"STOP THE BAKKIE!" the vehicle rocked with the echoes of the scream. It was a good thing I wasn't driving. Instead of performing some wild 360 handbreak turn, FarmerBuckaroo calmly asked;
"Why should I stop the bakkie? There are not stampeding elephant. And I most certainly don't see a black hole or an approaching tsunami."
"Giraffe! Daddy, GIRAFFE!!"
We live in Africa and yet each sighting of the extraordinary creatures we share this corner of paradise with, is a thing of wonder. There were easily a dozen giraffe sauntering parallel to the country road. We stopped. Although not as suddenly as the little screamer had hoped. The giraffe seemed as fascinated with the little humans as they were with the beautiful ships of the African desert.
While we stared at the slowly moving giraffe, the awareness that we were being watched caused me to glance around. At the top of a nearby tree was a magnificent Southern Chanting Goshawk. He glared down on us. I had just enough time to turn the heads of the children and focus my camera in his direction. Then he lazily took to the skies. He circled twice and disappeared from sight.
We turned to say our goodbyes to the beautiful giraffe. There in the distance, hiding among the bushes was a lovely female kudu.
There were most certainly other kudu around but they were not making their presence known. We climbed into our bakkie to continue home after visiting our friends in the neighbouring valley. In the hopes of more sightings we crawled along in the bakkie. We were almost home.
It was a good thing we were driving so slowly because we glimpsed the very shy Hoopoe sitting on a fence post on our border. This time the request to "Stop the bakkie - please" was in a calm tone.
BuckarooBabies and I climbed out and walked the rest of the way home. My ears were filled with dramatic whispers of "What else will we see?" "Do you think the giraffe will come here?" "Why don't we ever see kudu at home?" Then; "Ooooooo! Look there! At the bloukop koggelmander!"
Sure enough there, lazing in the delicious winter sun was the brilliantly coloured blue Southern Rock Agama. And right beside him, his very pregnant wife. We froze. They were already frozen. Only their eyes swivelled cautiously to watch us.
We would probably all still be standing there. Lovely lizard pair and fascinated children staring at each other. However homesteading responsibilities beckoned and the fast-setting winter sun motivated us. It had been a #beautifulsunday and utterly #sublimesunday. What a delight it is to live in this, our beautiful African home sweet homestead.
