East London, South Africa – Inkwenkwezi Game Reserve – Feb 13

African safari. We climbed aboard a Land Rover 4x4 with 10 seats plus the driver. This post is especially for my nephews Mike and Sean, with whom I saw gators in the Everglades over Thanksgiving. They would have loved it.

The videos and pictures were taken with my iPhone 6s generally using a Moment Lens 60 mm telephoto that screws into a mounting plate fixed adhesively to the back of my phone. Technology is amazing.

The big highlight by far was a pride of 8 white African lions. Fairly rare. Luckily well fed, they just lazed around under a shade tree. We were told not to stand up, not stick our arms or legs outside of the vehicle, not to make any sudden movements, not to display any bright and shiny objects nor use the flash on our cameras.

This big guy is large and in charge: the alpha male.

In this video, if you watch carefully you can see the lion actually move.

Here is a female:

This female is stretching. Lions need to keep their muscles lithe and loose.

We also saw elephants. They walked right in front of the Land Rover. We yielded the right-of-way.

Elephants can wiggle their ears.

Here are two elephants hiding in the woods.

As always, antelope were everywhere. There are many endangered species in Africa. Common antelopes are not one of them. These guys could barely be persuaded to get out of the way of the Land Rover.

Joani got a cute photo of a baby.

The ostriches were willing to perform for some short videos and pose for a collage

Ostriches have very small brains. Judge for youself

Ostrich collage:

This blesbok (a large antelope) was hanging out with some wildebeests and zebras. The prey animals often graze together and co-operate in looking out for the predators.

Prey animals hanging out with the blesbok:

 Mostly wildebeests

 Male bachelor wildebeests

This could be a crane. Or it could be a heron. Joani knows. I don’t. She is sleeping.

Here is our Land Rover