Khotso From Lesotho: Animals

Carrie on Pony passing donkey and heard boy on Pony

So many animals on our travels. In Lesotho most of the animals we saw were your typical country animals such as horses, donkeys, cows, sheep, goats, dogs, chickens, birds, etc. I guess what is so cool about these guys is the settings that they live in. Traveling with my visitors I was reminded again of just how amazing the herd culture here in Lesotho is. Mostly boys and young men will travel with their herds into the mountains for long periods of time. Watching the herds and hearing all the bells on animals ringing in the distance is one of my favorite things here. The animals get to graze in beautiful settings and they live without fences. The life of the herd boys is tough though. They have to carry everything they need with them and often go through cold and huge storms without shelter. In fact in Lesotho there are quite a few deaths from lightning every year. They travel with their Basotho blankets and they are such a cool sight to see on the steep mountainsides. The animals in Lesotho all work and are highly valued, which means they are pretty well taken care of. Notice the donkey in the picture above carrying cases of beer, funny.

Small boy on Donkey

Ok, out of the mountains and into South Africa now. I was lucky enough to go to two different areas of Kruger park with my visitors. Carrie and I did more of a self guided safari right in southern Kruger and my family and I did a guided safari in Timbavati reserve on the edge of the western Kruger. We were so lucky with our timing because this week there has been bad flooding and many roads closed in and around the park.

Yawning Hippo

We were able to see almost every animal we could think of minus a few wild dogs and male lions. Apparently the male lions are pretty lazy and it is mostly the females that you will see out for hunting, taking care of the cubs, etc. We saw a white lion, very rare, and several leopards. My personal favorites where Rhinos, elephants and the ever hiding Hippos. Usually you just get to see the tops of Hippos eyes, but we had a few glimpses of them yawning. The elephants were huge and plentiful in Timbavati and the Giraffes and Zebras were easy to spot in Kruger. My favorite sighting was on a 4:30 am guided walk in Kruger (guides carry rifles). We came across a Black Rhino about 20 yards away. I was very scared, but also felt very lucky to be that close to a wild animal in their own setting. It is hard to explain how impressive it is to just be driving and come across these animals. At Timbavati we had a very ambitious guide who would literally drive through brush and trees to get us up close to many animals. Despite what you would think the animals were not startled by this because they are used to vehicles, however he said that if we were to get out of the vehicle they would most likely run or attack, because then they would see us as another animal. I was very happy to stay in the vehicles! Hope you are not exhausted by the photos, but it was too hard to narrow them down. Enjoy!