Safari...

We love living in Africa.  One of the many things we enjoy here is the opportunity to go on safari.  In September we joined some friends and took a little vacation to the South Luangwa Game Reserve.  We had a great time with them and also had a great safari.  We thought we would share a few pics from our time.  (Click on a picture to enlarge)

Less than an hour after we arrived we saw some elephants coming down to the water hole in the front of the house.  We later found out they came about this time daily to get a drink and take a mud bath.  We were only about 40 feet away from them, but up an incline so we felt pretty safe.

Elijah pretending he is petting a small elephant.  

Our kids favorite part of the vacation was the swimming pool at the house we rented.  They loved their afternoon dips in the pool.

We split responsibilities for dinners with our friends so we enjoyed some nice home-cooked meals while we were away.  

The main attraction to this area though is the high concentration of animals and so we did safari.   I have lived in Africa for over 5 years of my life and have had the opportunity to go on safaris in 5 different countries.  This was, without a doubt, the best safari I have ever been on.

During our time there we saw 27 different lions from three prides.  

South Luangwa allows for night drives, but they have to be with a safari operator.  So, although we did all of our other game drives, we decided to splurge one night and hire a safari truck and guide.  

We also saw 7 leopards.  

A most unusual sighting… wild dogs.  These are very rare to spot, in fact our guide told us that he had only seen them 5 times over the last 9 months!  

Our last day in the park was the best.  We were able to see a lion make a kill.  It was like watching national geographic live!  

And finally, there are these animals: