Mary has a thing for zebras…I enjoy them also but we have seen so many zebras on our drives that I have reached a point where unless there is really something special about the scene I do not even get out my camera…I would like to see a mother with a brand new colt but other than that or one with three legs I am done with zebras.  The same thing is true of Wildebeest and Cape Buffalo…I did get a great shot of an old bull lying on the sand…

We saw tons – no pun intended – of white rhinos but of course no black rhinos…people claim to have seen them but no one has a photo that they took – “it was too far away” – it went into the bush before I could get a shot” etc. I think black rhino sightings are a myth. On a game drive during our first mission to South Africa one of the guides pointed out across the plains to a disappearing dot and said “There goes a black rhino” – right!

Warthogs are among the ugliest animals on the earth and I have come to love them. That is why  Mary had a special picture of a family of warthogs custom made for my birthday…

June2015 – Kruger – First Rhino

June2015 – Kruger – Rhino crossing road

June2015 – Kruger – Rhino eating

June2015 – Kruger – full sixe rhino

June2015 – Kruger – rhinos pair

June2015 – Kruger – First Rhino

June2015 – Kruger – 3 Rhinos

June2015 – Kruger – Rhino Head and Horn

15June15 -Kruger Trip – White Rhino

15June15 -Kruger Trip – 2 Rhinos on Road

15June15 -Kruger Trip – Mom and Young Rhino

15June15 -Kruger Trip – Young and Old Rhino

15June15 -Kruger Trip – Rhino along Road

15June15 -Kruger Trip – Rhino Side View

15June15 -Kruger Trip – 3 Rhinos

15June15 -Kruger Trip – LS – Big Rhino

15June15 -Kruger Trip – LS – Rhino with sun shining on it

June2015 – Kruger – Rhino crossing road

June2015 – Kruger – Rhino eating

June2015 – Kruger – full sixe rhino

June2015 – Kruger – rhinos pair

June2015 – Kruger – 3 Rhinos

15June15 -Kruger Trip – Rhino Crossing Road

       

15June15 -Kruger Trip – Keeling Warthog –

June2015 – Kruger – Warthog 2

June2015 – Kruger – Warthog close up

June2015 – Kruger – 3 Warthogs

June2015 – Kruger – Warthog = good

June2015 – Kruger – Warthog

Coming soon to this spot – lots of great giraffe pictures…

We have some great shots of elephants with the best being a series showing a week old calf with its mother and one where an elephant is drinking from a cistern that is about 6 feet tall. We saw lions everyday but only got one really good photo opportunity because most of the sightings were at night…but we did finally see a leopard and got one photo! We also saw three cheetahs but once again it happened so fast and at dusk that we have no photos. Is a hyena considered a canine? We did get to see a couple and got one photo of this very shy animal.

15June15 -Kruger Trip – Elephant Taking a Dump

15June15 -Kruger Trip – Elephant

15June15 -Kruger Trip – Elephant on Sand

15June15 -Kruger Trip – Little and Big Elephant

15June15 -Kruger Trip – Elephant Herd

15June15 -Kruger Trip – Elephant at Cistren

15June15 -Kruger Trip – Elephant Drinking from Cistren

15June15 -Kruger Trip – LS – Week old elephant under mother

15June15 -Kruger Trip – LS – Week Old Elephant side view

15June15 -Kruger Trip – LS – Week Old Elephant

15June15 -Kruger Trip – LS – elephants at water hole 2

15June15 -Kruger Trip – LS – Last Elephant

I will fill this in as I have time…lots of pictures including ones of a week old elephant and its mother, lions, our first ever leopard and hyena, and lots more. We had a great time…Here are a few samples…Note that there is a problem with my iPhoto files so I have to post from Picassa and for some reason it does not put the pictures in neat rows like iPhoto did. But there is a plus…it shows the titles I put on while editing…

15June15 -Kruger Trip – LS – Happy Anniversary

15June15 -Kruger Trip – LS – Sunset Tree

15June15 -Kruger Trip – LS – Lioness on sand

15June15 -Kruger Trip – LS – 7 Color Bird on wire

15June15 -Kruger Trip – LS – Hippo Pod Clese

15June15 -Kruger Trip – LS – Week Old Elephant

15June15 -Kruger Trip – Rhino Crossing Road

15June15 -Kruger Trip – Birds – Black with Red

15June15 -Kruger Trip – LS – Giraffe Head down

15June15 -Kruger Trip – LS – Sunset on Palm

15June15 -Kruger Trip – LS – Hyena Finally

I took some great pictures over the weekend but unfortunately just after I downloaded and edited them on to my MacMini it crashed and I can not get into it. Hopefully I can take it in to the genius bar when I get home and they can get it going again…to add to the problem my back-up drive crashed a few weeks ago and I had not bought a new one…oh the joys of electronics. Now I am using my 9 year old HP with Windows….hopefully it will last for the rest of our mission.

15June15 -Kruger Trip – Mercure Hotel Sign

15June15 -Kruger Trip -Mercure Hotel

 

 

15June15 -Kruger Trip – The Swans

    

We woke to find unusual weather for Potchefstroom – the area was blanketed with fog. It was thick enough that we could not see the large church just a couple of hundred yards from our fence…the flag pole is about 50 yards away. It was like this all the way to Klerksdorp where we went to attend District Meeting with the elders. After the meeting we took them all to McDonalds for this transfer’s last lunch. Usually we do this after the last District Meeting of the transfer but since we will not be here next week we kept the tradition alive by going a week early. The elders did not seem to mind it at all.

When we first arrived at the Klerksdorp chapel we found Brother Brown who is in charge of physical facilities for the area, his father, and elder Wild digging holes to put in the new sign for the Church. President Robbins has been trying to get one for months so he will be happy to see that it was done.

Wow am I behind in adding text to the last few posts! But they say  that a picture is worth a 1000 words so hopefully you can enjoy the pictures and make up your own copy!  But I will try to catch up before Sunday for those who are interested!