Happy Tuesday! I’m just happy it’s one day closer to Friday! The Bear and I are surviving, with colds and sore throats… we’re really looking forward to seeing Hero Hubs Friday night! In yesterday’s biggest adventure the banana bread the Bear helped me create over-baked in the oven while I was hugging the potty for a moment in the bathroom. {I THOUGHT nausea was leaving me…but she seems to like me too much!} Between heaves I was praying the Bear wasn’t up to any dangerous mischief in my absence. When I returned to the kitchen, he was working his way through a bag of potato chips, safe and sound!

Another slice of the adventure we had with my Mom was at a game reserve near Port Elizabeth called Amakhala. We stayed in the Woodbury Lodge section of the reserve and were blessed with a great stay, good food and some awesome sightings. Except that I think something we had for lunch on the way there didn’t agree with my Mom and she was sick in bed most of our second day at the reserve…bummer! She still enjoyed a great game drive on the first day and another really good one (with the Bear in tow) on our last morning there.

Wanna see a few shots?

We spotted this big fella from Mr. Potato Head on our way to the lodge!

And we saw him again on the first game drive an hour later. He’s a teenager.

Can you see the wee monkey?

We stopped for sundowners in a lovely spot with views in every direction.

And the awesome folks at Amakhala organised a shorter, slightly later morning drive just for us so that the Bear could come along! It was an awesome unexpected gift (perhaps especially for the Bear, instead of hanging out with a babysitter at the lodge — although they were great, too!)

And he once again spotted his…zuh-zuhs!! (He is carefully listening to the ranger talking about the animals…impressive, huh?)

Further down the trail, the game ranger noticed a springbok, behaving a bit unusually — she seemed very nervous and was far away from the rest of her pals.

Then Hero Hubs spotted this little one, just beside the trail! Turns out she was trying to divert our attention away from her newborn, fresh-out-da-box baby! Probably less than 24 hours old!

That was a really special sighting! I really wanted to give this baby a blankie!

Amakhala means “many aloes” and there was one spot on the drive where we saw loads. This particular species produces these lovely red flowers!

Apparently the elephants like to knock the tops off some of the bigger aloes to eat the roots inside, so Amakhala has a lot fewer aloes than it used to…

Here’s a family photo not far from the lodge!

You know, there are just so many more trails to explore, and photos to share, I think we’re going to have to continue Amakhala next week! Will you be able to stand the anticipation for 160 something hours?? 😉

Hope your week is off to a great start! Let me know if you’re keen to link up this Travellin’ Tuesday! Happy trails!

xCC