South Africa-- Mala Mala Camp Day 5

We had 2 safari game drives-- one in the morning and one in the evening-- for 3 hours each! Within the first 24 hours of being here we've seen all of the Big 5! We completed the list this afternoon with the Cape Buffalo! We saw Leopards last night, Lions this morning, Elephants yesterday and today, White Rhinos today, and Cape Buffalo this afternoon! Absolutely AMAZING!!! I still can't believe how plentiful the animals are here. I thought we'd be going for hours without seeing anything, but we see animals the whole time we are on our drives! It was fun to see the Lions this morning-- 2 mamas with their 4 cubs each for a total of 8 cubs! They were so playful and clearly irritating their moms-- hahaha! Some things never change! We sat and watched them interact for quite a while-- I could've just stared at them all day! We saw the white rhino and then shortly after that, we found the dad of the Lions and then he got up and led us straight to his brother a little way off in the distance. They really just wanted to snooze!!! We saw so many different animals! We saw a hyena and his kill-- a tortoise...poor thing! We saw hundreds of baboons, rhinos a couple of times, hippos--which were always in the water and harder to see, an alligator--big guy, lots of ellies, LOTS of really cool birds (my favorite is the lilac breasted roller pictured below), zebras and we ended the night with a chameleon... I have NO IDEA how our guide spotted such a little guy in the dark! He explained that they glow at night and his light caught it at just the right time for us to get a shot of him... so cool! We learned that the only 2 animals that humans can outrun here are tortoises and chameleons! Hahaha! I believe it. Everything has to be able to run fast here for survival!!! We saw so many animals that I haven't even mentioned. Our guide explained to us that the only animal they have a problem with poaching is the Rhinos so they will purposefully cut their horn off to the point where it won't hurt the animal, but it will discourage the poachers because even though there is still lots of it left, it's not worth risking getting caught. It's sad--they just leave them for dead when they take the horn! So that's why these rhino's are pictured without their horns.... so sad!