Friday, January 09, 2015

Just a typical 6am game drive


Mum and I have just completed our first African safari game drive. We saw an incredible abundance of animals - at least we thought we had until other guests told us this morning's experience was relatively quiet. Mum was absolutely thrilled by everything we saw.

Today's checklist of animal sightings included a lioness drinking at a waterhole, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, white rhino, warthogs, elephants (which created the ultimate traffic jam), monkeys, baboons and a host of birds including the spectacular stork-like secretary bird. We also saw numerous baby animals.  The little ones are now large enough to be visible and active. We've already seen baby buffalo, rhinos, giraffes, monkeys, and zebra.


I'm currently sitting on the bed in my glass-walled safari cabin watching monkeys play in the trees. A few minutes ago one cheeky monkey pushed open my cabin's sliding door and stole an apple from the fruit bowl by my bed.  I thought it was Mum coming to visit me and so I didn't look up at first.  However, as I turned towards the door I witnessed a grey tail flick out the open gap.


As I type this post I can see at least five baby monkeys having the time of their life outside, including one tiny fellow who cannot be more than a few weeks old.  There's also a large male keeping watch.  He has the most iridescent smurf blue testes you've ever seen. Yes - you read that correctly - the monkeys here have blue balls.


Wildlife seems to be everywhere.  Last night I almost stood on a giant snail as I returned to my cabin after dinner.  Its shell was at least 15cm long.  We got escorted to our rooms as a leopard had been spotted just outside our camp earlier in the evening.  A herd of elephants was also seen passing through the area.

I've only uploaded a handful of images today as our internet connection is rather slow.  High-speed broadband has yet to penetrate the heart of  Africa's bush.


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