Down by the River

Oh Love, keep me warm, keep me satisfied.
Please keep me calm, keep me pacified.
Now I'm content and my life is complete.
I can close my eyes.

Sitting by the riverside with you.

I love sitting down by the riverside,
Watching the water go flowing by.
Oh, golly gee, it is heaven to be
Like a willow tree.

Spend my time just drinking wine while looking at the view.

From Sitting by the River by "The Kinks"

Hippos aren't particularly strong swimmers, but they spend most of the time in the water. So when you do get to see them you usually see something like this:
Or this:
Occasionally, if you're lucky, you get to see something like this:
We were lucky enough to see hippos when they left the river:
It's kind of funny to see hippos defecating. They wag their tails furiously and disperse all the dung. Presumably this is to mark their territory, but I prefer the African explanation: hippos were land animals that left the land and went back to live in the river. So all the other river animals complained that it is hard enough to find fish as it is, without the extra competition. So to calm them doewn the hippos promised to be totally vegetarian, and when the poo they spread the dung around so that all the animals will see there are no fish bones in their dung, thereby proving that the hippos are keeping their side of the bargain.

See more hippo pictures here

A young croc: An old crock:

See more crocodiles

A monitor aka "Nest Destroyer" because it has a habit of finding and eating eggs from nests:
African Fish Eagle:
African Darter aka Snakebird (in Afrikaans: Slanghalsvol - meaning Snake Necked bird) because when it swims it's neck sticks out of the water and it looks like a snake:
Egyptian geese: Its sort of funny that they are called Egyptian geese, because just about the only place in Africa that you don't find them is ....in Egypt. I think that the name has more to do with the colouring around the eyes, which is reminiscent of ancient Egyptian pictures.
The Jacana (aka the Jesus bird):
The Jacana has long toes on its feet, that help spread it's weight when it walks and stands on lily pads. From far it looks like it is actually standing on the water, hence it's name the Jesus bird.


Next: Beating About the Bush

Look! Up there! It's a bird! No, it's a plane! No, it's-

Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon
Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon
We could float among the stars together, you and I
For we can fly we can fly
Up, up and away
My beautiful, my beautiful balloon
From My beautiful Balloon by "The Fifth Dimension"


I don't know why I got so excited about this. Maybe because it is not your usual run-of-the-mill tourist activity, maybe because of the whole buildup that the thing got.
A hot air balloon is like the oldest form of air travel that exists. And let's be frank there is something kind of romantic about it.
I had booked a balloon ride above Pilansberg National Park. The day before I was scheduled to go I spoke to another guy, who told me that his "flight" had been canceled at the last minute due to weather problems. But they told me that the weather was looking good for my trip. They said that if there was a last minute change they would let me know but if I didn't hear from them I should be ready at 4:00am to be picked up. Obviously I went to bed early that night, but for some reason I couldn't get to sleep. And when I did sleep I had these weird dreams about waking up late and missing the flight, or being mugged on my way to the pickup point at 4:00. So when my alarm went off I had barely slept.
So they drove us to a point in the middle of Pilansberg park. It was still totally dark, and there was a herd of wildebeest sleeping nearby. We all stood around and watched as they got the balloon ready and inflated:
By this time it was just getting light
I don't know if the timing was accidental or on purpose, we were up just in time to get some very good shots of the sun just peeping over the horizon
The trip itself was interesting for the trip, not so much for the game spotting. I had had this preconceived notion about getting a unique perspective on the game. But mostly what we did see was from quite far, or the shot came out blurry because the balloon was constantly moving. Also not very much new game, just things I had already seen. Zebra: Wildebeest:Giraffe:
But it was a unique experience, not like being in an airplane at all. You're standing in a wicker basket, nothing but hot air keeping you up, no windows between you and everything else. You're quite low compared to an aircraft, yet you can take your time looking at stuff, it's not zooming by you at hundreds of kilometres per hour.
Paradoxically, the most interesting part of the trip was the landing. Unlike an airplane you can't really steer a balloon. You can go up a bit higher or down a bit lower and hope that you find an aircurrent there that will take you in the direction that you want. But basically you're more or less at the mercy of the wind. So when the time comes to land you don't have an airport or a landing strip. You just kind of aim for a fairly open patch that won't snag the balloon up or anything. But what happens if you don't find one? That is what happened to us. Luckily the "ground crew" were there with a jeep. Our pilot attached a cable to the balloon and they pulled us along:
until we were close enough to a path that they could attach the cable to a jeep. Then they just drove us along nice and slow until we found an empty patch and set down:


Wanna see more of my aerial adventure? Click here

Next: Down by the River

What do you call a group of zebras

Well, a group of lions is called "a pride"; a group of dolphins is called "a pod", a group of birds is called "a flock". So what is a group of zebras?
There is something funny about zebras. It's not just that they look like they're wearing a clown suit, and it's not just that "punk" mane of hair (btw did you notice how the zebra's colour extend into the mane?). They're just...funny looking.
Zebras don't chew the cud, so in order to extract the maximum benefit from the grass they eat, it has to undergo a sort of fermentation process in their stomach. You can always tell a healthy zebra by its large fat taut belly, which is a sign that fermentation is proceeding there as it should.
Each zebra has a unique pattern of stripes, and contrary to what I'd always thought they're not just black and white, they have these sort of brownish yellow stripes in between as well.
It turns out that zebras are sort of horny little critters, and will mate with just about anything (reminds me of someone that I know....). They can get quite vicious during mating season, and from all accounts you do not want to get bitten by a zebra. Look at this poor guy who had his tail bitten off:

Oh, and just in case you're interested: it's "a dazzle of zebras".

More of my zebra pictures
Next: Look! Up there! It's a bird! No, it's a plane! No, it's -

How do you tell the difference between a male giraffe and a female giraffe?

Here is a picture of a male:And here is a picture of a female:See the difference? No? Try clicking on the pictures to get a larger version
What? You still don't see it? But it is so.... so... obvious! Look at the pictures again, I'll give you a hint: look up, not down.
Give up? OK, I'll let you in on the secret: Here is larger picture of a male.(Click on the picture to see a bigger version, if you need one). Look at the horns on his head. Technically they are not horns, they're called ossicones. Note that they are covered with hair except at the tips. The tip is bald. That is because when the males get horny they use their horns...errr ossicones to establish dominance (and therefore access to breeding females). So the hairs get worn down. Females, on the other hand, don't fight so often so the hairs on their ossicones grow longer. So you can see from quite far that the female has black tufts on her ossicones whereas the males tend to have bald tips.

In this picture you can see a mother and son. Both have got black hairs on their ossicones. That is because the youngster is still a bit too young to get involved in mating.
Notice that some of the giraffes have light brown spots and some have dark brown spots. There is only one species of giraffe, but there are several subspecies. The darker giraffes are a Kenyan subspecies.
I have a soft spot for giraffes. They're so peaceful and graceful. It's also interesting to note that giraffes chew the cud and have split hooves, so they are 100% kosher.Giraffes have very high blood pressure. Well, they have to don't they? Otherwise how could they pump blood up 2 metres of neck to get to their brains. They have a sort of sponge-y bone in their chest that acts to reduce the blood pressure when they bend their necks to drink or whatever. Did you know that giraffes are the only animals that need less water than camels?

How not to be seen

This giraffe has definitely learned the value of not being seen...
See more giraffe pictures here

Next: What do you call a group of zebras?

The Leopard

Let's face it: lions are basically very lazy animals. If they happen to be resting somewhere even if it is hot and their siesta is being disturbed by tourists and other pests they will still remain there, lyin' around. Leopards, on the other hand are much more solitary animals, so sighting one is much rarer.
We saw this guy resting near the road in the Kruger National Park.You tend to forget that a leopard is actually a larger version of our housecats until they do something so... cat-like that the comparison is inevitable.

I vaant to be aloone

After allowing us to take a couple of pictures he got up and did a very good impression of Greta Garbo, and stalked off into the bushes.

Check out my other Leopard pictures

Next: How do you tell a male giraffe from a female?

Why is the White Rhinocerous not White?

As you can see from this picture of a White Rhino and her calf, they aren't really white they're sort of grey. So where does the "white" part of the name come from?
Well, the real name is "Square Lipped Rhino" because their mouths are sort of square. The original Dutch Settlers called them "Wijd Rhino", meaning Wide Rhino because of the shape of the mouth. And the English of course misunderstood the "wijd" to mean "white" and so the myth was born.
Another common myth about Rhinos is that they are short-sighted. That is also not true, Rhinos have quite good eyesight. But since their eyes are on the sides of their heads they don't have binocular vision, and they can't really see what is in front of them. So you could stand like one metre in front of a Rhino and it wouldn't see you (but it would most probably smell you), whereas if you're standing 50 metres to the side it would most definitely see you. I find it incredible that in this day and age Rhinos are still being poached to provide some old fool with a supposed cure for his impotency. That is why I really like reading stories like this one wherein three hapless poachers get ambushed by angry animals, and one of them ends up being poached by lions.

For more rhino pictures, check out my Rhino page
Next: The Leopard

Elephants on Parade

Look out! Look out!
Pink elephants on parade
Here they come!
Hippety hoppety
They're here and there
Pink elephants ev'rywhere
From "Dumbo the Flying Elephant" by Walt Disney

OK so they weren't pink but there were lots of elephants...
This elephant in the Pilansberg National Park was just in the mood, although the female wasn't:Just after I took these pictures the male charged at our safari vehicle and we beat a hasty retreat. As we drove off he raised his trunk and trumpeted something about "bloody paparazzi" and "who do you think we are, Brad and Angelina?"
Kidding aside, elephants can be quite dangerous. A relative of mine was gored to death by an elephant who didn't like the fact that she was too close to a calf.
Most male elephants live on their own, when they are fully grown they are chased away by the other grown elephants to prevent elephant inbreeding.So they go around on their own living the swinging bachelor life (or maybe with another young male or two) and if they come across a herd with a female in heat then they try their luck.

In the right place at the right time

While driving through the Chobe National Park we stopped to admire some hippos. And we would have totally missed this herd of elephants about 100 metres back who came down to the river to drink and have a mudbathThey even had a young calf with them who joined in the fun. I love the way he flattened his ears against his head so he won't get water in his ears.The adults were very protective of him, always keeping him surrounded. I guess even a baby elephant is vulnerable to predators. I couldn't help but remember all those stories about Babar the Elephant that my mother used to read to me when I was small...
After they came out of the water they disappeared into the bush, and about half a minute after that another safari full of tourists came along. By then there was no sign that the elephants had even been there, except for the....

Wanna see more pictures? Check out my other elephant pictures

Next:Why do they call it a White Rhinocerous?