Giraffes with Jill!

Welcome to South Africa, Jill!

When I asked my niece Jill which animal she most wanted to see when she arrived in South Africa, she said "the giraffe." Giraffes are easy. They are plentiful in SA and they do not have any natural predators to speak of. Even the lion will not take on the giraffe's potential fatal kick in most circumstances. 

Jill on horseback with a giraffe in the Waterberg

Giraffes @ Ant's Nest

And we saw giraffes almost immediately as we set out on our first horseback safari at Ant's Nest. A tower of giraffes - that's what a group of giraffes is called! - even came out to say goodbye to Jill on the last ride before we left.

Jill rode an elephant at the Elephant Sanctuary!

Even though we saw plenty of her requested giraffe, I still wanted Jill to see as many other African animals as possible, both in the wild and in sanctuaries. And we did. We saw rhinos, zebras, warthogs, vervet monkeys, baboons, blesbok, waterbuck, impala, gemsbok, eland, sable, nyala, wildebeest, lilac-breasted rollers and yellow hornbills in the Waterberg; lemurs at the Monkey Sanctuary and African ellies at the Elephant Sanctuary in Hartbeespoort; dassies on Table Mountain and more dassies along with plenty of penguins at the Boulders penguin colony in Simonstown; common and bottlenose dolphins, humpback whales, dusky sharks, sardines, and loggerhead turtles in the Indian Ocean off Port St. John, as well as cape cormorants, subarctic skuas, cape gannets, southern giant petrols, and albatrosses in the sky overhead. We even saw the very rare cape parrots in Port St. Johns. Good spotting, Jill!

Walking with lions!

At Ukutula we walked with lions and interacted with baby cheetahs, (Asian) tigers, hyenas, lion cubs and orphaned caracals. And we saw crocodiles basking on the riverbank.

Giraffes @ Ukutula

We saw more impala, nyala and wildebeest on our lion walk at Ukutula and their resident giraffes even came out to say hello to Jill too!

HRC with Lou & Serge

Of course I couldn't let Jill leave without seeing South Africa's finest dachshunds, Lou & Serge. We had dinner with them at the HRC and Jill had their pictures taken with Nelson Mandela's statue in Mandela Square.

HBD Nelson & Jill!