Pilanesburg National Park                                                           

Friday, June 16th was a National Holiday so about 9 missionary couples plus our ALC Bryan Jackson and his wife Tina and Joe Moxon our legal intern all decided to go to Pilanesburg National Park which is a large game reserve about 2+ hours from Johannesburg.  All of the accommodations close to the park were filled so we stayed at a B&B in Rustenburg about 30 minutes away. What an adventure! We truly got to experience the animals up close in their natural habitat.  It is amazing how big an elephant really is and how strong they really are.  We all had such an incredible time as we drove through thousands of acres looking for the wildlife.  Suddenly you would turn a corner and there would be some animal.  Or you would see cars stopped up ahead and you knew they were watching something.  We spent two days driving through the park and we had some amazing experiences.

"Geoffrey" having his breakfast.

A small herd of Giraffes.  I could watch them all day.

An Impala.  He thinks if he stands totally still you can't see him.

One Zebra stands guard for the others.

A large kudu - blending in with his environment.

A group of hippos in varying sizes.  It looks like it is time for Junior's nap. 

Notice the ducks are not intimidated.

A face only a mother could love.  A baby white rhino.

Momma and Junior eating the grass.

Dad is nearby.  White rhinos have wide mouths and eat grass.  Black rhinos are more rare.  

They have pointed mouths and eat bushes and brush.

Hey Junior, you are going the wrong way!

Three ladies having a day at the spa with a mud bath.

Another one of those faces only a mother could love.  A Warthog.

It is that age old African question,  Why did the wildebeest cross the road?

This is a blue wildebeest.  You can tell by the stripes on the neck.

One of the many incredible elephants that we saw.  It amazing how calm all of the wildlife is when you pull up in your car and stop next to them.  We were lucky because this one was in "musth".  

You can tell by the fluid draining between the eye and the ear.  They are very dangerous as their testosterone levels can be 60x normal and they become quite aggressive.

We were also able to get some good videos to share.

Here is a video of elephants all around Dr. Johnson's van.  Notice all the sizes.  The narration is my boss's voice for his grandson.

Here was our encounter with a bull elephant who started to cross the road, then decided to come straight toward us.  My heart got pounding quite a bit.  He finally went up the hill 3' from our car.
We had to roll-up the window to keep his trunk out.

Here is a short video of some boys playing some music for us to earn some money.