April 14 - Heading home

We have had to cut our trip short.  Boo-Hoo!!

During our 7 sea days, Rick began to have trouble seeing out of his right eye.  A trip to the ships medical center revealed that he probably had a tear in the retina, or a detached retina.  We had to wait two days until we arrived in Montevideo where we were sent to an emergency room of a "questionable" hospital, but one that at least had an ophthalmologist who was able to confirm it is a detached retina.  The doctor advised us to go home ASAP to have it treated.  We had to return to the ship with two prescriptions, and orders for Rick to have complete rest until we could arrange a flight.  The ship was moving from Montevideo to Buenos Aires that night, which gave me time to pack all those suitcases we left with.  The ship's concierge helped with flight arrangements and cancellations that needed to be done.  We were able to get a flight out last night at 7:55pm and they even upgraded us to First Class...that was great!...and we flew into Miami and are waiting for our connecting flight to Nashville in a couple hours.

Our son has made arrangements for Rick to go to Vanderbilt Eye Center to meet with a Retina Specialist as soon as we arrive home.  We are very concerned about the amount of time this has taken, and the unfortunate luck of being in an area where the medical service is not the best. Even if we could have gotten the surgery there, we would then have to stay for 4 weeks before Rick would be able to fly!  At this point he can only see a small amount out of his eye: the rest is like a gray curtain.  Please include him in your prayers, that we can get him home in time to regain at least some sight in that eye.  It is a very scary situation. Thank goodness we had taken out trip insurance, so all of our expenses and reimbursements will be taken care of.

I will keep you updated as we learn more, but prayers will be greatly appreciated.

Rick and Paula

PS...sorry I had the wrong dates on the safari postings...the calendar on the wall was on March instead of April...so I was about 3 days off on each one!

April 12 - Final Animals and a typical safari day!

Our typical safari day......

Our safari group was up at 5AM, coffee delivered to our rooms at 5:15AM, load the vehicles at 6AM

On the road by sunrise

The morning "drive" is underway

Rest stop for coffee, tea and biscuits

Joe, using his machete to cut our way through the brush

Finding the remains of a hippo

                                                         LATE AFTERNOON DRIVE

                                                                           

Our group ready to roll at 4PM

Joe cutting our way through the bush

Stopping for afternoon tea

Sundowners at the end of the day

Sundowners at this beautiful deck overlooking the river

Sundown in Africa

Dinner in the bush.....what a day!!!  

Herbivores.  Would you believe these species of Antelope are grouped with elephants, hippos, rhinos, giraffes, squirrels, and the scrub hare???  Why? Because they are plant eaters.

Impalas were my favorite.  They were so graceful and delicate.

These little guys are just picture perfect.  And,  they can fly like the wind when they are startled.

Impalas travel in herds unlike their cousins who travel in small groups or alone.

The Kudu grows quite large and the males grow these magnificent horns.

Kudus have distinctive markings and a hump above their shoulders.

Kudus have the white V "connecting" their eyes.

A great facial close-up. Their horns twist one time/year.

The Nyala is a close cousin to the Kudu, but have darker coats, no hump, straighter horns, and 2 white patches under their eyes.

An example of a mature male Nyala (taken right behind our suite!)

April 12 - Animals, the tallest and the shortest

We saw giraffes everyday in groups from 2 to 9.  They were so beautiful. 

A very tall male giraffe.

It was nice that this one stopped to pose!

We learned that giraffes have a 4 stage stomach.  The closer we got to them we could see how they swallow, then regurgitate, chew again, then the process starts over until it passes through the 4 stages.  It was funny watching it go up and down that long neck!

Females are a little smaller and slightly lighter in color.  This one was just walking down the road when we came around a corner.

The last shot of the evening.

Vervet monkeys were mostly around our lodge.  Their smart and know where the easy food and water is!

This female was in the tree next to our suite. She had just finished nursing her little one, and fell asleep on the branch!

We had to be careful not to leave anything outside our suite because these guys would steal it.

April 12 - More animals

The lodge had animal drives in the early morning, and late afternoon.  After lunch on a beautiful afternoon, the guides took both vehicles out with us to view hippos that had been spotted in the Sabi River, not far from us.  It was a little different viewing than we had on the riverboat, but we still only saw them in the water, and not as many.  There were also lots of crocodile in the water, thus the rifle and machetes were necessary, just in case.

A river level view of the hippos

Our guide Mike was great and we learned how intense the training program and certification process is to become a lead guide.  It takes several years of classes, on the job training, testing and a love of animals.

The two "spotters".  Ours is on the right, Joe.  Noel is on the left and was in the other vehicle.  They ride above the front bumper, and have the jobs of spotting, bushwhacking, and poop inspection for tracking the animals!

It was a shame we never saw a hippo on land to truly appreciate the size if these guys.  

A game of peek-a-boo

We spotted this hyena walking out of the bush towards a roadway.  Again he did not seem concerned with us at all.

He continued walking down the road for a while on the prowl

Then headed back into a wooded area 

And disappeared.

We saw this group of zebra grazing as we were headed back to the lodge.

There were only a few of them

I loved the way the one in the front zebra bent his neck for this shot

And then they moved on, and we did too.

April 12 - Leopards continued

We happened upon this mature male leopard on our way back to the lodge after an afternoon observing hippos in the Sabi River.  He was magnificent.

Such a regal look.  Our guide told us that this particular male is the dominant one in this area and spends a lot of his time wandering, and marking his territorial lines.  

He had probably stopped for a drink and a rest in the shade.

Lucky for us!!



We happened upon this mother leopard and her cub taking a rest in the shade.  We soon found out that cubs, like kids, can't sit still for long and love to "horse" around.  It was a great show for us .

Mama

Cub

"Hey Mom....you want to play?"

"PLEASE??????"

"I'll bite your ear if you don't!"

Family portrait

"OK...I'll just go see those people in the jeep."

"Let's go Junior"

We circled around and caught up the mom and cub as they come out of the trees

The walked right by us

And eased on down the road.  What a day!!