions happily ignoring us.

Looking at their physique, you can see why they can take on beasts bigger than them.

Yay. Finally after six days, captured a leopard on camera. They are very shy of humans. We were literally on the way to the airport, and my guide insisted on a final check of places they had been reported, and bingo. He was hiding in some bushes, but if you circle the bushes once in the vehicle, he knows you have seen him, so then comes out.

A close up. A beautiful beast.

I like this sight of King George sitting on his rock.

This shot at dusk is of the baboons going up the tree to sleep for the night.

As you can see the baboons can travel in large groups, to and from the water.

This is cute. The mum is holding the baby, and dad is giving her a backrub.

One of things in Chobe especially (but not only there) is how the different animals all mix in together. Well sure, not those who eat the others, but is quite a sight to see impala and baboons all together.

A nice viewing point for them.

This is a monkey, not a baboon. Far less of them about.

A more unusual antelope, with the hump and the more twisting horns – the kudu.

Two Impala having a fight.

A waterbuck.

Now you might be thinking how does an impala get up a tree? Can they climb? No. A leopard put him there. He wasn’t hungry when he killed him so is saving him up for the next day. Quite cunning and challenging to drag a dead impala up a tree.

A group of young impala. Their main purpose in life it seems is to be eaten up other animals.

Another of the rarer antelopes – the bushbuck.

Just spent two days under canvas in the Chobe National Park in Botswana. No Internet obviously there, in fact electricity was off batteries and generator. Huge amount of wildlife there – so much I will have to blog them by category.

At the end of the trip I’ll also blog in detail on the four safari camps or lodges I stayed at, with the differences between them. So far all have been very good, but quite different.

This is the dining area at camp.

This was a porcupine. Not many animals can kill a porcupine, but something did.

Just because it does not fit elsewhere, included this photo of six giraffes.

Now relax, this is NOT the toilet at the camp site. Our ones are totally clean. There is a public picnic area and these are the toilets out there. I think you are safer using the bush!

A Monitor.

Chobe is very different to Kruger. You had many large open areas, with watering holes and a River. Hence you’ll see in lkater photos large groups of beasts migrating every day to and from the water.

A couple of tents back at the camp. They only have five tents, so a maximum of ten people. The tents are very comfortable – they have a bed in them, and a make-shift shower (think a can with holes). So not quite roughing it like when a Scout, but still a great experience to be in the outdoors. They have to move campsite every five days.

This photo is taken from our dining room, so yes elephants literally walk through the campsite.

Now that Labour have abandoned 25 years of bipartisan commitment to sane monetary policy, we may need to get used to bank notes like this if they win in future (unless they quietly drop their policy to have more inflation).

One NZ$ is worth around 4,000 Zambian kwacha, so that note is worth around NZ$1.25. Note that in 1968 the kwacha was worth more than the US dollar.

Their largest note is for 50,000 which is NZ$12.50.

Yes that is a 100 trillion dollar note. Dr Evil, take that!

We shouldn’t have to worry about this scenario unless it is a four-way coalition of Labour, Greens, NZ First and Mana

In fact the note is “worth” more than 100 trillion as there were three redenominations. The first was a 1,000:1 redenomination, the second was a 10 billion:1 and the third a 1 trillion:1 redenomination.

So in terms of the original Zimbabwean dollar, that note is worth 1×10^39 or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, which could be called a duodecillion dollars.

This note was worth US30 when printed in 2009 but is worthless today. Their inflation rate in 2008 was 231,000,000%. It was only 28 years ago in 1983 that their dollar purchased US1.

The Zambesi is the fourth largest river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean. The basin is 1.4m square kms and it is 3,540 kms long.

Did a cruise on the Upper Zambesi. Had an open bar, which was also nice.

You cruise close to the islands in between the different channels, and here you can see a crocodile on land. Not a river you want to swim in, and even kayaking could have its risks.

A family of six hippos. Can’t see in this photo but one of them is a toddler and on the back of its mum.

Talking of toddlers, how cute is this baby crocodile? If it were not for the fact they grow up, you’d almost want to take it home as a pet

This is the Victoria Falls Hotel. It is an Edwardian building, 107 years old, and it is like you are living in the Edwardian era – they serve high tea on the balcony there.  They also serve drinks, so I’ve spent most of my spare time drinking Zambesi Sparkles (their inhouse cocktail) there while working on my laptop, or reading a book.

This is the view from the front lawn. You can see the border/bungee bridge ahead, and the “smoke” from the falls also. A stunning view.

The baboons are everywhere – literally treating the place as if it is theirs. You see warthogs in the grounds also.

As with any good hotel, they have the local newspaper. This story was on the front page and no name suppression here. An injiva incidentially is what they call a Zimbabwean living in South Africa.

I love the fine of seven head of cattle for bedding a wife. Allows you to weigh up the risks in terms of being caught and the likely fine vs the benefits

One of the lounges inside the hotel.

David Livingstone named them the Victoria Falls after Queen Victoria, but the local name of Mosi-oa-Tunya or the Smoke that Thunders is such a better name for them. You can not appreciate how accurate that name is until you have been to the falls, seen the “smoke” and heard the thunder.

This is the left most fall from the Zimbabwe side. The falls are two kilometres wide, so you can not get a photo of the entire falls together, unless from a helicopter.

The bush is lush rainforest next to the falls – because they get plenty of rain from the falls. Except when the falls are at their lowest, you get soaked viewing them – and I mean soaked. The water comes from so high up you would swear it was raining if it not for the lack of clouds. You get wet in some parts even a couple of score of metres back. Sometimes with a strong wind the falls water will even hit the township a km or so away.

Heading into the main part of the falls now.

There are around 20 viewing points from the Zimbabwe side

And at the far end of the falls.

This bridge is the border crossing between Zimbabwe and Zambia, plus you can bungy jump from it, do a zip line of flying fox.

And very cool, you can white water raft from the bottom of the falls. I’ve rafted the Shotover a few times, but this would be a truly fun group activity. The guide told me that falling out in one of their rapids is somewhat more dangerous than on the Shotover.

A statue on the Zimbabwe side of David Livingstone – the first European to see the falls.

After spending two hours walking around the Zimbabwe side, I crossed over the bridge to the Zambia side. It’s around three kms all up walking across, and very hot. The worst things are not the heat though but the young touts. They are trying to sell you everything from useless currency to bracelets. They are absolute con artists, suggesting US$30 for a 10c bracelet. But sadly even refusing to buy or talk to them doesn’t help as they will follow you for at least a km telling you how they are starving (they do not look it), their family has no money, their grandparents will have to be kicked out as they can’t look after them etc etc.

I suspect many of them earn well over US$100 a day, which probably puts them in the top 1% in Zimbabwe. They’ll do anything to engage you in conversation so you feel obliged to give them some money, most commonly asking you where you come from. After around the 20th one had asked me this I snapped and said “The North Pole”. They all looked surprised as no one had ever said that before obviously. Then one of them asked if I really was from the North Pole, and I replied “No, but you all obviously think I am as you think I’m Father Fucking Christmas”. As it was Xmas Day, possibly a bit ungracious from me, but seriously these kids are hyenas in human form.

I was surprised to see one of the traditional WWI memorial states in Zambia, but then recalled that back then it was Northern Rhodesia.

You can see a raft here waiting to go down a bloody large rapid.

There are baboons on both sides, but they are way more numerous on the Zambia side. On half a dozen occasions I had to walk within a foot or two of some baboons, and you do hope they remain passive.

These are they very right hand side of the falls.

A small bridge, which gets soaking wet so you walk it very slowly. Great views from it though.

A shot of the bottom of the falls. On average they are 100 metres deep.

Now that would send the Department of Labour OSH team into a spin back home – having people walk along the top of the falls, where one slip would mean goneburger. At most of the lookouts there are no barriers – you can go as close to the edge as you feel safe. I have to say walking along the top of the falls in the water would be too much for me.

They look ready to take a swim in case they do fall! A fall would be fatal, so I presume why they were in togs was heading to the Devil’s Pool which is an area off Livingstone Island where you can swim at the top of the falls, but not get swept over. That would be fun to do – but I’d rather take a boat to Livingstone Island – not walk over to it.

A final shot of the falls from the Zambia side.

If you want to see all the different vantage points on both the Zimbabwe side and Zambia side, plus walk across the border crossing (something I’ve never done before), it’s around 10 kms of walking all up – and in hot sun. But the views are absolutely worth it. It is rightfully regarded as one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

The Kings Tower at The Palace of the Lost City provides a good view.

This is the main entrance to the hotel, which is totally surrounded by water.

The swimming pool and bar at the back.

In the distance the Valley of the Waves. Behind that is the Entertainment Centre and the Sun City Hotel.

The bush and vegetation is very lush here – makes for a beautiful scenic backdrop.

I’m now having a couple of days of total relaxation at the Palace of the Lost City in the Sun City resort. Well when I say total relaxation, I mean in between writing my Herald column, doing a Stuff blog, and writing up four reports for clients!

Sun City is an enclosed resort and I’d describe it as a cross between Disneyland and Las Vegas.

This is the view from my hotel room.

As is this.

This is the entrance to the Palace. There are four hotels in the Sun City resort. Three of them are mainly used by South Africans on family holidays, and this one more by international visitors. However you have access to restaurants and casinos in all four hotels, pus get free entry to specialist areas such as the Temple of the Waves.

I liked this as safe play for kids. Somehow they get them inside these inflatable balls and they can have fun in the water with no risk of drowning.

This huge pool is in the Temple of the Waves, and has a giant wave machine. Lots of fun.

They have five water slides here, including this one which is a near vertical drop. Have I mentioned how much I love water slides! Kiwis are beating the Aussies 33-29 in the water slide challenge after one afternoon!

Had my eighth and final safari drive around Kruger.  It sounds a bit silly, but eight hours a day driving around is actually quite tiring work – these are not smooth roads you’re on but you’re bumping up and down all over the place.

I loved this sight. Three buffalo bulls having a mud spa pool to cool down. I half expected them to be playing poker also.

A wart hog.

And this little fellow we almost ran over is a grass owl.

The vultures in a tree meant there was some carcass nearby but the predator was also still around, hence they were waiting up there for it to be safe to feed.

And we found the dead antelope, which had been killed by a leopard.

A lioness enjoying the sun.

I told you the wild life goes pretty much everywhere. Can you imagine walking out your door to have an elephant staring at you from two metres away?

This could be a new road safety initiative for New Zealand. place lions on random roads, and watch the average speed drop!

This male lion is around three years old.

These three lions don’t normally live here, so once the resident lions learn of the interlopers there could be a gang war.

Quite beautiful.

We’ve been told to keep our rooms locked because otherwise baboons will happily come in and throw their shit around – literally.

You have to feel sorry for the waterbucks having a target like that as a natural feature.

A big beak for a small fellow.