The smaller things include bugs, reptiles and plants. Andrew had information on all of the things we saw, from the largest to the smallest bits. Some plants were edible and were used for medicinal reasons and some were straight up poisonous. The flightless dung beetles are specific to this area and they have their own special challenges. The female makes the dung balls and the males don't help much. All the males do is climb on top of the dung ball and try to impress the female. If she approves she will mate with the male and then dig a hole, plant her egg in the dung. She will stay with the ball and egg for a month or so until the new little beetle is hatched and ready to go. Then she heads back out. We saw two turtles, one soft shell and one hard. They have another turtle that gets to be a meter in diameter but we did not see one of those.
Our Exit
We have arrived!
Here we are to sign in proceed onward
The infamous giant land snail
Milkweed seed pod. Andrew told us of the prank he would play on hapless folks. He would have them grab the seed pod and tell them that it is the Old Mans Balls
Our safari vehicle
One giant pile of Elephant poo and a puddle of pee. A Bull elephant can push out 100 kg of poo per day!
The flightless dung beetle is the only dung beetle that can not fly. It is probable due to the nature of the undergrowth. It is too dense for a beetle to fly through.
Nile Henge Terrapin with some mud stuck to its shell
A blast of color
This angulated tortoise was speedy as he crossed the road
This plant, a Spekboom or Pork Bush. is an amazing plant. It is edible and it can regenerate simply by pushing a branch into the ground and giving it a bit of water. It can grow in soil that reached 70 C It is medicinal and is used to treat heat exhaustion, blisters, throat infections, pimples, rashes and sunburn. More amazing, it is a huge carbon sink it can sequester 2 to 5 tons of carbon per acre. It pulls carbon dioxide out of the air day and night and uses the carbon in the leaves and stems.
This is the Rhombic Sheep Biter Snake
The old timers thought that they would bite the sheep's udder and drink the milk. I wonder what the old timers were drinking?
It was in the middle of the road soaking up the sun
So Andrew decided to break the rules and scoot him off of the road. It tried to bite him but he was faster than the fast snake.
All the bad weather was off in the distance by the coast. Yet the sun was shining on us at Addo.
The new port an part of the salt works
The pinkish hue of salt being made
