Giraffes ushered in the afternoon

 Not only did we see a giraffe at the outset of the afternoon,, we saw 13 of them! We dubbed them our lucky thirteen as they certainly brought great sightings in the morning. We marveled at the broad variety of coat coloration within the group, which is called a "tower of giraffes."  The word giraffe comes from the Arabic word "zarafa" which means beautiful. .

 

                         Close-up of coat coloration

          Beautiful dark,, almost mahogany coated giraffe.

       Close up of dark coat coloration

First up were the beautiful Kudu.- A pair of does & a magnificent bull with his unrivaled corkscrew horns.

We then headed to the sandy riverbed where one of the lionesses & the third Thumbela male lion had been spied sleeping. Lucky for us, the 6 cubs from 2 of the Othawa lionesses were there also. 

             One cub biting on his poor brother's tail!

                                                                Ouch!!

        Cubs annoying Daddy who was just trying to rest

              Dad- are you still mad? 

I told you kids to leave me alone!!

         What an absolutely amazing day