The decision to purchase the South African wild card park pass was an easy one. We were coming to Africa and we were told that within South Africa we could do our own game drives and safaris and not pay for an expensive tour or guide. With a little more research we realized that this would save us loads of money as compared to paying for these services in South Africa or elsewhere in Africa. With the SANParks Wild Card pass we were able to save even more money.
Before you decide to purchase the card be sure to do a little research on the park fees you’re due to pay without the card. For us, over …

So after being charged twice as Danny mentioned yesterday, which really was terrifying, we slid down the mountain a bit more and found ourselves in a huge clearing with about a dozen mountain gorillas.
It was an amazing experience being surrounded by these huge creatures, but they couldn’t have been more passive.

We spent an hour with them, and while it was probably the most expensive hour of our whole lives, it was incredible.
Our gorilla group- nkongo- had 18 members, including one 4 month old infant and a set of one year old twins.

While we only saw one silverback, there were two in the group as well as several  males. After being charged, I was surprised the gorillas allowed us to …

Transportation from the capital to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest — $130
Permits to go gorilla tracking in Bwindi — $500
Seeing your wife’s face as a 400 pound angry silverback mountain gorilla charges your group and knocks down one of the guides……..priceless
The walk hadn’t been too bad, at least not in comparison to everything else that had come before it. We were hiking at an altitude above that of Denver, yet it was humid as though we were in a rainforest. We were sweaty, and breathing heavily, trekking over wet muddy terrain but it really wasn’t that bad…at least not until we got our first glimpse of the super rare mountain gorilla.
To get to Bwindi was a trick in and …

Exiting Etosha we drove quickly through Namibia’s capital Windhoek before crossing the border directly into the Kahalari Desert, and the trans-frontier park shared by both South Africa and Botswana. This park is known for two things: being in the middle of nowhere and being home to a lot of cats. We knew we’d see lions, (the ONLY animal other than wildebeest we’ve seen in every park) but we were looking for cheetah.
We quickly made camp and went out for a drive and found a dead lion. Eventually the animal moved so in fact, it was not dead, just nearly dead. It was skinny and alone. Other visitors told us that earlier it opened its mouth revealing an abscess, probably earned …