We fly to Johannesburg January 15th! More camping in 2024!
I can tell I’m excited about returning to Africa. First, I can’t stop talking about it. (Richard would likely say I just can’t stop talking. Hmm, well, perhaps…) Second, I am now Googling things like ‘are Wildebeests dangerous?’ and ‘encounters with puff adders’ (affectionately called ‘puffies’ by the South Africans).
It turns out that wildebeests (also called gnus) are actually pretty interesting. They sleep in shifts, so part of the herd is always alert. They weigh300-500lbs, have sharp horns and can run as fast as lions. Their legendary migration is something I’d love to see someday. I really need to appreciate these guys a bit more.
As for the puffies, these chubby guys don’t move out of your way! They just stay where they are until you stumble across them. Then they bite. At least other snakes generally move out of your way long before you see them, but puffies just stay put–in the sun, the sand, the grass, next to a log…. And they are ornery and remarkably well camouflaged. Richard actually stopped me from stepping on one during our last trip. We were coming back from dinner, and there the snake was, chubby with his triangle head pointing forward, rather beautiful with his chevon pattern, moving almost completely straight and slow out of the grass, crossing the sidewalk about two meters in front of us. It was night, so he was especially easy to miss. Turns out puffies have one of the fastest strikes around. Glad we didn’t help verify that.
Although I didn’t get a picture of a big puffie on our last trip, I did get this baby one in Kruger 2022.
And we saw this ground hornbill who just caught his own puffie for lunch:
A Mozambique spitting cobra from our trip to Kruger National Park, South Africa in 2022. I’m very proud of my picture, but probably shouldn’t have leaned out the window to get it!
So we’ll see what shows up in 2024!
PS/ We avoid camping under the big sociable weaver nests, as they are a favorite haunt of hungry cobras and boomslangs.
