I Fell Down a Rabbit Hole...and Came Up in South Africa 1

Wistful memories of an amazing month in 2015

Summer of 2015, I was lucky to receive a grant for a pastoral sabbatical from the Lilly Foundation. Part of the grant paid for my family and me to spend most of June in South Africa both following some of the history of the anti-apartheid movement and also taking in some of the amazing beauty that is South Africa. As I shared in my panorama post, I fell down a rabbit hole of my photos the other day both of some of my panorama photos but also of our time in South Africa. So, without much explanation to them, here’s some of the ones that jumped out to me on the nature side of things. I’ll do one more in a few days with the experiences at the anti-apartheid and historical sites.

Big Animals (Big 5 and others)

These were all at the Addo Elephant Reserve

The leopard was seen for literally not more than about a minute and I was lucky enough to get this photo with the huge lens I rented in Johannesburg

This elephant literally turned his butt to Amy and farted on our car. It was a moment.

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Shark Cage Diving - One of the highlights for all of us was getting to see great white sharks truly up close and in the water with us. So amazing!

Re the top right photo - yes we were that close. So amazing

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Birds

After one of the birds that is in the top right and lower left pooped on my phone, they were known as the ipoop birds

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Miscellaneous Experiences and Moments

We spent a day at a cheetah (and other animal) rescue center where we had some pretty incredible things we could do. Things most places in the US don't let visitors do. The meerkats were super sweet to cuddle

The baboon holding the cookie is a baboon that swung into our game truck in Kruger, landed on the lap of our youngest child and then fought our daughter for the cookie. The baboon won. And yes, we were not supposed to have food in the open trucks but we forgot...

A sign you don't see around here, a sweet baby hyena, and then several hyenas that we had a very up close and personal moment with.

More signs you don't see around here...

A wonderfully named beer and a wonderful dessert called Malva Pudding

And this photo of our oldest which pretty much perfectly sums up the experience

Grace, Peace, Love, and Joy,
Ed

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