The theme of this week’s #FriFotos is “babies”.  Babies are cute so my contribution this week are baby animals on safari (super cute).  I visited Botswana and South Africa for safari/holiday and was fortunate to see a few young animals (if they are smaller than the mom, i will say they are babies, ok, maybe toddlers).

In Botswana, seeing a few elephants from above as I flew into the the Okavango Camp was surreal and seeing one walk toward me on the walking safari unforgettable, however, in Chobe, the elephants were everywhere.  As i boarded the afternoon cruise, I had no idea what to expect – a boat safari?  What a great surprise to see a plethora of animals enjoying the water and co-existing together as they wandered around the small patches of land.  What draws your eye are the small animals, of course, because they are rarely at the zoos where you are accustom to seeing animals (note, you will have a hard time ever going back to a zoo after a safari).

After my Hippo experience in the Okavango Delta, I had a different opinion of the Hippo now that i learned how dangerous they are.  Gone was my naive visions of playful, dancing, Disney’s Fantasia cartoon hippos replaced by the real truth that they can hurt you.  For now, let’s just enjoy the cute side.

The giraffes at Chobe were walking sticks here, there and everywhere.  This photo is one of my favorites in Botswana

Ah, the Penguins of South Africa – what a surprise!  I had absolutely no clue that penguins were in South Africa outside of Capetown.  We would visit two colonies of penguins (don’t worry, there will be a penguin post soon).  One colony was pregnant and nesting.  This penguin had her baby coming home to feed/nest.

At Cape Point, while a bird attacked me by dive bombing my head to get a piece of my sandwich (i would have gladly gave it to him as it was not that tasty from the cafe), a crowd had formed around the mother baboon and her baby which were on top of the building.  Now, normal people would stay far away from protective mother and child but not the group that day, they were scaring them and almost cornering them to get close enough for the smartphone photo.  The baby climbed atop the mother and they came down the building to run across the parking lot to rest on the cliff looking out to the water.  Using a telephoto lens, I was able to shoot this photo.  I hadn’t expected to see any animals on the Cape Point Peninsula tour but that’s what safaris and travel is all about – the unexpected….

I hope you enjoyed my “babies” interpretation this week for #FriFotos on Twitter.  I will post my South Africa safari and travels soon, so make sure you are signed up to receive email updates or click below to follow me on Twitter. If you have any safari queries, just contact me, I am happy to help.