The evil bird...
At the end of our drive around Ngorongoro Crater, our guide took us over to a small lake (still in the crater) where a dozen or so hippos were lounging just beneath the surface. There were plenty of other 4x4s and it was obvious that this was the lunch spot for just about every safari operator going. We got to use the washroom and then dug out the boxed-lunch that the lodge had prepared for us. Helene had spotted the nice tree by the water and wanted to go eat there while I was already preparing to tuck into my meal in the truck. But it’s a picnic, right? So off we go. Unfortunately, in his haste to go talk to his fellow guides and perhaps scare up some motor oil for our ailing Land Rover, Stephen had neglected to tell us just how dangerous it was to eat outside at this location. Not that the hippos were going to bound up onto shore or anything like that, no, the danger came from above: there were numerous Black Kite hawks that were circling the meadow and I even snapped a pic of one before it came after us. Yes, Helene had taken only two wee bites of her tasty piece of chicken before this big raptor swooped over my shoulder at high speed and knocked the frango out of her hand. The piece landed on the shore right by the water and before we could react, the bird was back on his second pattern and had snatched it up. He then engaged evasive manoeuvres as another bird tried to steal it from him – unsuccessfully, as it turned out. Well, for our part, we hustled back into the truck to finish our lunch — poor Helene bereft of her chicken.
Once done, we stood outside the truck (the birds don’t bother you if you have no food or reasonable facsimile thereof) waiting for Stephen when suddenly a guide in a truck off to our left shouted out that there was a snake behind us… Those are words that get you moving here in Africa and we backed away from the truck before moving in for a closer look at the serpent that had slithered between the back right wheel and the rock that Stephen had placed there to keep the truck from rolling away (yes, great vehicle, that…).
Not sure what it was but it wasn’t that big and the other guide didn’t think it was poisonous. We didn’t want to take any chances though so I didn’t poke it with a stick before we took this picture.
Oh and I just remembered that 4 zebras showed up and wandered by while we were eating too. And a couple of little birds actually came into the truck to try to steal food.
Quite the picnic!
No comments:
Post a Comment