Phinda Forest Lodge, South Africa

As much as I loved the accommodations at Exeter, the wildlife at Phinda is unreal. The reserve is massive with 7 unique environments (everything from sand forests, to savannahs, to wetlands). Because of that, we were able to see all sorts of animals in a short period of time.

The story that was most intriguing to the 3 children on the trip (Keith, Cheryl, and myself) was a lovely story about 3 male lions and their father. This adult male lion gave birth to 3 sons about 4 years ago. He was a very dominate male with a huge territory in the reserve. This male was very famous for being quite grumpy and mean to other lions. Something must have transferred over to the 3 sons, because after they were kicked out of the pride at age 2 (normal in lion prides) they went out for revenge on all lions in the area. Over the years they killed many lions claiming more and more territory. Today they only have one male lion they truly desire to kill: their father! They spend their time hunting and chasing him around the reserve- so far he has been able to get away, but how long will this little game last? Below is a picture of one of the 3 brothers and another yawning (check out those teeth!!!)....

After hearing and seeing these male lions I was looking to find a more peaceful, cuddly animal... the cheetah. If you dont know, there are only about 7,500 cheetahs left in the world. So as you can imagine they are not easy to find. Fortunately, Phinda has the ideal habitat for them and we were able to watch a mom and her baby traverse the area. Lucky for us, she spotted a herd of impalas and we were able to watch her sneak through the grass and hunt her prey. The process was about 45 min long, but being able to watch a cheetah go from 0 to 110km/hr in maybe 2 seconds was unreal. She was way too fast to photograph, but here are so pictures before the chase (the bottom is the cub, 4/5 months old)....

While at Phinda we took part in a rhino darting mission. In order to keep the white rhinos in check and out of fear of extinction, it is important to track their movements and life cycles. We joined some scientists who tracked the animal, darted, and notched them (cut the ears and put a microchip in them). The process doesnt hurt the animal, but it was a little hard for me to watch. I didnt think it would bother me, but watching this 2 year old rhino take a dart to the side and stumble to the ground was a little disturbing. I know its for a good cause, but I wish I didnt see that part... I have a series of pics of the process if you are interested. I felt better later on in the day when I ran into the rhino with her mom and dad... apparently the parents were feeling better since we happened to interrupt them, umm,well, you know... the dad wasnt that happy about being interrupted and starting snorting and actually blew steam out his nostrils. (our ranger told us later that he was concerned we were going to get charged by this 2 1/2 ton rhino....ahhh!)

And finally, if these couple days werent action packed enough- we had the pleasure of spotting a black rhino with a 3 month old cub. We were the first people (besides the black rhino research team) to ever see this cub! There are only have about 3,500 black rhino left in the world- and only 25 in the Phinda reserve. Such an amazing spot!

And so the safari ends, Keith and I decided we would return to Phinda one day to challenge our tracker (Bernard) to a "track off". We are going to do it on foot- with only the weapons he lets us borrow...sounds like a safe bet to me!