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Thursday, June 07, 2012GIRAFFES & OTHER AMINALS
So, as y'all know, I got the hell out of Lagos recently & headed south for a much needed break in the Kruger National Park. A Cunning Plan (thank you Baldrick) was hatched months prior to departure, to meet up with close friends on the road & together, we headed to Berg-en-Dal camp in the Park. For once, finally, we got to see the Big 5! Whilst my photos of elephant(s), rhino(s), buffalo(s), lion(s) & leopard(s) are all rather good, I thought I'd stick up a few photos of the other aminals we were privileged to see. In the photo above, 2 klipspringer buck were basking in the afternoon sun.
This is a Giant Eagle Owl - it had caught a small civet cat for lunch & was really not impressed with people gawking & snapping away with their cameras! The look on its face practically said "Piss off now & leave me to eat will ya!"
We felt so sorry for this giraffe..............awww...............whilst it was a fine specimen, fully grown & hardly anorexic, it had a badly deformed jaw.
 Three zebra, disguised as two zebra, obviously weary from a day of munching on grass. 
We pulled up alongside a car that had stopped by the side of a dirt road & as one does, asked the driver of the other car if he'd seen something. "Hellosh!" said the man, "There ish a leopard shitting in the grash jusht over there......................(he pointed)....................you can jusht shee hish earsh move & you can alsho shee hish jawsh!" I'm not sure if he had a speech impediment or if it was because he was a Hollander..............but there indeed was the leopard,
We stopped for a few minutes to watch this giraffe take a drink. Sitting in the car, we didn't realise that the water was quite low down. The poor creature tried about 4 times to get as low as he could, without doing some serious damage to his legs. Each time it bent forward, it wasn't quite low enough, so it would stand upright again, splay its legs a bit further apart & then put its neck down to try again. It was fascinating to watch I must admit, because any minute I thought it would go arse over tit & land head first in a mangled heap in the watering hole! Mother nature sure complicated a few design glitches with some aminals!
 
I've forgotten which eagle this is (I have slept since getting back y'know) & I don't have my trusty KNP book with me to look it up, *sigh*. I'm not sure what it had killed, but whatever it was had a fur pelt. There wasn't much left of the breakfast/lunch/supper.
The following photos are just a few of the 'series' I took of this giraffe. We'd parked up to watch the buffalo & then we spotted the giraffe on the opposite side of the river. It appeared to be a bit unsettled, but then the next thing we saw was it taking tentative steps into the water. It really was fascinating to watch & I kept thinking to myself "How the hell does it know how deep the river is? Can it see the river bed? Is it just taking a chance & hoping the water doesn't reach it's 'knees' or what?" (All answers on a postcard if you know - thanks very much!)
As the giraffe got closer the the 'near' bank, the buffalo sort of glanced in it direction, but didn't appear to be taking too much notice....................but then.................
  As the giraffe reached solid ground again, one particular buffalo got really antsy & charged at it! 
The giraffe did a nifty bit of legwork & got past the buffalo without further incident, but we could almost see the buffs giving it the evil eye..................like "Sod off leggy, this is our turf!"
All in all, we had a fabulous week.................we shared the time with very special friends (fanks Dears!), we ate well, we slept well & we shared a whole heap of laughter. The Kruger national Park is just incredibly special to us & our friends - it's a tiny spec in this amazing planet, where once you enter, you forget everything that may have been on your mind.
Such a bummer that the week seemed to come & go so bloody fast!
*very big sigh*
Labels: Berg-en-dal, getting out of Lagos, Giant agle owl, Giraffe, leopard  
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