iMfolozi game reserve

this past weekend we traveled about 2.5 hours to a beautiful game reserve.  the park is broken up into two wildlife reserves, iMfolozi and hluhluwe (funnest word ever to say), which is the higher of the two. 

we had to look the part!

the park was established in 1895 to protect south africa's last remaining rhinos. it is the fourth largest game reserve in the country at 372 square miles, so you can image how you could go there for days and still never see an animal.  being my first time ever going to a game reserve and going to see animals not at a zoo, i was a bit worried we wouldn't see many, but we were so lucky to see tons!
the first animals we saw were a couple of zebras sitting right outside the entrance of the reserve, and i was so excited to see them i took about 10 pictures of the same two zebra.  once we got into the reserve i was amazed how how huge it was! while shaun's parents were checking us in, we came across a pumbaa (warthog), which just happens to be shaun's favorite animal (weird, i know). 

we weren't lucky enough to see the whole big five (buffalo, lion, leopard, elephant, rhino) however, we saw 4 out of the 5 which is more than any of us were expecting to see!

animals we saw included:

-lions: we saw 4 simbas trying to hunt giraffes which is rare because giraffes are generally too large to become victim to lions unless they are old or sick. 

-monkeys: we saw tons of vervet monkeys which are very abundant around durban (where we are staying), they are cute cute grey monkeys that i would like to have as a pet one day :)

-baboons: i was really excited and scared to see a baboon after watching a documentary on them! they are very destructive and have scary teeth. we saw about 20 sitting on a hill and the sound they make is a barking sound that almost sounds like someone yelling
.. they are way meaner than rafiki in lion king!

-elephants: the first day at the park all i wanted to see was an elephant up close, however, near the end of the day we still hadn't see one..until, shaun says "hey! there's an elephant!...and another..and.." we soon were immersed in a heard of about 60 elephants!!! there were males, females, and many baby elephants all walking in front, behind, and to the sides of us! and one thing that i didn't know about elephants is that they can be very very dangerous if you get too close to them so imagine how scared we all got being completely stuck in the middle of them with no chance of reversing or going forward! the video doesn't even capture how crazy it was, it was truly one of the most amazing/scary/exciting moments of my entire life, and we are still talking about how amazing and rare it was that we got caught in a heard of elephants our very first time at the game reserve!! 

-rhinos: we saw tons of rhinos! the first one we saw was sleeping but soon got up after a younger rhino came close by. it got so mad it even rammed the other rhino! it was like watching national geographic's it was so crazy to see! another rhino we saw came pretty close to the car and shaun got soo scared he reversed the fastest i've ever seen any one reverse ever! sue and i thought it was the funniest thing that this big rugby player was scared of a rhino that really wasn't that close! they are so huge though and beautiful

-african buffalo: these creatures have the craziest horns that almost look like a hat! it was awesome to see since i've only ever seen the buffaloes from yellowstone. they are pretty darn cute! 

-giraffe: after seeing these up close they have to be one of my favorite animal now, they are so beautiful and graceful!

-zebra: they must have been one of the prettiest animals we saw by far! many that we saw had almost a golden color mixed with their stripes and were beautiful! at the start of our trip we saw some so close we could have touched them! 

-warthog: these were so cute and ugly at the same time! and we saw a ton of them, shaun wanted to steal one from the reserve, but apparently the rangers check your trunk when you leave to make sure you haven't taken any animals home haha

-kudu: which are kind of like antelope with spiraly horns! 

-waterbuck: they have a target shape on their bums

-impala: definently the animal we saw the most of! they hang out in heards of over 100! they are very pretty and look so soft to touch!

-wildebeest: i wanted to hate the for killing mufasa, but they are actually really pretty in real life with pretty grey stripes. we saw quite a few of them both days 

-nyala & bushbuck: the closest looking things to bambi in africa.  bushbuck are the males with pretty white stripes on them

-duiker: small little antelope that almost is the same size as ruby my dog and just as cute! 

-birdies, birdie birdie: tons of birds including hadeda (which i hate cause they wake me up every morning with they're ugly voices), egyptian goose, flamingo, blue crane, african fish eagle, yellow-billed hornbill (aka zazu!), and many many more!

needless to say it was and awesome trip and one of the most amazing times of my life! we saw so many animals and i will never forget it!

i will post more pictures very soon but i am off to bed because in 5 short hours we leave to cape town! 

and a very happy birthday to my best friend and brother mr andy ricci!! lovee you kevin!