{"id":253,"date":"2022-08-24T08:12:06","date_gmt":"2022-08-24T08:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/?p=253"},"modified":"2022-08-24T08:19:32","modified_gmt":"2022-08-24T08:19:32","slug":"south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/uncategorized\/south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Up at dawn and wrapped against the chill, we trundled out of Amakhala resort in our open-topped jeep and into the wildlife reserve. It was a stunning sight, watching the golden hills awaken, spying giraffe, zebra, warthog, elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion, cheetah and antelope all within a couple of hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our guide was super-knowledgeable, entertaining, personable, engaging. He grew up in Zimbabwe and came over to South Africa some years ago, when life became too hard under the regime of Robert Mugabe. Exchanging updates by phone with fellow guides, he led us exactly to where lions lay basking in the sun; we found another pair atop a cliff, looking out majestically over the spreading plains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was our first safari, after years of anticipation, and such a joy. I\u2019d expected to see only fleeting glimpses of these magnificent animals, but they were almost within touching distance. Resplendent, astonishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I know it\u2019s a big, fenced park and so they\u2019re not technically roaming wild, but it feels like they\u2019re free and at ease with nature and one another. Our guide explained how the game wardens manage this microcosm of animal society, culling lions if they become too numerous and threaten to eat everything else. Same with the elephants, who eat through literally tons of bush a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We repeated these trips twice a day for three days, never tiring of the thrilling vistas, the shock of seeing nature\u2019s most beautiful living creatures, alive and glowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1188\" height=\"792\" src=\"https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-6.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-257\" srcset=\"https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-6.jpg 1188w, https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-6-800x533.jpg 800w, https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-6-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-6-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1188px) 100vw, 1188px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1188\" height=\"792\" src=\"https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-259\" srcset=\"https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-5.jpg 1188w, https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-5-800x533.jpg 800w, https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-5-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-5-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1188px) 100vw, 1188px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"877\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-260\" srcset=\"https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-1.jpg 877w, https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-1-731x800.jpg 731w, https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-1-137x150.jpg 137w, https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-1-768x841.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 877px) 100vw, 877px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1188\" height=\"792\" src=\"https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-8.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-261\" srcset=\"https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-8.jpg 1188w, https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-8-800x533.jpg 800w, https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-8-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-8-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1188px) 100vw, 1188px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1188\" height=\"792\" src=\"https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-262\" srcset=\"https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-4.jpg 1188w, https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-4-800x533.jpg 800w, https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-4-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/08\/South-Africa-4-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1188px) 100vw, 1188px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Up at dawn and wrapped against the chill, we trundled out of Amakhala resort in our open-topped jeep and into the wildlife reserve. It was a stunning sight, watching the golden hills awaken, spying giraffe, zebra, warthog, elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion, cheetah and antelope all within a couple of hours. Our guide was super-knowledgeable, entertaining, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>South Africa | David Nicholson<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/muckton.network\/david-nicholson\/uncategorized\/south-africa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"South Africa | David Nicholson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Up at dawn and wrapped against the chill, we trundled out of Amakhala resort in our open-topped jeep and into the wildlife reserve. 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