This morning was a particularly busy one for wild creatures, possibly because the campsite was quite empty. The vervet monkeys are always early arrivals, scouring the site for any human left-overs or other goodies. In fact they will happily pop their heads into the truck to see if we have left anything edible within reach. In the shower block there is the usual collection of geckos, one of them a really big one that makes me jump every time. But a new sight for me are the toilet frogs. Sometimes they sit on top of the cistern, and sometimes they sit just inside, with their heads and front feet poking out. Rather a frog than a spider, anyway! This morning we were just talking to another camper when he pointed out a family of about 8 elephant browsing their way across the back of the site, taking more or less no notice of humans. The last one in the line was an elephant with a short trunk; we had seen it a few days ago in the park. Presumably it was got by a crocodile at one time, poor thing. We also had a visit from the banded mongoose(s); about twenty of them rippling their way along, scavenging for scraps and insects. The monkeys seem to keep well away from them, as apparently they give a nasty bite. Behind our spot was a tiny water-hole and the other day we saw a mother giraffe with baby come and think about drinking, but there was too much noise on the campsite at that time. Anyway, we left that all behind this morning, as the heat at South Luangwa was just too much for us - we were getting 43C in the cab during our game drives, and the outside temperature only went down to about 21C in the coolness of the very early morning, so we haven't been sleeping well. We are back in Chipata and will do a utilities day tomorrow before heading to Malawi.
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
October 2014
Categories |