Hluluwe-iMfolozi Park

We cross the iMflozi river in great anticipation of what this day might bring.  Dawn is breaking and we have come in search of the Big 5. 

The Big 5, elephant, rhino, cape buffalo, leopard, and lion so named back in the days when hunting was common here and they were the most dangerous animals to hunt.  This park was the old stomping grounds of the ancient Zulu Kings.  Today, armed with our Canons and Nikons we find these animals almost as elusive to shoot!  Along with St Lucia, this is the oldest conservation area in Africa and is famous as the park that helped save the white rhino from extinction.

As big cats and other dangerous mammals roam this park you are required to stay in your vehicle except at designated spots. There are 2 hides from which you can observe water holes and hope they provide some excitement – a lion having lunch perhaps?  We don’t get that lucky but we did see a pride way off in the distance.  

We get lucky on this our first game drive during this visit to Africa.  We spot 4 of the Big 5, although the pride of lions we watched from the hide were a little too far away to capture on camera!

We are also lucky with our bird sightings – one of the harder species to capture on camera because they are so twitchy and rarely stay still!

I even manage to shoot the bee eater having breakfast! We see lots of other mammals such as giraffe, impala, inyala, zebra, warthog, wildebeest,  and kudu. 

  By late afternoon we head back.  Time to go home and edit the hundreds of photos we have shot and get ready for our show this evening.  We will pick our top 5 photos and present them to our fellow volunteers.  We have had a very enjoyable day and look forward to the next game drive where we hope to shoot close ups of the Big 5 with our Canons!

“It is my intention to present - through the medium of photography - intuitive observations of the natural world which may have meaning to the spectators.” Ansel Adams