So for the first time in 3 months, apart from waking up at 5 to say goodbye, I got to have a really good lie-in until 6.30!!! Hard to believe isn’t it? But its turning out to be a very good day. It was decided that I needed a whole day to pack and prepare to leave (I really only needed about an hour) but being able to just go for a walk and just enjoy my last day here is exactly what I needed.
And my walk has been very successful. I have learned, the hard way, that you need to have your camera with you every minute of the day, and sometimes even the night (we have had visits in the night of bats and other unidentified organisms). I was originally going to go to the Avondona to pass the time and see if I could take some pictures. Anyway, I was wearing a black t-shirt and soon decided that it would take a lot less effort and produce a lot less sweat to simply lie down on a rock in the sun than go for an up hill walk. So that’s what I did. 20 minutes in I decided to move to another rock that wasn’t in the sun quite as much. It was only about 15 meters from the other one but you definitely got a different view, because as soon as I sat down I noticed something that was not always there. All I could see was a fat, fluffy, black backside will a long tale protruding from behind some leaves not 15 meters away. The pizotte
heard the Velcro on my camera bag as I pulled my camera out but he hung around long enough to allow me to get some pictures. Typically, the only photo that I got where the focus was precisely on him, he was half hidden as he ran away. Even so, I thought it was good because it gave people at home an idea of what a pizotte was. And then I spotted another one! They do tend to go in groups and I was keeping an eye out for any others but even so I felt very lucky to spot one let alone 2.So I just sat there for a while looking out for more animals to see before deciding to start wondering back.
Now, something I’ve been wanting to do since my last visit here 2 years ago was to get a photo, in focus, of a toucan.
I have seen them a number of times, one time it was only 2 meters from me and another time they were outside my cabin, and typically they were the two times I didn’t have my camera to hand. It came to a point that when I went to get the Durika photos and general photos of me off Eugo, I asked if I could take some of his photos of animals I had seen but not got pictures of. The toucan was one of those photos.So when I heard their distinctive call, I thought I would try and see if I could creep up on them. I soon realized that they were actually quite close to the path and that I may just be able to get close enough to see them before they fly off. They are pretty big birds, with black, red, yellow, orange and sometimes green plumage so you would think that they are easy to spot. But I only saw them when I was maybe 8- 10 meters away. There were two of them and I couldn’t believe my luck, pizottes and toucans. I almost jumped when I heard their harsh call just a couple of meters away to my right. And sure enough there stood the impressive creature not 5 meters from me in the tree. I have probably half filled my memory card with pictures of these three birds and its going to be a pig to sort out, but I was so happy that I had finally got those pictures.
But that wasn’t the end of my animal encounters. Remember in one of my earlier accounts, I wrote about the army ants that had invaded Eugo’s cabin? Well he had said that they would come to visit our cabin before I left. I had no clue that Eugo was being so specific. I was just about to go into my cabin when I saw the highways of ants.
These little creatures are viscous little things and kill anything that moves. So who needs bug or pest spray, when all you really need are thousands of army ants. You could see all sorts of animals taking refuge, spiders, other ants, cockroaches and even scorpions. Its weird seeing an animal you normally associate with being at the top of the food chain, or at least near the top, running for its life across the floor. I was a little concerned to find out how many scorpions we actually had in our cabin,
I must have seen at least 8 (but only 1 of which I saw escape). But it was very strange because I wanted to get a picture of all the ants all over my bed (I had all my stuff on the bed ready to be packed but because of their visit, packing was postponed), and I kept hearing a gentle patter on the ground. Looking up I saw the roof covered in ants and some were jumping off. I had a good look at them and realised that they were a different type of ant that were willing to risk jumping off the roof to get away. But they weren’t the only ones. I saw one scorpion jump off the drain pipe to the ground only to be met by more ants.So yeah, it has been a very eventful morning when it comes to animals and photography.
Well I better go, Eugo invited me over at his house for lunch so I don’t want to be late. (I was going to shower and look a bit more presentable, but I wasn’t too keen on showering with army ants crawling over the door, so I just hope I don’t smell too bad).
