Things that go bump in the night

As late day settled into twilight, Dierdre pulled the truck over in a clearing and asked everyone to get out for some snacks and cocktails. Out of the back of the truck came coolers full of wine, beer, ice and liquor for mixed drinks. And then three tins full of snacks – are we’re not talking chips and pretzels. We had vegetarian sushi rolls, small squares of toast with grilled springbok (a version of venison) and other stuff on it, and fresh fruit kabobs. Simply delicious and amazing.

After the quick cleanup, it was now dark. But the next show was about to begin as we would continue on our game drive for another two hours. Themba was given a spotlight by Dierdre and as she began to drive, he would move the spotlight back and forth 180 degrees, side-scanning in a straight arc but scanning up and down trees as well. The picture doesn't do it justice but you can see how far the spotlight reached. He was looking for eyes. Since most nocturnal creatures have special eyes that allow them to see at night, it also means there’s some type of reflective part of the eye that allows it to stand out among just about anything. It was these reflections that Themba was looking for. Themba was so experienced, he could identify what type of animal it was just by seeing the reflection of the eyes – and it could be hundreds of yards away. Themba's scanning was constant, like some science fiction cyborg robot - he had this uncanny ability to see peripherally without moving his head.

One of the more interesting things that Themba came across was a 10 foot tall bush with all green leaves except one yellowish leaf. That was enough for Themba to stop Dierdre and then she saw it too. She stopped the truck, got out and pulled a 8 inch long chameleon from the branch, resting it on her shoulder. The chameleon immediately turned dark brown/grey in anger as it was angry, Dierdre told us. After all of us got a chance to see, she put it back on the branch and we continued on our journey.

Now dark for over an hour, there not only was relief from the intense heat and sun, but it was quickly becoming cooler, where a jacket or blanket was needed.

As we continued our drive, Themba did a backward sort of scan and found something that was going to look pretty bizarre - a hippo out of water. Seems they only come out of the water at night to feed and we spotted one, covered in wetness -- a sort of sticky secretion that I can't remember what the purpose of it was. The hippo just stood there, almost deer in the headlights style with it's head hung low. It was almost as if it was saying, "If I don't move, and avert my eyes, then these people won't see me." Although we were shining the spotlight on it, it didn't budge. As we drove on we found two other hippos out of the water as well.

It was after 8pm as we made our way back to the lodge to get cleaned up before dinner after what turned out to be an exhilarating first game drive.