- This is a cool story about how the Oryx survive in the desert. To set the scene: imagine pictures of Oryx on a dune with nothing but sand in sight. Most definitely no water. The Oryx walk very slowly dragging their feet, conserving energy and avoiding sweating precious moisture. They know when the fog is coming in and climb up to the top of the nearest dune and stand there with their mouths open. The condensation in their mouths, on and in their noses can provide a litre of water. That is how they survive.
- We saw many lawns/gardens wrecked by mounds of earth that are mole hills. Apparently the male digs a hole and sits underneath waiting for the girl mole to totter past... and fall in. I have not checked to see whether that is true or not because I thought it was such a great story and if it's wrong I don't want to know!
- We saw a Cape Cobra crossing a road one day (a fairly rare sighting) unfortunately I didn't get a serviceable pic of him but I saw him rearing.
- In Namibia there are thousands and thousands of termite hills. Most were a bright orange colour, tall and conical - taller than me anyway. The info is that the tall funnel acts to regulate the temperature of the colony. In cold weather the workers shut off the tunnels and the complex warms up and the reverse happens to cool it down. Each colony has a King, Queen, Prince & Princess. The Prince & Princess fly away and land when their wings drop off (not very far) at which point they start a new colony. No one could tell me whether there were genetic mutations as a result of all this incestuous action. Colonies are often sited under a tree because termites like the droppings of roosting birds.
- Often signs in other countries are amusing and as usual we continued our collection. One that we were particularly disappointed not to get, was a traffic triangle on a motorway… warning of Hi Jackers… true story! Unfortunately we shot past it at 120kph, unable to reverse and did not see another.
   At Amazizi, a Zulu village  |     |
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