My last weekend in Africa

Was such a memorable experience.

On Friday Thabang came over, although I didn't actually get to spend a lot of time with him, because a write-up of my project was due on Saturday and I wanted to go out and have fun on Saturday, so it needed to be done.

Saturday we woke up early and went out. Thabang and I, Vivian, Theo, and Thokozani (other co-workers who are really nice) rented a car and drove out to the Kruger. We spent the day in the park driving around looking for wild animals, and found quite a few, although not all of them did I get great pictures of.

We saw a leopard in a tree with its kill, a cheetah sitting on a termite mound that bounded off after something, a pack of wild dogs lounging around presumably after a kill, buffalo, elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, wildebeest, giraffe, zebra, impala (of course), kudu, waterbuck, steinbok, and a few other kinds of antelope. No lions, though, which did make me sad. No hyenas either. Ah, well. Maybe next time.

My favorite animals were the wild dogs. They were so relaxed, and let us get so close to them. I seriously could have sat there and watched them all day. I think wild dogs are my new favorite African animal. Not sure I had one before, although I'd always liked cheetahs and leopards, but wild dogs are amazing. Such misunderstood predators, as most big hunters are. They're like wolves in that they live in a pack and really look out for one another. They couldn't survive the solitary life, unlike cheetahs and leopards, and they're actually really playful. The problem with playful wild animals is that a friendly paw or nibble to a human companion could kill, since they're so much stronger than we are.

Sunday Thabang and I just hung out around campus, enjoying our last full day together. It was the epitome of "bittersweet".

Anyway, here are some pictures of the outing:

You can just see the outline of the leopard here, and its kill is not visible from this angle, but we saw it hanging as we drove past.

Here's the group of wild dogs I told you about. There were more, and we were actually able to get much closer, but my camera wasn't able to capture the whole experience.

It's rather blurry, but here are some bats hanging on the inside of the roof of this outdoor picnic area.

Again, the picture's not great, but here's the cheetah we saw just sitting on a termite hill, searching for something to stalk.

Here's a group of giraffes just ambling about.

Here's a male white rhino trotting off after a mud bath. White rhinos are now more common in the wild than black ones, which I've only ever seen in captivity.

Hippos in the river.

Group shot: Thabang, myself, Vivian, Theo, and Thokozani.

Thabang looks miserable in all these pictures, probably because he knows I'm leaving soon, although he's normally smiling, and he did have a good time that day.

Me and Vivian, who became like a sister to me in just the short time we were living together.

I had a great time, and I really wish I could have stayed longer. I'll have to go back there on vacation sometime.