Hluhlue and Umfolozi Game Park

Greetings from beautiful So. Africa.
 

We had the wonderful opportunity to visit two truly beautiful wild Game Reserve parks on Thurs of this past week. Umfolozi/Hluhluwe parks are connected together.

We arrived shortly after sunrise and started out on a paved road, full of potholes that Glynn navigated around well, and eventually transitioned to dirt roads. Judy was the first one to spot a mother rhino with a baby in tow up on a hill side. Our day ended up being full of rhino, 30+ by my count. Glynn said he had never seen so many white rhino in one day before. 

Lots of impala joined us along many turns, and I found myself quite partial to the nyala which I had never heard of or seen before. The male and female are very different and I would not have guessed that they were the same species at all. We were able to see quite a number of cape buffalo, often a lone buffalo by himself, with some great, up close pictures taken. At one turn out, we were able to get out of the car and overlook this truly breath-taking valley looking down on the river below, and watch a heard of cape buffalo slowly make their way across. I think I could have stood there for an hour and listen to the call of the African birds and revel in the amazing creation of God, who is truly creative with the many diverse creatures that he placed upon this earth. 

Later on we came around one bend in the road to find a lone zebra standing there, whom we soon dubbed the crossing guard, as a mother and baby zebra then crossed the road, followed by a forth zebra, and lastly the crossing guard made his way across. Stunning. As we crossed over into Hluhluwe park we saw two elephants in the grass, and able to see a few flicks of their enormous ears and a quick flash of a tusk, which turned out to be the only elephants we saw all day, whereas the last time Glynn and Mark had been to that park they saw two herds of 30+ elephants, different day, different animals want to be seen, I guess. 

Around dusk, we had the very fun opportunity to witness three white rhinos make their way into a mud pond to cool off and wallow. One rhino decided that the first rhino was in his spot, so he gently (as gently as a 2000 lb or however much rhinos weigh) nudged the other rhino with his horn in the behind to get her to move over. He kept nudging and poking her bum until she finally moved over enough to make sufficient room for him and then he waddled in next to her to lie down. It was hilarious to watch. 

After that we finally found some giraffe, which are my sons' favorite animal and therefore I really wanted to get to see them and take pictures. We found a group of ten of them eating leaves off the trees, and on our last loop before leaving the park in the semi-darkness, we saw a mother leading a baby giraffe (who was acting more like an independent 2 year old and not actually following his mama very well!). 

What a tremendous day in Africa, and I felt truly fortunate to be able to witness such beautiful, strong, and sometimes scary creatures, truly in the wild without any fencing separating you from them. God is truly awesome in all that He creates.
 

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