Moving into 2021 - Woken up by a troop of baboons

As promised in the last blog, the story about the amazing change of years from 2020 to a hopefully better 2021.

We booked into the Aquila Game Reserve in the Karoo, one of the driest landscapes in South Africa. I will spare you the drama of the drive due to the car malfunctioning again, but the reception and welcome at Aquila was a nice change, and the biggest surprise was when the porter told us we had the honeymoon chalet. I had just booked a premier chalet, as these are stand alone and on a hill with presumably a better view over the reserve, but it turned out to be the top one - and the only one with an outside jacuzzi.

After lunch and exploring the facilities the first game drive started (we had three over the two days with two different guides). I did not know what to expect, having previous visits to game reserves in mind. Most of the animals in Aquila are rescues or come from other areas, but all are there that you would expect.

And some amazing sightings and experiences:

Giraffes as carnivores?

Did you know that giraffes are carnivores and eat other animals?

They don't, but they eat bones that they pick up on the ground to help with their digestive system.

Close-up and personal. I had the wrong lens for the first game drive, so mainly got close-ups. Makes me wonder what to see on some pictures.

Which animal is this?

a. Elephant

b. Rhino

c. ...

The lions are kept in a separate enclosure as they are rescued from a breeding farm and not used to hunt on their own. So they were mostly sleeping and looked at us with disinterest. But they were incredibly quick on their feet and ready to jump onto the car when they had enough of us. The last pictures is the pussy cat just before getting angry and up to jump. Luckily we escaped due to the quick reaction of our guide. Thank you!

The cutest of all was to see the baby rhinos. Valentine is nearly 1 year old (born on Valentine's Day last year) and the other one was just three weeks old when we visited. And as all mothers, the rhino mothers were very protective and looked after their babies.

And of course the story with the baboons. On New Year at about 5am, after few hours of sleep, we heard foot steps outside the chalet and then scratching on the roof, not sure what it was. And then one after another, baboons walked over or past the chalet, some inquisitive youngsters watched through the windows whether there might be any food inside. This took at least twenty minutes, must have been a big troop. Unfortunately, no pictures of that sighting.

Some more exciting pictures are in the Photo Album.

All in all, what a great start of the year.