Miss Brady in South Africa

Elephants travel in families. Each family unit is made up of around ten closely related females and their calves and is led by an older female known as the matriarch.  The gestation period for an elephants is two years.  They are most fertile between the ages of 25 and 45 years.  They calves are cared for by their mother and other young females in the group, known as allomothers.

Lions are unusually social compared to other cats.  A pride consists of related females and offspring and a small number of adult males.  We’ve learned that the average gestation period for lions is around 110 days, which is pretty quick!  It is very difficult for females to hunt went they are carrying 2-4 cubs.  The rest of the pride takes care of the hunting during this period. Male cubs will leave the pride around 3 years old, usually taking over another pride.  Female cubs will stay with the pride they are born into.

The tents here come fully equipped with an air horn in the event that any African critters decide to join you for a snuggle.

We were advised to store our belongings in a trunk because the monkeys will pick through your luggage.

We flew out of New York to Johannesberg.  The flight was a little over 14 hours.  From Johannesberg we flew up to Hoedspruit, which is a really tiny airport within Krugar Safari Park.  From there we were driven about 45 minutes out to our camp, Manyaleti.

The 100 rand bill has a picture of Nelson Mandela.  It’s worth a little under 7 dollars.

The 200 rand bill has a picture of a cheetah.  It’s worth about 14 dollars.