Sura ya Mwisho

The Final Chapter

What a week that was. We have seen more wildlife in a week than many see in their lives. We are privileged to have done so. I can only hope that this variety of wildlife will persist for our grandchildren, and theirs, to see and marvel at.

Despite having written seventeen chapters covering twenty-eight different species, there were many more than that we saw. It would be impossible, as well as interminably boring, to include everything here, but this final chapter is for those that got away.

The Bat-eared Fox.

It's a fox.

With bat's ears.

The warthog, now apparently renamed the Pumba.

The mongoose. Most of these run off before photos are possible, except of their backsides. These Pygmy mongooses however like to pose.

These Rock Hyrax appeared previously in this blog, being nearly munched by a baby leopard, and I promised them their own chapter. Sadly, they've been downgraded to a bit-part.

Anywhere there is a rock, there is a rock hyrax. They just seem to be hanging about everywhere.

They're something like a cross between a guinnea pig and a rat. They're almost cute, but not quite...

This whole time, in all these chapters, we've mentioned no primates other than humans. Actually, we've hardly mentioned insects and reptiles apart from in the into, but anyway, just to balance things, here are the only two primates found in the Serengeti:

The Vervet monkey, he of the blue balls that I refrained from photographing...

 And then, of course, there are those vicious, dangerous killers. Man. Oops, sorry, the gentle baboon.

 The little guys can be cute...

 except when they dangle their thingies...

So that's it. All done.

An amazing week full of amazing wildlife, plus some random bits of weather.

Thanks to Nomad for the accommodation and food, thanks to Dixon for helping teach me Swahili, and most of all, thanks Ian for guiding us through this cornucopia of life. (Hehe, he will be desperately looking that word up to see if it is a complement or not.)

Until the next time:

Cheers!

Maisha Marefu

(long life)