Little Critters

As we are flying on to Cape Town this afternoon, I have a moment to reflect on our last day at Impodima. It was a good one.

We chose to skip the 5 am Bush drive and slept in. What a luxury! After a late breakfast when our group returned from the bush (still no lion sightings), we lounged on our cabin deck and watched the little critters parade past. 

There were multiple groups of impala, with their curious fawns. The little ones ventured close to the deck, but moms kept them in tow. Then came a gang of mongoose.  About the size of a small dog, they scurried around, then suddenly stopped, sitting up on their haunches to check us out. Their little ones tagged behind the adults, seemingly easily distracted by anything they ran across. Really cute little guys.

Since we had had so much rain the day before, we could smell the freshness in the air. And the leaves were popping out bright green everywhere. It also was moth birthing day, I suppose. Thousands (no kidding) of small white and yellow moths flew from the bushes around our cabin. They came in waves. We decided they must have just "hatched out".

And the birds!!! The book in our room says there are 200 species in the reserve. We saw far less than 200, but they were SO colorful (tropical) - and noisy. My favorites were the Yellow Birds...no, not their scientific name. We had them everywhere, and really enjoyed watching them weave nests that hung from trees like tiny Christmas balls. The hole to enter each ball was at the bottom, so I have no idea why eggs won't just fall out.

Our day of little critters was broken up by three elephants who walked right by us when we walked to the "hide" to peak out the windows at the watering hole and drink a beer. Double treat!

The afternoon Bush drive did not turn up a lion, as hard as Sam looked. (Maybe next trip?) But we did see a herd of zebras, elephants with babies, wilderness,  mom rhinos nursing their babes, newborn impala who looked like they couldn't be a day old. Three BIG black rhinos watched as we enjoyed our Sundowner gin and tonic. And what a gorgeous sunset! Driving back we spotted two owls atop trees.

A great last day of safari. Never done one? Give it a try.  Every moment was something new.