Last week, my wife and I headed out on what has become an annual Holiday for us.   We shipped ourselves to the African Bushveld aboard a combination of Lufthansa and SWISS flights for a week-long Safari at the Dulini Private Game Reserve in the Sabi Sand region of South Africa.

To say this has become our favorite travel destination is an understatement.   We’ve gone as far as to begin exploring the possibility of purchasing property in the area to build our retirement home within a game reserve so that we can literally enjoy a Safari everyday.  More likely than not, we’ll have a mailing address ‘down there’ one day.

After our first visit to Dulini, it was a no-brainer to go back.  Their hospitality, accommodations and access to some of the finest wildlife viewing would be hard to beat, so we’re not going to try.  In fact, we’ve already booked our return trip for next year.

Words really can’t explain the experience and how it can affect someone, but I hope some of the photos I’ve put below can begin to show why we feel the way we do.   The worst part of the trip is the last day.   The blunt realization that we have to leave this paradise is not easy to deal with.   The only solace we have is the fact that we are going back in less than a year.    359 days to be exact!

Enjoy the pics.  I’ll have more over the next few days after I shuffle through about 11,000 photos that came home with us.

Oh, and if you are wondering why there is a Dulini watermark and not my own on the photos , I’ve offered to share them with Dulini so that they can be used on their social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter.   It was easier for me to process the photos only once and use their watermark.

 

a hyena with its cubs lying on a rock

A tender moment between a Hyena and her cubs…..

 

a giraffes standing in the woods

A photo-bombing Giraffe decides to make an appearance….

 

a baby hyena lying on a rock

A Hyena cub makes a chew toy out of her mother’s foot….

 

two cheetahs sitting in the grass

Ravenscourt (Male) and Tasselberry (Female) during their mating ritual.

 

a bird on the back of a deer

Red Bull is not the only thing that gives you wings. Oxpeckers apparently do it as well.

 

a hyena and a baby animal lying on the ground

Hyena and cub…..

 

a small animal standing on a rock

A very hard to find Mongoose…..normally very shy and elusive

 

a lizard with its tongue out

Who knew that the Rock Monitor has the prettiest tongue in the animal kingdom?

 

a starry sky with trees

One of many breathtaking sunsets that we experienced…

 


a screenshot of a computer