When going on safari, you often hear people seeking “The Big Five”. This is actually a hunting term that referred to the 5 hardest animals to hunt and kill. It includes Lions, Elephants, Rhinos, Leopards, and Cape Buffalo. Each of these animals are beautiful and interesting in their own right, however it ignores some of the most fun animals to find on a safari! So here are some of our other encounters and photos of the Big Five…and Friends.

Giraffes and Zebras

Mini’s very favorite stuffed animal is a giraffe. A close second is a big headed zebra. So obviously many of our game drives were spent seeking out those two friends together and up close. We even managed to find a two week old baby giraffe one day — but Mini didn’t believe it was a baby considering it was already taller than the Boy! [Ed. Note: So cute!]

Elephants

For some game drives, we let Mini guide us on what to search for. The last evening, he was in the mood for elephants — up close! No problem, they are very large beings, how hard could this be?! We spotted some along a ridge line and the ranger suspected they were heading down towards the river to drink. The reserve only allows “off roading” for cats, so we were navigating away from them in order to find a path in when on a whim the ranger decided to go away from the river direction. [Ed. Note: Seriously, the dude was like “the light sucks looking at the herd this direct, let’s dip all the way over here for better light and maybe they’ll walk this way” – and they did. 5 minutes before he and the tracker were agreeing they would walk a different direction.] What luck, we ended up in an empty field watching a parade of elephants file in before us. They began surrounding the car and eating their dinner. Even the seasoned tracker pulled out his phone to take pictures of this site!

Water Buffalo

I can’t look at this creature without thinking of the College Basketball coach, Tom Crean. [Ed. Note: Google “Tom Crean coach” and you’ll understand. Spitting image.] They really are just goofy, and huge, and when they want to take a drink, they immerse themselves fully into the water for some reason.

The Bravest Little Rhino

On our last safari, the Rhino was the one animal we regretted not seeing. Our jeep saw one on the morning we elected to take a beautiful hot air balloon trip instead. It was always a mild regret to have missed that. Due to the crazy poaching that occurs for rhino horns, they are becoming so endangered. We were hopeful to find at least one on our week in South Africa…however due to some very aggressive security measures and conservation efforts, our reserve was honestly littered with them! We began to see 3 or 4 at a time and continue driving without so much as a photo in search of something “more exciting”! The one rhino we did stop and watch for a long, long time was the bravest little rhino.

We stumbled upon a mom and baby rhino grazing in a field surrounded by Cape Buffalo. [Ed. Note: First we saw two buffalo on a hillside. We followed them for a while, and then found the herd they were walking towards – awesome! So we roll up on this herd, and boom, a rhino hanging out. Cool! Then all of a sudden this baby rhino shows up that the rangers had never seen before!] The baby rhino, who was less than a month old, felt very brave that day and would charge towards a baby Cape Buffalo repeatedly…then when the baby Cape Buffalo didn’t back down, both would retreat and hide behind their moms. It was the funniest game of chicken I’d ever seen.

Leopard

The regal leopard was probably my favorite cat of the trip. [Ed. Note: Meow.] Hard to spot, it became a mission of most of the rangers to find her each drive. We joined the search one morning across the river, high up on the cliffs. Two cars roamed across the shores below and the radio was buzzing with possible sightings. We were luckily to have a tip from across and sped back in the brush to find her slinking along the edge of the cliffs, right alongside our car.

Cheetahs

We saw many cheetahs during our safari. The very first instance, a female cheetah was in the field of impala and water buck on the hunt. Her luck was looking pretty good as she chased the impala along, however in a rare turn of the hunter becoming the hunted, a male water buck turned on her and chased her off up to a hill to find a smaller foe…[Ed. Note: That cheetah was totally embarrassed]