Giraffes

 On our last game drive in Sabi Sands Game Reserve we were on a mission. Each jeep contained 6 guests, a guide (who was also the driver) and a tracker. Most of the people in our jeep wanted to see a giraffe. We met up with other groups at dinner each evening and all had stories to tell of the herds of giraffe they had seen and how impressive the animals were. Our group had not seen one.

We spent several hours driving to and then searching a remote section of the reserve in hopes of finding  the large animals. You would think they would be incredibly easy to spot from a distance but that is not so. Since they tend to hang out in the areas of taller trees, they are remarkably invisible until you are right on top of them.

We drove by many other animals in our search, foregoing the opportunity to observe others in our quest for the tall, elusive giraffe. Our tracker was obviously unhappy. He repeated numerous times that in 20 years of working he had never NOT been able to find giraffe for his guests. Then the radio crackled and another guide who knew of our search came on to report he had spotted one large lone bull. Not only was it in an area some distance from our location, it was moving into an area belonging to another camp where we could not follow. The next 20 minutes or so were exhilarating as our driver told us all to hold on tight while he took the jeep to maximum speed over rough tracks and cross-country in an effort to got to the animal before it was out of our reach.

Once we arrived at the general location where the big bull had been seen, we stopped to figure out our next move. Then, as we were sitting quietly, the giant animal suddenly appeared beside us as if by magic. It was the most "Jurassic Park" like moment of our trip. Everyone knows giraffe are big but all I can say is "Wow"! This guy was breathtakingly tall and on a mission of his own. We were able to get off a dozen shots before he disappeared into the forbidden territory of the other camp. Was it worth it? You bet!

Not only was he tall, he was somewhat battered - probably from a fight with another bull. An oxpecker was working hard to clean bugs from a wound on the giraffe's neck and he had a cut on his face that was still bleeding.

 He was kind enough to look back one last time as he headed off into the sunset. See the oxpecker now traveling on his head?

 Another surprise of Africa was in discovering that they have many different types of starlings and all are beautiful. We are so used to the rather annoying invasive groups of colorless starlings in the US that I never realized there was so much more to the species. There are 13 different types of starlings in southern Africa. Pictured here are the Cape Glossy (above) and the Violet-backed (below).