Giraffe and Baby photos

On our way back from holiday last month, we stopped off at old friends' Guest House on the Mooi River. It's always lovely to meet up with Gene and Brian again, to enjoy their homely hospitality (always a fight to pay for our accommodation and meals, but normally I win!) and to be taken around Brian's nature reserve just behind the mountain. 

This time as we arrived, Brian told us excitedly that his one female giraffe had given birth to her first foal about two weeks previously. Rina and I piled into the back seat of the pick-up, Grant in the passenger seat and Brian drove us along the wildlife path. 

We knew that the mama giraffe wouldn't just expose her baby for us so we strained our eyes, peered into the bush and waited.

Finally we saw the female just behind a small thorn tree

As I focused through the one door and snapped the giraffe, Rina spotted the baby giraffe in the opposite direction. 

The foal stood stock still and kept his eyes on us

Ain't I cute?

We drove up the side of the mountain where Brian's men off-loaded bales of lucerne and spread them out onto the ground. These are to provide extra feed during our dry winter months for the five giraffe, 40 eland, 40-odd zebra, and a dozen bushbuck. 

From my elevated spot, I managed to photograph the female giraffe and her foal which had joined her.

Baby giraffe safely hidden behind its mama

As mama giraffe turned around to keep an eye on the yoomens up yonder, the baby stuck behind her again

After driving around the other side of the mountain to try and glimpse the male giraffe or other wildlife (we only saw a solitary zebra in the distance) we drove back past the mother giraffe and her baby. 

Africa at her best: a wild animal and its young against the thorny background with mountains in the distance

I'm linking to Our World Tuesday here