Umfolozi May 18-20 (Day 9 and 10)

This is Mpila Camp in Umfolozi Game Reserve. This is a very special place for the Potter family because Gregg's great grandfather Harold Peter Potter essentially started this reserve. Here are some more specific details I got from DJ: DJ's grandfather was the Chief Conservator Zululand from 1929 to 1952 and then his son (DJ's father) took over as the chief and camp manager. The
reserves was proclaimed in 1895. Harold was the first resident man in charge, and with the help of rangers, he opened up the reserve, put up the fences, built access roads and ensured the rangers protected the animals. He also built the Hluhluwe camp in 1931. Hluhluwe reserve borders Unfolozi where we stayed. We origionally planned to stay in Hluhluwe at the Mtwazi Lodge. This is the exact home where DJ was raised until the age of 12. Harold's Zulu praise name was Mtwazi, meaning Monkey vine- tall and slender.

DJ had so many fascinating stories to tell the USA crew during out time together. We found it especially interesting that he learned Zulu before he learned English. Thank you DJ for all of the info and for sharing your time and knowledge with us!

This is a photo of Harold and his wife at the restaurant in Hluhluwe just down from DJ's old home.

And this is a picture of their pet giraffe 'Shorty.'

Back to the tour- these are male Nyala. A very rare sighting for mid-day.

Wildebeest in the road!!

Check out the rhino! This was very exciting for everyone to see!!

The first night we went on a night game drive. It was awesome because we saw lots of lions, buffalo up close, and even hyena in the road.

Looking for elephants and crocks in the river.

It was so cool to have my mom in Africa...

Becky and the rhino. Pretty excited!!

This was the sunrise on our early morning game drive.

This will give you the warm fuzzies when you see this sign in your camp- and then they tell you that the camp is actually no longer fenced. Perfect!!! It was incredible to sleep in the tents and hear the sounds of the night. The first night Gregg and I went to bed and not 10 minutes later we heard something trying to get into our garbage bin. It was super loud and I was certain we were being attacked by hyenas. Gregg busted out of the tent with his mag light to find bush pig!! Apparently bush pig aren't all that friendly, so we went back inside the tent. Then 5 minutes after that we heard all kinds of animals right outside our tent. Gregg called me outside to check about 5 zebra on our camp lawn. AWESOME!!!! We heard lion and hyena very very close to the camp. I'm pretty sure poor Riko didn't sleep a wink the first night.

Gregg gave us the grand tour of the bomas- where they keep the wild animals from game capture for the up coming auction.

This giraffe was about 10 feet from the road. It was incredible because just after taking this picture she got down to drink. That was really cool to see.

This was by far my favorite part of the tour. Next time we will spend 4 nights instead of 2 nights!