Day 111: Safari - Full Day #2 - Even More Animals

Yet another early morning wake-up call. This time preceded by Allison waking up at 2:30 am to the sound of some large cat prowling around in the distance. Despite that, we were up and ready to go, armed with a cup of tea/coffee and a mini-snack. The weather was a little chilly, if you can call 60F chilly, and we definitely needed a couple of layers. Even our guide was wearing a wooly hat. The hippos were up early as well and bid us "bon voyage" with a long, throaty roar.




Our first animal encounter was a family of elephants. There were about a half-dozen elephants on each side of the road and a couple more slowly plodding down the middle. They were a variety of sizes, from a large bull to a baby hanging around its Mum. Although they register the truck, they don't register that we are inside it (as long as you don't wave your hands wildly or stand up). So we casually motored along behind them at a sedate pace. This leads to a lot of "butt shots," although we got a lot of other views too. The photo to the right is my favourite.

As mentioned yesterday, impala are the main food source for many of the animals. We were approaching rutting season, so some of the larger males had already staked out their territory. Basically, if you saw an impala on its lonesome, it was a male marking its turf. They then collect as many females as possible as a mini-harem, defend them against other impala (see left), and act as lookouts for sneaky predators.





We saw more giraffes today than yesterday. Some were solo, others in groups of 4-5. Their size is both an advantage and a disadvantage. The plus is that they have access to greenery way out of the reach of any other animal - unless an elephant decides to knock down a tree - so their food supply is pretty secure. The disadvantage is that they need to almost do the splits with their front legs to drink water or reach something at ground level. This is an incredibly vulnerable position, so predators (especially the ambush predators) actually wait until the giraffe is in this position before attacking. We also learnt that giraffes will fight one another, using quite brutal head butts. Who knew? For an animal that gently glides through the bush, it has a savage side.

The sight of a giraffe poking its head above a large bush or tree and watching you as you go by takes some getting used to. Sometimes all you see are the eyes and ears.










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