You no longer run into rhino,
sleeping in waterholes,
visited by a friend.
There is no need to break for baby waterbuck,
crossing the road to mama,
protected by papa, and watched by a drifting hippo.
And of course you no longer see the elephant herds,
with all the happy babies.
Thank you for coming with me to Africa. I hope we can go back there someday.
Cheers to you from Africa’s wonderful wild creatures~
Glad you enjoyed it and hope you get to return some day. See ya later alligator. (I’ll have a crocodile sandwich, and make it snappy) 😀
They served crocodile at a boma we went to. Needless to say, I didn’t snap it up!
I visited Africa 3 times in my lifetime, each and every time I wanted to stay longer. Have a safe trip back home.
You’ve done one trip more than I. I have no idea if I will go back, but I fully appreciate why you went three times! If we keep on going, I wonder if eventually, we will not return. I could see this happening to me. The pull is so strong.
I was born and raised in Europe, right between Austria and Italy. A trip to Africa wasn’t so dramatic then, as a matter of fact it was the #1 tourist attraction in the 80’s.
In Europe I can imagine it was. It is an 11 or so hour flight from Europe. A one way trip to South Africa takes me 22 hours, still I grew up in La Jolla, and remember my grandfather’s home movies of Kenya, and of Treetops Lodge, the Masai. I still have the wood carvings he bought. He went and it must have taken him even longer. This was probably 1963 or so. It was unusual then. 90% of people who visit Kruger are South Africans which surprised me. Most American tourists go on led safari experiences, at super expensive lodges, and do not self drive. They pay a lot more for this and are not free to do their own thing, and they don’t develop their own skills and confidence. Plus, since it is so expensive, they only stay for short periods of time. On each trip to Kruger we encountered one American couple self driving, but many self driving Europeans.
I’m going on a South African photo safari in September by way of Cape Town. I can’t wait! So glad I found your blog and your gorgeous photos. I’ll be scrolling through all of your posts. 🙂
Oh how wonderful. I know how excited you must be, but your excitement now pales with how you will feel once your feet touch the ground in Africa. I look very much forward to hearing about your experiences!
Thanks for sharing the journey and the beautiful photos.
Thank you for being someone who appreciates the magic of Africa~
They are precious images. Thank you for taking us to the virtual trip to Africa!
I am so happy you came along with me Maiko. You made the trip a richer experience!
thanks again for taking us with ya on your adventures…beautiful photos😎😻😺😸🐅🐂🐆🐫🐪🐕🐗🐘🐏🐇🐃💘💞💗💜
Oh I so love your icons and thank you for joining me! You made it more fun~
I love those emojis…I’m an emoji addict😉😎👍🏼I’m glad I made it more fun..that’s a huge compliment to me, much thanks✌🏽️👌🏽😀
Ok, now I googling emojis!
it’s been a wonderful trip Cindy – thank you so much for taking us along. I do like the quiet story you tell, you’ve given us the best of the best. A very special visit ~
Awwww, people like you are why I so love blogging Mary~ ❤
Thank you so much – we have a great community.
What a wonderful adventure Cindy. Fingers crossed, my daughter & I hope to visit next year!
Oh my, I am so excited for you both. I hope you do go and I look forward to tagging along virtually!
It seems like you had a fabulous trip! There is something to be said though for coming home and sleeping in your own bed. 😉
Yes, with my own hawks and hummingbirds! We know each so well~
Thanks, Cindy. It was fun revisiting and I hope to go back in person one day!
I hope you do and I want to go with you vicariously!
It was an amazing series….!! It was like enjoying Africa through your lens… 🙂
Awwww, makes it so rewarding to post! Thank you~
I shall miss them too. Thank you for the vicarious delights.
It is a wonderful trait in human beings that we can travel and marvel with our imaginations. I do it everyday!
Those events will be missed for sure. I love that picture #6 from the top down.
I know isn’t his expression priceless. He’s saying, now come on lady, don’t push it, so I didn’t! Laughing…….
Thank you for shearing the images from your adventures. It has been remarkable. Thank you!
Awwww, you made it so much more rewarding!
Wonderful pics, Cindy. What an adventure you’ve had! 🙂
It was a culmination of a lifetime of fascination with Africa and it was even better the second time around!
Thank you for bringing us along! Great series, Cindy!
For you my dear, I would do most anything and I mean it! ❤
Gracias por habernos mostrado la maravillosa fauna africana al natural. He disfrutado mucho con todas las fotos que me han transportado a esa naturaleza virgen. <3<3
Tu es un amiga tan encantador! Gracias mi querido y vítores para ti~ ❤
sad >
He’s sleeping and hopefully will continue to be okay, but it would be terribly sad if he were to be killed~
Liebe Cindy einen schönen Mittwoch wünsche ich dir es sind wunderschöne Fotos sei ganz lieb gegrüßt Klaus in Freundschaft
Danke, dass du mein lieber Freund Klaus! ❤
Beautiful photos – What an adventure! =0)
It was a wonderful whirl!
Thank you for the wonderful trip! What a land!
It is pretty incredible and thank you for traveling with me Inese~
Where next ? 🙂
Laughing, we are going to Yellowstone, Waterton and Glacier in Canada in September to look for wolves and Grzzlies. Jim just booked us on a last minute, super cheap deal to Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Budapest while I was out grocery shopping. It is an amazingly cheap flight and we leave in November. I was looking at hotel prices in these parts of Europe in early November, unbelieveable deals! Eeeeeks this is a lot even for me, but there are all these places we haven’t been too, and think of all the great food! Laughing…….
Wonderful pictures Cindy please keep taking them and sharing 🙂
I can’t help myself, it is so much fun, sharing this with awesome bloggers like you! ❤
Thank you Cindy and it is such a joy for us to see your beautiful pictures 🙂
❤ ❤
This post is wistfully sweet. I mourn the loss of these wild creatures as if I had seen them in person. Which I never have. Only in my dreams :*(
Yes, there is a deep connection between humans and wild animals, at least there should be! We have lost ourselves, truly, if we don’t feel this kinship. Thank you for knowing this~
Thanks for your lovely photographs, Cindy.
You are most welcome. ❤
Never been to Africa but I do know the pull of certain places I have visited and the way they hold you so you never want to leave 🙂
Yes. They tend to be the places you go back too, despite distance or hardship! Patatgonia, Africa, and Antarctica are like this for me. Canada too, although minus the hardship!
The pictures are amazing!! And it was indeed a wonderful journey 🙂
Awww, thank you! Consider how many said journeys are available to us all on this amazing planet if we can just manage not to destroy it!
Exactly! That is so true…..its a blessing we have……and its very sad to not recognise it.
Thank you for the beautiful photos:)
Thank you more for appreciating them!
Cindy, I nominated you for a challenge: http://suburbanhobo.com/2015/07/09/lovehate-challenge/
Awwwww, so touched and grateful. People like you Erica, are why I love blogging and bloggers so much! ❤ ❤
Ditto.
Aww 😟 It ended so soon. We were having a nice vacation in Africa from the comfort of our homes. Thank you for the beautiful tour . I enjoyed every bit of it. Especially the two headed giraffes.
There is alot to be said for virtual travel, no air flights, no mosquitos, no time change or jet lag! I am so glad you came along with me~
I simply adored your doing all the hard work, Cindy! Traveling far, enduring heat and being close to danger: All for our entertainment! I liked the rhinos, waterbucks, and especially baby elephants in this last leg of your adventure. Have a safe and lovely trip home, Cindy! ♡
Virtual travel, like reading blogs and books, is alot of fun isn’t it!. I love doing it too, just like I love reading your blog posts Robin~ ❤
This was a wonderful trip.
Where are we going to next?
I want to make sure I pack the right wardrobe for the location. 😉
Jeans and boots please. We’re heading to Yellowstone, Glacier and Waterton in Canada to look for bears and wolves! So glad your coming along my friend! ❤
Thanks. Me too! 😊
❤
What an extraordinary trip it’s been. Those photos, those gorgeous animals, the vistas. You’ll never be the same.
Yes, it is true. Africa changes you in some profound ways…..
Amazing photos, what an interesting journey!
It certainly was that and more! Thanks much & Happy Friday~
Wonderful photos from your trip, Cindy, no wonder it’s sad to leave. I bet arriving in London, exciting though it may be, is a bit of a bringdown! RH
Well, that’s where the foxes come in! 😉 Plus I went to a tattoo/barber shop and got a very severe haircut that looks just awful but it was a completely novel and very fun experience. I have never been in a place like that and it was most fascinating, and, no, I didn’t get a tattoo! 😉
What an amazing trip. Safe Travels.
We are Holler home now but we did travel safely and I appreciate the concern my friend~ ❤
Not sure how I missed this. Such beautiful photos. Such wonderful memories! 🙂
You would love Africa Linda, but you would probably rescue and bring home a lion cub…….
I would love it — but I wouldn’t bring home a lion cub (I’ve got too many cats now) so I’d have to settle for an elephant! 😛 😆
The elllies are always a good choice!
Black Rhinos are now extinct http://inhabitat.com/africas-western-black-rhino-is-now-officially-extinct/ 😦
So horrible to contemplate the reality of actual extinction of a sub-species particularly when we knew about it and had time to take action. Unforgiveable. Period. As you know there are about 8 or so subspecies of Black Rhino, the Western is now extinct as you sadly point out. In Kruger,southern black rhinos are making a small but hopeful recovery, but are still very endangered. It makes me weepy, after walking amongst these gentle grazers.
Thank you Cindy. Sub-species. Yes. Hooray for Kruger.
❤
Gorgeous photos what a wonderful snapshot of Africa you’ve given me ☺️
It is such a special place and hard to get that across in photos as it is such a multi-sensory experience~
I almost missed your photo of the elephants – the one advocacy program Tom remains active in is the protection of elephants from ivory poachers and jewelers against the use of ivory.
Tom applies his energies in an important direction. Thank him for me. ❤
I will.
I’m half Nigeria and I’ve had short visits to six countries, but I could never get enough of Africa, it gets under your skin doesn’t it?
It really does, and when you see photos or read about it, it brings up this bitter-sweet nostalgia and thougths of , “Oh, I want to go back!” 🙂
Cindy, have you read the story about the dentist from Minn that killed the lion is Zimbabwe? Very sad story. I hate to see these beautiful animals hunted even though the authorities use the fees for conservation, I still find it heartbreaking.
Yes. I read several stories about him. He paid $55K to lure a collared lion out of a protected reserve with meat. He shot the lion outside of the park with an arrow. The lion was injured. He found the lion 40 hours later and shot him. He skinned the lion and took his head, hid the collar. The lion was well known in the park and was the patriarch. Now all his cubs will be killed by rival lions wanting to assume his place. This dentist has photos of himself with rhino, leopard, and big horn sheep he killed slowly with his bow and arrow. He has a criminal conviction for illegaly killing black bear in the US. I went to his yelp page and left a rude comment which I never do. I said he was a little man, with big arrows, and no heart. I am sick about these kinds of actions. I read that he most likely won’t be prosecuted. Leopards, rhinos, big horn sheep, lion, are vulnerable species in the wild. America’s gun and kill culture is just revolting. You can tell I am bothered by this. Seeing these animals in the wild, it is just impossible to understand how someone would want to kill them slowly and painfully.
I agree. I have joked that man/woman can eat and kill anything he can drag out of the wild with his/her bare hands. This story made me so sad for humankind. I know we are capable of great moments, but their are times that our destructive nature is overwhelming.
Yes, it getting to a critical mass, if we don’t do something, we as a species will have failed with the greatest gift of all, our world.
I hope this man is brought to trial to answer for his actions but I doubt the US govt will cooperate with Zimbabwe.
I agree with you. He was already convicted for illegally killing a black bear.
So this guy is a poacher, plain and simple.
Yes. He is an American poacher. He tried to hide the tracking collar, so he knew what he was doing was wrong.