Penga Ndlovu wrote:After the setting up camp, beers, braai and idle banter it was time for the more serious stuff.
BH wanted a Nogga and took out the cups, Amarula and Klipdrift and ordered our designated coffeemaker to start doing his job. -O
As all of them were still virgins in the Nogga field I thought of starting them off easy and poured a week one.
A 75% coffee one.
For the ladies it was already a bit too much and the guys wanted "Nogga" one.
"A bit stronger this time please".
Ok. Let's do it. //\0-- //\0-- //\0--
That second one knocked the wind out of the Pink Bunny and Nature Baby and off they went, with wobbly legs, to their tents.
The bunny was sort of thinking about having a "private" (as if that is possible in a tent //\0-- ) "conversation" with the hunny, but I am pretty sure he was glad to reach the pillow before he passed out.
-O -O -O -O -O
A man of many talents I see oh crazy one. You cook, clean, sew and make a fairly useful bar lady. So what I can't understand is why you're so anti Pink.
On the other side, you have some fair photgraphic abilities, you know a few things about the aminals, and those mind reading skillz.
OMW.
Flutts, looks like Amoli's monitor had a sudden voltage overload and exploded. I hope the lizard got away safely before that nasty explosion...
'k So after deciding that not much was happening at this hide, it was remotely possible that we might see more out on the road. As we were leaving we bumped into RobT and his LO. So we chatted a bit while his SO was engaged in the ritual of burning the toast. I think RT said she was so good at it by now that she didn't even need the toaster any more.
Just outside the hide we saw a green backed heron who made off before we could get his mug-shot. From here on we saw many birds. I think there was a European Bee eater in every tree. (at least one with several in most.) I have often wondered at the navigation abilitites of birds. They seem to be able to just take off and head in the correct direction and not get lost. Then again, I wonder how European bee eaters ended up here in the south of Africa. Are their built-in navigators that bad?
Or is it that they are confused. How do they find European bees here in Africa?
The highlight of my morning was definitely the spotting of a Diderick Cuckoo. The very first one for me which made it a truly special sighting. We even managed to get a picture of him.
Before the hide, there were some tell take signs of big cats around with some recent and decent paw prints along the road. Once at Manayane, we decided that we needed a different automated coffee dispenser and had a cup at the restaurant.
Compared to anything Kruger has to offer (from my own experience) the restaurant was far superior. The service was stunning too by comparison. We ordered, received, drank and paid for our coffee in less than one hour.
On our way out I had an urge to satisfy. (Now, now! This is a family show remember?)
The bird aviary was not easy to find, and was well stocked with I think 6 birds. (No, not six species. BIRDS!) Two of them were African Grey Hornbills.
From Manyane, the game viewing certainly improved. We came across a few decent bird sightings including a jackal buzzard in flight, an Elephant and one or two others. Compared to the earlier stint, it was positively scintillating viewing.
We even almost had a head on collision with our errant and absent Amoli and navigator who were just as busy as us looking at the ellie. The road, not so much. It occurred to me only much later just why Amoli got "lost". Her navigator doesn't speak. At ALL!!
So we decided that having met up, now would be a good time to feed the inboard crocs, have a cup of coffee, and trade stories of what we had seen.
Getting the skottel going for breakfast proved a bit much for one of my impaired mental capacity, now much reduced by having one drink too many the night before. (Alas, the crazy one is half correct. I did have one of those cocktails he has a funny name for and then I had a Nogga one. The first weak one rabbit punched me and the second kicked my butt in.) So after several blisters on fingers and one or two choice words, we got brekkie done.
It took about an hour after this to drive the very short distance to the Mankwe Hide.
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