Literally, Blue Balls

Berg-En-Dal Camp, Kruger Park, South Africa

We woke early this morning to the sound of chirping birds -- the hornbills can be quite noisy. They also have the funny habit of pecking at their reflection in car windows or, in fact, flying right into the windows. Here, with the rugged hills, dry riverbeds, and large trees, the landscape is much more interesting than Etosha.

Since it was light out and everyone was up, we decided to jump in the truck to explore. We were only out a couple hours before returning for breakfast, but saw lots of impala, Kudu, hornbills, vultures and a browsing elephant. It was especially mesmerizing to watch the elephant meticulously breaking branches on a small tree with her tusks, wrapping her trunk around to yank it free, then nimbly peeling off the bark and stuffing it into her mouth. 

Back at camp, we grabbed some cereal for breakfast and got to see the Vervet Monkeys in action. Unfortunately, the people camped next to us would be returning to find quite a mess. The monkeys had ripped into a screened window on their pop up trailer and were having a great time raiding eggs, fruit and pill containers. We were finally able to thwart them by wedging a plastic wash tub in front of the ripped screen.

Literally, blue balls

Later in the day, the animal viewing continued with a couple distant male lions, white rhinos, giraffes, warthogs, and Cape Buffalo, which Dex has made very clear is his least favorite animal. In fact, he despises them so much he cannot wait to get the car moving if we stop for pictures. The lions have been difficult to spot, one because the blend in so well, and two, because they apparently spend 18 to 20 hours a day lying around and snoozing. What a life. What's more, the males apparently don't even do the hunting but rely on the faster and more nimble females to catch dinner. By the way, since all the rhinos are grey, the term Black Rhino and White Rhinos aren't very helpful. The White Rhinos are larger, have a flat wide jaw, and are "grazers" -- they eat grass and plants off the ground. The Black Rhinos are smaller, have a V-shaped upper lip, and are "browsers" -- they eat from bushes and trees.

Two White Rhinos

Pumba 

Dex's least favorite animal

As mentioned before, we're starting to pay a lot more attention to birds, many of which are pretty cool. The downside, of course, is that they're a lot smaller than the mammals, so you really need a much better camera and binoculars. Thanks to Dex's sharp eyes, we spied a mama and baby Verreaux Eagle Owl sitting atop a huge nest.

Red Billed Hornbill

Lilac Breasted Roller

Cape Glossy Starling

The ubiquitous, Helmeted Guineafowl

Verreaux's Eagle-Owls

Incredibly, on our second outing of the day, Kylie realized Rocko was missing. We were able to take her mind off his disappearance by convincing her that he was back at camp. Unfortunately, repeated searching around the campsite turned up nothing. Kylie was distraught, not able to believe she had lost him, nor could I considering the major trauma of losing Lemme just two days earlier! Fortunately, it was a happy ending when Dex and she returned from the camp office, Rocko in hand. Kylie had left him in the camp store where we had replaced their non/functioning headlamps and bought a baseball cap for Kylie. Thank goodness. That put everyone in a much better mood as the departure time for our 4:30 ranger-led game drive approached.  

The game drive was fun though the kids were pretty beat by the time we got back after dark. The ranger had eyes like an eagle, and spotted the big five (rhino, elephant, lion, leopard, and cape buffalo) in about forty-five minutes. Never mind that they were all so far away that seeing them, let alone taking a picture, especially in the fading daylight, was practically impossible. The best shot of the night came when, after dark, Meg spotted a lion using one of the truck spot lights. She was lying on her side not moving a muscle (the lion, not Meg.) To our surprise, the guide drove off into the brush and straight for her, which forced her to her feet. Dex was none too happy, but most of us loved seeing the big cat slowly saunter about. Apparently she was extremely full and thus not moving very fast. Now that's something I can relate to. With the hours and hours we've been spending riding or driving around in vehicles, I can totally relate to the slow part.