Chaminuka

Owen has already written about our game drive at Chaminuka Lodge and Nature Reserve (site of the infamous 'yion' incident) but I've got some photos from the day we well. What I wanted was a snap of us on the truck with Owen's gleeful face as he got to stand up with no seatbelt (again) and another of Finny crawling all over me while I somehow photographed the giraffe. It was a great little escape. The lodge has a beautiful website if you are interested in learning more about their 10,000 acre reserve. http://www.chaminuka.com/

We saw three giraffe (giraffes?) including this one which was seated. Giraffes apparently have quite a problem with their high blood pressure - it is necessary to get blood all the way up to their brains but if they lay down they are in real trouble! The most horizonal they get is this - seated. The bunch we saw were about 10 meters from the truck. There are something like 72 different animals on this reserve - we saw only a handful because the grass is so tall this time of year - nearly 2 meters tall. The grasses are usually burned in late May/June at the start of 'safari season.' This facilitates better wildlife viewing but it is these prescribed burns that prevent hot-fast fires from occurring later in the season.

We saw a group of ostriches on the game drive but as I was leaving the reserve with the boys, there were more just hanging out on the road.

Chaminuka has three elephants. The elephants have keepers which monitor them and also to keep them in one quadrant of the reserve, away from the livestock operations, the villages and the farm, etc.

Last but not least, the brothers, being knuckleheads.