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.