touch of the wild

I'm home! Looking back at my pictures this morning I can't believe all the things I just experienced! My parents are master planners and made sure I got the biggest and best sampling of everything great about South Africa. Towards the end I was getting worn out and didn't know if I really wanted to do everything planned but they reminded me 'when else are you going to get to do this?' So right.


This guy was my favorite at Montecasino. After everyone else had moved on to the next pretty bird I stayed behind petting him since he seemed to enjoy it. Ever so casually he turned his head to look me and quietly said 'hello'. Not in that parrot way you'd expect, but like he knew that it was what people wanted him to do and he was doing it because no one had asked.


I didn't zoom in to get this guy up close. He walked right up to the truck on a game drive at the Cheetah Reserve. My mom was telling me 'be careful!' I didn't think he would bite me, but who knows? That's what I thought right before some other bird almost took my finger off at Montecasino. That hurt so bad!!!!



We stopped to take pictures near these guys sunbathing in Cape Town. It was pretty funny that we didn't even notice them until one of them made that crazy sound sea lions make. Their presence explained the funky stink.


More crazy birds. Are penguins birds or mammals? As I mentioned earlier, the penguins were molting and just laying around in the sand. I don't know what I expected, happy feet or surfing I guess.

This handsome fella is a king cheetah. Cheetahs are pretty awesome animals. Did you know they have been classified as a dog? It's true. And they can run 75 mph. And they have more than 2000 polka dots each. ABC was there filming this big guy for a spot they're doing on Oprah in a couple weeks. Watch for him, he's going to be famous by association with Oprah. Does that mean we're famous too because we touched him?









This cute little girl wanted to make a snack out of my arm. She also had a thing for the drawstring on my moms pants. She threw a fit when she got in trouble for chewing on mom. She and her brother were so much fun to play with. Very feisty. As we played with them I thought it was a lot like playing with over grown kitties until I felt the power behind their playful kicks. A three month kitty would never have strength like that!

At least it wasn't this guy using us as chew toys right?

I loved this giraffe! He was so sweet, and liked his snacks a lot!






The last stop of my last full day in SA was a Crocodile farm. This little dude can snap a pencil in half at his wee baby size.

Thank you to all the conscientious people who took the time to put up signs about the dangers involved with each of these guys. It took the constant reminders (and signing indemnity clauses) to keep me from hugging one and loosing an arm. Or worse.