Sock on Safari

When you go on safari in East or South Africa, it's mostly about the animals. As a biologist and photographer, that's just how I wanted it!

One of the main things you'll hear about in books, from your guide, and from other travelers is the Big Five. The concept of the Big Five was taken from big game hunters, an denotes the animals that were the most difficult to hunt, and which were the most desirable to hunt. They are also among the most dangerous animals.

On our safari, we were of course interested in seeing the Big Five. And I'm happy to say that we did! And so did the sock! So without further ado, here is the sock on safari:

Black Rhinoceros

OK, this one you kind of have to take my word for. The dark speck on the right of the picture? That's a rhino. This was one of our last animal sightings and probably the worst that we spent any time at, but we needed it to round out the Big Five, so we went for it. This is in Ngorongoro Crater, where there are 21 black rhinos. They've been locally exterminated in most other parts of east Africa, and there are only an estimated 2500 total left in the wild. We actually saw 6 of the 21 over the course of the day, most of them at great distance through binoculars. We actually watched this animal and another one sleep for about 45 minutes before it finally got up and walked around. Oh, and the two animals in the foreground are Thompson's gazelles - the pigeons of the Serengeti (seriously, they are everywhere).
But let's move on to the better views...

Elephant

OK, you should be able to recognize this as an elephant, at least. It's the south end of a north-bound animal, but it's big and gray. We had many other (better) elephant sightings, but this is the one that the sock wanted to pose with, so (against my better judgement) I agreed. Sometimes you can't argue with the talent.
Moving on...

Buffalo

The Buffalo, also called Cape Buffalo (but not to be confused with water buffalo, which are found in Asia). This is supposedly the most dangerous big game animal, responsible for many deaths every year. They are short-tempered and easy to provoke. We kept our distance from most of them, and stayed in the safety of the Land Cruiser.
Next up is...

Leopard

The leopard. Look for the white tip of the tail against the treetrunk - cool, eh? We spent a few hours with this animal, and saw it resting in the grass, get up, jump up into the tree, and then eat a gazelle (that it had previously killed and stashed up there). It was amazing spending so much time with such an impressive animal. Again, we had some better sightings, but this is when the sock wanted its picture taken. Maybe it feels threatened by the animal facing us? I don't know for sure...
Last but not least...

Lion

The lion. This animal, a young male, was resting right next to the road, just outside of a picnic area (one of the few places where people can get out of their cars). While we were stopped watching him (from the Land Cruiser), he actually got up and walked over to us, spending some time sleeping in the shade of our vehicle. He was moving slowly and stiffly - our guide thought maybe he had been injured by a zebra or wildebeest. It was easy to think of him as a big kitty cat, but he looked up at us once and I definitely felt like prey. They sock waited until he had left us and gone back to the side of the road before asking for its photo shoot.

So that was the Big Five. Exciting, isn't it? Just for fun, here are a few more:

Giraffe

No matter how many giraffe we saw (and they were our first real wildlife sighting before we even got into a national park), every one was as strange and exciting as the first one. They are just so surreal you have a hard time believing that it's a real animal, let alone wild and right next to your car. We had some great sightings of juvenile male giraffes "necking," which is when they stand next to each other and beat each other with their heads and neck to establish dominance. When they land a good blow, it makes a solid "thump" that echoes out. We only saw one subspecies of giraffe on our trip - Maasai giraffe, but we saw many individuals, especially in Arusha National Park on our last day in Tanzania.

And speaking of surreal...

Ostrich

Ostrich definitely qualify. One of the more memorable sights from our trip was two ostrich mating. Dan has video of the moment... I will try and post it at some point. This is a female, with the drab brown coloration you often see in female birds. The male is black and white.

The sock has one last memory that it would like to share.

Safari knitting, Part 2

Knitting in our hotel room at Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge. Perched on the rim of the crater, you have a fabulous view down to the floor about a half-mile below you. You can see the herds of animals moving around as you sit there. One of the best places I've ever knit! And don't miss the Ruby Slipper socks - hand-knit socks are perfect for safari! (One of the most frequent questions I get is about the weather. It was very pleasant, with temperatures in the lower 80's most days. Ngorongoro is fairly high in elevation - 2000+ meters - so it got quite chilly at night and early in the mornings)

So there you have it - the safari through the eyes of a sock. Oh, FYI, that's a Pomatomus sock in Trekking XXL, color 108. I do feel the need for a disclaimer at this point - all of these photos were taken with our small Olympus Camedia, with a maxiumum 3x zoom (necessary when you're trying to hold a sock at arm's length and get both the sock and the animal in focus). I also took my new camera, a 10 megapixel Sony digital SLR with a 400 mm telephoto lens. I took lots of photos with that camera. Lots. Actually, over 5,000. I am sorting through them to try and get the best ones. When I do, I'll share those with you, too. But they don't have socks in them, just animals.

We're back!

And so happy. Everything is dusty, we're exhausted, and there are a mind-numbing number of photos and hours of video to wade through, pare down, edit, and upload.
However, it was still the best trip of my life, and I wish we could have stayed longer.

And yes, I did knit on safari.

More to come!