My favorite African memory

12/18/14

Gosh, there are so many stories and photos and things I could write about. It seems like I could be doing Africa blogs well into 2016.  I’m sure I’ll do a few more, but today I would like to share my favorite memory of Africa.

We were in South Africa, staying at Mjejane Lodge just outside of Kruger National Park. Each

afternoon we went on a game drive, and then stopped for cocktails at sunset. (I LOVE this safari ritual. We did it on every afternoon game drive throughout the trip.) This day we were along a river that was full of crocodiles and hippos. We enjoyed a classic rosy sunset as we sipped our wine.

On the drive back to the lodge, the jeeps split up and took different dirt trails. It was now dark and as we putted along the trail, suddenly a rhino appeared in front of us. Our guide stopped and turned the engine off. In perfect darkness we could still see the rhino and we could also hear it breathing, moving and chomping on grass. We all held our breath, and then two more rhinos came out of the bush and crossed in front of us. They stopped a few yards away and began grazing. We could hardly contain our delight.

But then everything shifted. It was the night of the full blood moon in October, and just then a HUGE red moon rose over the trees on our right. We were sitting in the dark, silent, with three rhinos and a red full moon rising next to us. It was a time of complete peace, total awe and connection with nature.

 There are no photos of this moment. We just drank it in and felt the energy of the land, the moon, the rhinos and Africa itself. Eventually we had to leave, but it is forever in my heart.

African monkeys

12/8/14

I love primates. Seeing chimpanzees and gorillas in the wild are dreams I have not yet fulfilled, but I love seeing any monkeys or apes. During our Africa trip we often encountered two different species.

The chacma baboon is a very large monkey weighing up to100 pounds that inhabits southern Africa. They live in social groups called troops in a variety of habitats. It was not unusual for us to encounter 50-100 baboons at a time! These troops contained several adult males, many females and their offspring. It was clear who the dominant male was by his size and the respect the other baboons gave him. Watching the kids play was a total delight.

These omnivorous baboons forage during the day looking for fruit, insects, seeds,

grasses and scavenging for game meat. They normally run away from humans but are becoming habituated in some areas. A troop that frequented the area near Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, was often roaming around our lodge, hanging out at the pool, looking in windows and trying to steal food from the kitchen! One even relieved him self on our front porch (I’ll spare you the photo).

Baboons also use very loud calls when they feel threatened. Our guide knew that there was a large predator around when the impala were all looking in one direction and the baboons were screaming. Within a short while we were able to locate a leopard in the area. Thanks baboons!

We also enjoyed seeing Vervet monkeys. These mostly vegetarian monkeys have black faces and gray body hair. They are much smaller than baboons weighing only up to 15 pounds and they spend much of their time in trees. They also have alarm calls when predators are in the area.

Vervet monkeys are very naughty. Bob and I encountered them on our honeymoon in the Caribbean where they are famous for stealing tourist drinks. It was quite odd to find drunken monkeys staggering around some of these beach bars.

In southern Africa, the vervets associate humans with food. Staff at the lodges were constantly chasing them away from the food tables and it was common to see them peering down from the trees. One day on safari, we were stopped for tea and cookies, and a vervet monkey jumped on one of the woman in our group and grabbed her cookie in a flash. They were pretty bold in some of the national parks but always fun to watch.