The Big Five

When I left for Africa I knew that there were some animals that everyone had on their list of "must sees," or "The Big Five"....I didn't.  I wanted to experience the place for its natural beauty and while I did really REALLY want to see elephants, I didn't really have any other animals on my list that I'd feel disappointed if I didn't see.

Along the way people kept asking us if we'd seen the Big Five and all three of us shrugged and said something to the effect that we'd seen lots of animals.....because, honestly, we weren't quite sure what they were and while we felt a little ignorant that we didn't know, we were having fun and it didn't matter that much to us if we ticked off a list of animals.  If pressed, we decided that we were pretty sure the lion was on the list and maybe the elephant, but we also thought the giraffe must also be represented, because, it IS tall after all.  (We were wrong....)

It wasn't until halfway through the trip, when we were approached by a street vendor selling wooden animal carvings (of the Big Five), that we figured out what they actually were.  And, by then (to our surprise) we'd seen all of them with the exception of the rhino, which came later.

So, on my bucket list trip, I filled up someone else's bucket list card, which was nice.

For your education and enjoyment, here are the Big Five in alphabetical order: