Happy Monkeys

When we bought the lodge we bought it lock, stock and barrel. This included all the furniture, curtains, wine, trophy heads and various other surprises hidden in the cupboards. Also ‘included’ was our ‘bush wake up service’ consisting of a troop of vervet monkeys, who sleep in the trees around the lodge.

At the moment our monkeys are in hog heaven. Not only are the guava trees starting to bear fruit (none for us as the monkeys eat it before it is ripe!), but our wild fig tree on the front lawn is also full of figs for them to eat. So they spend the first few hours of the day stuffing their faces with figs, and a couple of hours in the afternoon as well.

A quick blog about Lions

Since the beginning of this year we have been spoilt by lion sightings.

We hear them roaring close by and they regularly wake us up at night…….

We see them when we are coming back from getting the mail…

We see them passing the house…..

We see them just ‘lion’ around….

And we even see them pooping….

So we are very spoilt, and because of this we almost take them for granted and see them as big ol’ kitty cats.

Until…. you are at a lion sighting and this big male just walks straight at you, looking you in the eye… and then when he passes the car, so close that you can almost touch him, you realise that he is huge, almost level with the car window…. then, when the goosebumps subside, you are once again aware that these are Lions, and they are the owners of the Bush!

Expect the unexpected

As far as the larger mammals on the reserve, we generally have a good idea of what we see or what we are going to see or are looking for. We quite often hear or smell them before we see them or there are other signs that they are there. The smaller animals however are often unexpected sightings, and sometimes very unusual!

On Saturday we were having a relaxing day after saying goodbye to our guests. As I could hear a lot of birds outside the bathroom window I decided to take the camera and see what I could find. Unfortunately most of them decided to stay in the leaves of the trees but I managed to get this rather nice shot of a Scarlet-Chested Sunbird.

And then, as I rounded the corner of the Lodge I saw a Leopard…….

…………………Tortoise that is. Actually it was two of them, and they were finally catching up to the fact that it had been Valentine’s Day a week ago. He looked absolutely thrilled, she was more interested in the grass blade she was eating!

And then after all that excitement I had another nice find, one of my flip-flops that the monkeys had stolen was lying there waiting for me. None the worse for wear apart from some extra bite marks :)

I’m still missing one of my other pair, but that one is bright pink with a flower on it, and it has gone walkabout before, so I don’t think that will come back any time soon. Maybe we will see a monkey wearing a pink flower on its head one day…