Hello from Birkenhead. This place is magnificent and we could easily stay here a very long time but alas, today we board the Navigator so the next part of our journey begins. We have closed B.H. down the past two nights....way to much fun and laughs with wonderful friends.

Savanna exceeded all our expectations!! We saw the Big 5 several times over. Lots of thrills with 2 Lion brothers catching a Kudu (sp?) and feasting on it for 2 days. On day 2 an elephant snuck up on the 2 lions and boy did they take a quick hike! Nature is so amazing and so unpredictable. We saw a precious 2 day old elephant and saw leopards galore. Luckily, unlike Donna and Alan we were always allowed to go off track where you actually see 80% of all the animals. The lodge itself was great and they waited on us hand and foot. Each evening when we returned from our game drive there was a hot bath waiting for us with champagne or wine. We had the best ranger in South Africa (Paddy) who has been a ranger longer than all others in this country and trained so many others. Life is good!

Our only surprise encounter was when we (Carla, Frank, Tom and me) were being escorted to our room one evening and there was a 7 ft. Python laying next to the walkway. The head ranger was immediately called on his walkie talkie and came to the rescue. In the meantime we just all kind of froze....it was a scary encounter to say the least. Fortunately we never had any thing else scary happen....unlike our trip to Mateya last year when our jeep was charged by a full speed Momma elelphant. In my life I don't think we'll ever have anything scarier than that elephant experience.

We're going to spend the day here at Birkenhead and then head towards Cape Town and the Navigator. In route we're going to stop at a penguin colony and arrive at the Navigator around 4. It was unanimous that everyone wanted to spend the last day here. Oh, forgot to mention that yesterday a group of us went on a shark watching boat. More exciting than that has been all the whales we see passing by right in front of our hotel. We could sit out for hours watching them. Birkenhead is a little slice of heaven....well, ok...probably a BIG slice.

More later from the Navigator! :)