On Safari With Karen: 12 February 2015

12 February 2015

This morning we had an early start and were rewarded with many sightings of giraffe. Small groups were spread out all along the route, with every size of giraffe thinkable. All were munching on the fresh dewy leaves. As it is one of their favorite animals, this as a definite highlight!

Other interesting sightings in the morning: baboons, two cheetahs, speke's hinged tortoise, impalas, warthogs, waterbuck, a glimpse of a sleeping leopard, a kori bustard, white-backed vultures, white rhinos, wildebeest, zebras, red-crested korhaan and many more giraffes.

When it cooled down in the afternoon we set off again. The afternoon drive gave us many elephant sightings, but the best sighting was a tiny chameleon on the road. He was crossing, but when we stopped he turned to investigate the car and actually climbed on the tyre! When he disappeared on the inside though, we could not leave without knowing for sure he was safe. After waiting 10 minutes to see where he got to, there was nothing else for it and I had to, completely against regulations, leave the car. On my back underneath the car I found the little bugger, but he refused to come off the tyre! When he eventually dropped off he ran towards the front tyre and hid in there! Now I had to crawl all under the car and try to convince the chameleon to walk onto my hand. He did so in the end and he was released safely on the side of the road, where I got hissed at by a now very angry chameleon. That's what you get for thanks for not running him over!

Other interesting sightings in the afternoon: buffalos, secretary bird, an elephant herd drinking and spraying with water, lots of hippos, some out of the water, crocodiles, fish eagle, lilac-breasted rollers, European rollers, warthog, mocking cliff-chat, a lone giraffe, zebras, many golden orb spiders, impalas and baboons.