[LegalAlien]

OK . . . . . only shot with a camera :D

I just returned from a 2 week vacation back in my old home country South Africa and had the opportunity to include a 2 night stay in an exclusive private tented game Lodge in the Timbavati Game Reserve.
Even though I had seen most all of the BIG 5 while living in South Africa, I never had the chance to really experience them "Up close and personal". It also gave my American (typical NY gal) S.O a chance to experience the South African wilderness.
During the 2 night stay, we had 4 open Land Rover guided game drives and were able to find and experience REALLY up close, all of the BIG 5, plus a large variety of other plains game as well.
For your viewing pleasure, I include some pics of the BIG 5 that I was able to 'shoot' with both still and video. On the video, I was able to capture a night shot (including awesome sound) of a Lion roaring within 10ft of the Land Rover. An absolutely awe inspiring experience!!

1. Leopard track in the road - picked up by our tracker
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/6282/imgp0237kp0.th.jpg (http://img148.imageshack.us/my.php?image=imgp0237kp0.jpg)

2. Leopard female at night in the spotlight - just outside our camp
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/6834/imgp0198cq7.th.jpg (http://img148.imageshack.us/my.php?image=imgp0198cq7.jpg)

3. Young male Lion - in the morning after giving up the chase on buffalo
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/2091/imgp0203ji4.th.jpg (http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=imgp0203ji4.jpg)

4. Mother and baby Elephant - baby was still wobbly on it's legs
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/8493/imgp0211iz0.th.jpg (http://img148.imageshack.us/my.php?image=imgp0211iz0.jpg)

5. BIG old Cape Buffalo real close to Land Rover - part of HUGE herd
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/3924/imgp0241rd8.th.jpg (http://img148.imageshack.us/my.php?image=imgp0241rd8.jpg)

6. Lone male White Rhino
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/6210/imgp0247vv0.th.jpg (http://img148.imageshack.us/my.php?image=imgp0247vv0.jpg)

The game lodge we had the priviledge of visiting is called Tanda Tula - here is a link to there website- just to give you more visual viewing pleasure on what we were fortunate enough to experience
http://www.tandatula.co.za/pages/tanda-tula.php

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Very nice! :)

[JoeDanger]

Just beautiful! I know some prefer to hunt them for sport, but unless it's a population pressure problem, I like to see them exactly like this.

Skin still attached, roar still inside, and smile on face. :)

[LegalAlien]

BTW . . . anybody interested in a South African hunting safari, please feel free to contact me for more information.

I found out during my recent vacation that my brother's BIL is a Professional Hunter (more than 10yrs already) with hunting concessions in various parts of South Africa. He has hosted a number of international big game hunters with quite a few from the Dallas area already. He is very well established and can accommodate most hunting requirements.

Just an FYI

[LegalAlien]

Skin still attached, roar still inside, and smile on face

Joe, I totally agree with you.

We experienced that roar up close and personal (within 10ft from us) during our stay at the lodge.
We were out on an afternoon, into evening drive and came accross 2 young male lions by spotlight. While watching and photgraphing them, we heard another lion roar in the distance and the guide warned us to expect our lions to reply shortly.
He was right!!! THis was the MOST AWESOME experience of the whole trip!! The deep bass of the roar, vibrated through my whole body. I was able to capture the visual and audio on my camcorder and still get goose bumps when I replay that segment.
All I missed was the smile on the lions face ;)

[Smithiac]

You should youtube that video and link it here so we can see it.

Smithiac

[LegalAlien]

Now you are adding another dimension of technicality!!!!!:eek:
I have never tried adding anything in youtube, but hey . . . . I am up for a challenge. Give me a few days . . . . I might crack that one :D

[koja48]

I'm interested, my wallet just isn't supportive <sniff> . . .