So how high can a Kudo really jump?
I picked Alex up from the little regional airport called Hoedspruit Eastgate. It’s a great little airport with a tractor pulling the bags to the plane and off again. The runway is patrolled by Cheetah’s to keep the birds off it! Well that’s the way the story goes anyway! A line of khaki clad field guides eagerly awaited their guests off the flight and of course I lined up behind them all. I regret not writing out a placard with her name on it now. She arrived safe and sound but was a bit hot when she got off the plane. It did happen to be 35 degree’s though so I can’t blame her. It wasn’t long until she spotted her first wild animal. A big male Giraffe! I hope it wasn’t the same one that greeted me 3 months ago but I couldn’t be sure.
Bush baby with good taste!
We arrived into the lodge and it was fairly spectacular in the room that we had been given. You have your own private pan. (Waterhole) One and all the animals come to visit it at night. They are a bit flighty though and it was only after talking to the ranger from the lodge that I found out why. That’s for later though! We had our own visitor on the balcony every night as well. As I’ve written before, the Bushbabies over here are great time keepers. They keep time like clock work. I think it was around six O’Clock every night that one would arrive on the balcony, check the place out, have a bit of a gawk at me and take off again. This happened for three nights in a row. The only thing about the Bushbabies is that they actually don’t just limit their activities to the night time. We went out on a game drive for the morning and when we came back, there was a chocolate melted on the floor. It was strange to see it there and then I went over to my bag. Alex had brought me over some chocolates from home from my Mam and herself. The Bushbaby had ignored all the Twix’s though and had gone for the Butlers chocolates. He scoffed a few by the looks of it, puked up one of the coffee ones (don’t blame him) and then to top it all off left us a few little brown coloured presents on the balcony! Classic!
How to eyeball a Giraffe and live to tell the tale!
“They don’t bite but if you got a kick you’d know all about it.” That was one of the lines used by Sean our instructor in the college. With this in mind, I was wary about running into a Giraffe on our way back to the room at night. We had a few drinks to finish off a great day and started to head home. As your eyes adjust to the dark you can start to see shapes in the dark. I carry my head torch with me now at night so that I don’t accidentally step on a scorpion or snake. The great thing about having the torch is that you can pick out the eye shine of animals when the light is shined on them. We had 3 Giraffes lying down in the grass beside our tree house. It’s not often that you walk along at night and are at eye level with these beautiful animals. We were amazed by how chilled out they were. They didn’t even make shapes to get up never mind making any attempt to.
It ain’t Vegas baby!
Sun City is supposed to be the Vegas of SA! We were not impressed with the place. A Casino where the air conditioning is broken, they charge you for your scoops and the croupiers can’t count. No, it’s not the Colossus in Dublin. This was actually Sun City casino. It was a kip to be quite blunt and myself and my lucky charm didn’t stay for very long. The place was a joke and unfortunately when a croupier can’t count you’d think your luck was in but in this case she starts taking your chips off the table even though you’ve won on the roulette table. Not a good vibe. I would suggest it as a venue for a few of the up coming stags but I’m sure the lads will enjoy the culture in Vegas just a little bit more. We did make the trip up worthwhile though by paying a visit to the Pilansberg National park for a bit of game viewing. We saw a lot of animals and for me it was a chance to see some rarer animals that you can’t see in Kruger or around the college. Alex was delighted to see some of the animals but unfortunately we didn’t see any big cat’s. Well any wild big cats that is. We paid a visit to a rehabilitation centre during the week and we saw some captured animals that couldn’t be re released. All and all, a great week but a whole lot of miles travelled and I feel like a long sleep……..
Oh look at the Elephant!
Some people are just plain thick. We went on a night drive in the Pilanesburg national park in the Northern Province of SA on Saturday evening. This auld dear from Germany was sitting on the front of the game vehicle. The guide was a lazy git who didn’t really bother explaining too much to us but I think I know the reason now. A Zebra came trundling the hill towards us. A Warthog came down just after it. This lady says “Can a Warthog tackle something as big as a Zebra!” I thought she was taking the piss and I started to laugh. I think about an hour past and we didn’t see much. I was given the onerous task of using my flash lamp to pick out animals. If I hadn’t stopped the driver a couple of times we literally wouldn’t have seen anything for the two and a half hours. I spotted four big White Rhino bulls. Next thing the auld wan says “Oh my God, Elephant!” The driver didn’t bother to correct her! I still don’t know whether she was that thick or was taking the mickey out of us!
Snake Charmer
We went for a course on dangerous snake handling today. It was a really enjoyable course. We handled a few Puff Adders(Most people in Africa get bitten by them each year), some Egyptian Cobra’s, a 2.8 metre Rock Python, a Boomslang, Vinesnake(No known antivenom) and of course the mighty Black Mamba. It was great and a real eye opener. We even got spat at by a Mozambique Spitting Cobra. I tackled a rock monitor as well for the craic. We lost 2 snakes in the process. One an Olive Green Grass snake will never be seen again and a Snouted Cobra which ended up in the back of a leather seat. We had to take the back off the seat to get it out. The Cobra was the most aggressive and it was difficult to catch. My hands were shaking after this one! I think I’ve conquered my fear of snakes now and although I have the greatest respect for them I won’t poo my pants when I bump into my next one.
I picked Alex up from the little regional airport called Hoedspruit Eastgate. It’s a great little airport with a tractor pulling the bags to the plane and off again. The runway is patrolled by Cheetah’s to keep the birds off it! Well that’s the way the story goes anyway! A line of khaki clad field guides eagerly awaited their guests off the flight and of course I lined up behind them all. I regret not writing out a placard with her name on it now. She arrived safe and sound but was a bit hot when she got off the plane. It did happen to be 35 degree’s though so I can’t blame her. It wasn’t long until she spotted her first wild animal. A big male Giraffe! I hope it wasn’t the same one that greeted me 3 months ago but I couldn’t be sure.
Bush baby with good taste!
We arrived into the lodge and it was fairly spectacular in the room that we had been given. You have your own private pan. (Waterhole) One and all the animals come to visit it at night. They are a bit flighty though and it was only after talking to the ranger from the lodge that I found out why. That’s for later though! We had our own visitor on the balcony every night as well. As I’ve written before, the Bushbabies over here are great time keepers. They keep time like clock work. I think it was around six O’Clock every night that one would arrive on the balcony, check the place out, have a bit of a gawk at me and take off again. This happened for three nights in a row. The only thing about the Bushbabies is that they actually don’t just limit their activities to the night time. We went out on a game drive for the morning and when we came back, there was a chocolate melted on the floor. It was strange to see it there and then I went over to my bag. Alex had brought me over some chocolates from home from my Mam and herself. The Bushbaby had ignored all the Twix’s though and had gone for the Butlers chocolates. He scoffed a few by the looks of it, puked up one of the coffee ones (don’t blame him) and then to top it all off left us a few little brown coloured presents on the balcony! Classic!
How to eyeball a Giraffe and live to tell the tale!
“They don’t bite but if you got a kick you’d know all about it.” That was one of the lines used by Sean our instructor in the college. With this in mind, I was wary about running into a Giraffe on our way back to the room at night. We had a few drinks to finish off a great day and started to head home. As your eyes adjust to the dark you can start to see shapes in the dark. I carry my head torch with me now at night so that I don’t accidentally step on a scorpion or snake. The great thing about having the torch is that you can pick out the eye shine of animals when the light is shined on them. We had 3 Giraffes lying down in the grass beside our tree house. It’s not often that you walk along at night and are at eye level with these beautiful animals. We were amazed by how chilled out they were. They didn’t even make shapes to get up never mind making any attempt to.
It ain’t Vegas baby!
Sun City is supposed to be the Vegas of SA! We were not impressed with the place. A Casino where the air conditioning is broken, they charge you for your scoops and the croupiers can’t count. No, it’s not the Colossus in Dublin. This was actually Sun City casino. It was a kip to be quite blunt and myself and my lucky charm didn’t stay for very long. The place was a joke and unfortunately when a croupier can’t count you’d think your luck was in but in this case she starts taking your chips off the table even though you’ve won on the roulette table. Not a good vibe. I would suggest it as a venue for a few of the up coming stags but I’m sure the lads will enjoy the culture in Vegas just a little bit more. We did make the trip up worthwhile though by paying a visit to the Pilansberg National park for a bit of game viewing. We saw a lot of animals and for me it was a chance to see some rarer animals that you can’t see in Kruger or around the college. Alex was delighted to see some of the animals but unfortunately we didn’t see any big cat’s. Well any wild big cats that is. We paid a visit to a rehabilitation centre during the week and we saw some captured animals that couldn’t be re released. All and all, a great week but a whole lot of miles travelled and I feel like a long sleep……..
Oh look at the Elephant!
Some people are just plain thick. We went on a night drive in the Pilanesburg national park in the Northern Province of SA on Saturday evening. This auld dear from Germany was sitting on the front of the game vehicle. The guide was a lazy git who didn’t really bother explaining too much to us but I think I know the reason now. A Zebra came trundling the hill towards us. A Warthog came down just after it. This lady says “Can a Warthog tackle something as big as a Zebra!” I thought she was taking the piss and I started to laugh. I think about an hour past and we didn’t see much. I was given the onerous task of using my flash lamp to pick out animals. If I hadn’t stopped the driver a couple of times we literally wouldn’t have seen anything for the two and a half hours. I spotted four big White Rhino bulls. Next thing the auld wan says “Oh my God, Elephant!” The driver didn’t bother to correct her! I still don’t know whether she was that thick or was taking the mickey out of us!
Snake Charmer
We went for a course on dangerous snake handling today. It was a really enjoyable course. We handled a few Puff Adders(Most people in Africa get bitten by them each year), some Egyptian Cobra’s, a 2.8 metre Rock Python, a Boomslang, Vinesnake(No known antivenom) and of course the mighty Black Mamba. It was great and a real eye opener. We even got spat at by a Mozambique Spitting Cobra. I tackled a rock monitor as well for the craic. We lost 2 snakes in the process. One an Olive Green Grass snake will never be seen again and a Snouted Cobra which ended up in the back of a leather seat. We had to take the back off the seat to get it out. The Cobra was the most aggressive and it was difficult to catch. My hands were shaking after this one! I think I’ve conquered my fear of snakes now and although I have the greatest respect for them I won’t poo my pants when I bump into my next one.
No comments:
Post a Comment