What do you do with 3 boys (6 - 10) at LL?

The week (11- 18 July) flew by too fast and was really too short for all the things we wanted to do! LL certainly did not disappoint in topnotch bush adventure.

Even though I have been to LL almost every month over the last 3 years, we now had the opportunity to discover some of the little hidden secrets - such as the Hippo pool near River Camp which is invested by gigantic crocodiles and hippos galore. Yes, we saw them on numerous occasions as we carefully stalked up to the river bank. Unfortunately we were never ready with cameras to capture any, as they would vanish too quick, but I took the pool on one occasion here.

We loved the long walks and mountain biking trips along the river bank. One morning as I was jogging past Island Lodge, I was surprised by a young elephant bull grazing on the leaves of a Knobthorn, just in time to make a fast retreat before it sniffed me.

On their little ventures around camp Philip, Carl and Malan soon discovered a hole with real muddy clay and it turned out to be their bush haven as they got their hands dirty by forming all their favorite animals. Carl found a small bee-eater in front of the lodge which seemed quite happy to hop into his hand.

We were so surprised by two small baby elephants walking right through our camp one morning. They must have strayed from the herd and walked right beneath the two strand electric wire (which keeps out the larger elephants) onto our front porch. They flapped their ears as if to say "don't mess with us" and then moved out again. One fellow though he could walk right through a tree and was stopped dead in his tracks. He obviously needs some more bush gym training. Even though we tried to herd them clear of the fence, one of them touched the strands and was shocked right off his feet. Stunned for a few minutes it lied there and then got up with flapping ears again - as if to say: "I'm tough enough - nothing gets me down!" And he walked right out of camp. We were too flabbergasted to take much footage so only got this clip of one of the elephants.

Of course another highlight was the visit to the wild dogs and tracking the white rhino breeding herd with the anti-poaching team. Both these breeding programs are doing very well.

We also walked along the springs near Longope to look for the Python pools, but were not able to find any of the big ones out from hibernation yet.

Another highlight was the climbing of LL hill in search of the hyena den. The boys absolutely loved it as you can see here and here. We saw lots of game out on drives but missed the leopard by 30 minutes as Lucky saw it at two cribs.
More videos to be seen on my Youtube and more pics on my www.facebook.com
Jacques