Spoor and Footprints

On Sunday we were up at sunrise and after a quick breakfast snack we set out for a walk.

There is a walking trail that can be followed that makes a circle through the reserve. As we were pressed for time we didn't follow this but instead stuck to the road and then went off into the bush along some game trails and then worked our way back to the rondawel.

 Although it was already quite hot, it's lovely being out early. We had a great time and came across all kinds of interesting things as well as a lot of spoor of animals that had walk in the road and we added our footprints to theirs. :)

In the picture above you can see the hoof-print of a giraffe. We followed the spoor for quite a while until it went off into the bush near a small dam.

Giraffe

We also came across this little paw-print that was probably made by one of rhe smaller wild cats or a civet.

We met up with a lot of warthog families. They look and act so funny, but are so cute! :D Warthogs often use termite mounds to sleep in.

The highlight of the morning came just after we passed this small waterhole and came across a family of Aardvarks ouside their burrow in a large termite mound.

Aardvarks are nocturnal animals and also very shy so it's not often that you get to see them. They all disappeared round the other side of the mound the minute they saw us (didn't know they could move that fast!). Sadly no chance for a photo but the picture underneath will give you an idea of what they look like. It was really special to see them!

Although there are Leopard, Cheetah, Wild Dog and Spotted Hyena in the reserve we didn't come across any of them, but did see some evidence of 'meals' some of them had, like this half-a-ribcage.

Here's a picture of Mom bring up the rear - it also explains why so many of the photos of Rachel and I are taken from the back! :P For Mom walking in the bush is like reading a book of the area. She notices everything - from the different patterns on the tree trunks, to tiny insect trails and nests and she enjoys it all so much. But this means she's always lagging behind and Dad is always stopping to wait for her to catch up. :) Rachel and I are then usually in the middle. The three of us usually do a lot of back-tracking because  Mom is often calling us back to look at something she's found. We don't mind at all though as whatever it is, it is always interesting. :)

You often come across little antlion burrows in the sand. At one place there was a group of really large ones.From the largest creature to the smallest, God's creation is so incredible!

We were all sad when it was time to end our walk and our stay. After we had packed up everything we we went to hand in the rondawel keys and had a long fascinating talk with the reserve manager.

We then left to slowly make our way back home. We just can't wait to go back to the reserve again. Hopefully by then the rains would have come and the bush will be lush and green.