(Loz the Russian theme goes out to you)
After dinner, headed to
the beautiful Halali waterhole. One ellie, but apparently had again missed the herd of
elephants (had in the afternoon too). Soon enough though (luckily
not deterred by a group of noisy Russians arriving, smoking cigars, and setting up) a
couple of rhinos – mother and baby – came out for a drink. We'd
heard a sort of squeaking call for a while that we assumed was a
bird, but which sounded like a puppy. It was the baby
rhino! So cute, talking non stop to its grumpy mother who kept
shooing it away while she was drinking. It was a curious baby, poking
around and things in the grass and jumping back comically when things scared
it.
Nothing else for a
while and we went back to camp.
Our camping equipment
is great – we even have a (huger than we thought) portable fridge
that connects to the cigarette lighter while driving, and to the
campsite plugs at other times. During the night I heard rustling
around our campsite and I jumped out of bed (as much as that is
possible from a sleeping bag) half asleep thinking someone was
stealing our food, but on stumbling out I found the fridge door open
and a black and white animal half submerged in the fridge, and another couple busily rifling through our food, none
in the least concerned with my presence. Bits of our butter and
cheese wrappers were strewn around the campsite. This would have
confused us the next day, as the fridge door is big and heavy and we never even considered any animals would be able to get into it, had I not actually caught them brazenly in
the act. (probably would have blamed the Russians.)
I thought maybe the
animals were skunks, not having seen them (or badgers) before.
However, in my
sleepy haze I went back and told anna that skinks had gotten into the
fridge and eaten our food. She politely took this in
but had some confused thoughts about the diet and superhuman fridge-opening
abilities of these tiny reptiles, before I realised the next morning what I'd said and
told her it was actually skunks. So as it happens that was wrong too
- honey badgers! The staff hadn't told us these were around the
campsite or that they could open fridges (there hadn't been any in the previous camspite).
(Not a great photo but it was pitch black and was trying to juggle torch and camera and get the shot before they left!) We've since found out
they can be incredibly vicious - with their sharp claws and wriggly
skin, they can twist around in their skin and gouge prospective
predators' eyes out, and even lions won't touch them. I'm glad the
sight of me stomping around in pyjamas, wielding wild hair
and torch, eventually scared them off. Next day, early early morning
(before 5am, thanks again to very noisy shouty Russians) and off to the seaside town of Swakopmund.
