Daily painting #439 pen, ink and watercolour postcards for the postcard art group NFS
I had to be a brave girl today....we saw LOTS of reptiles! Not my favourite creatures but probably because I have a totally irrational fear of snakes!! It is summer time so of course the reptiles are out of hibernation and enjoying the summer heat more than most of us! We saw so many Tree Igamas (more commonly known as blue headed lizards). The mating male has a brilliant blue head and is actually quite a beautiful chap (if I can view him from a distance). We saw a bright green snake considerably bigger than what I thought a Green Tree Snake is, so we are still debating whether it could have been a Green Mamba. I took a photo so once I have downloaded it and we can see it again, the family debate can continue...quite frankly any snake is dangerous to me and should be kept as far away as possible but that is only because I am totally ignorant when it comes to identifying them and whether they are potentially poisonous....and of course I have mentioned my totally irrational fear at the mere sight of them!!! It sends an adrenalin rush bolting through my body, my legs seem to turn to jelly and I feel like I am gasping for air!!! Silly I know and not so cool when you actually enjoy being in the bush because there are LOTS of snakes! We also saw at least 4 Water Monitors (lizards that can grown almost a meter in length) and my son was the spotting champ today, he spotted a Chameleon camouflaged in the grass alongside the road....not an easy thing to spot! We saw plenty of elephant, giraffe, buck, buffalo and the usual game but the absolute highlight of the day was finding a Cheetah female with three cubs. We followed her for about 20min watching the cubs play as she walked slowly through the grass. If they strolled off too far from her, she would stop and call them back and they would immediately come bounding over. As she moved in closer to the road my husband cut the engine of the car so that we did not frighten her or her cubs off. To our delight she strolled onto the road in front of us with her cubs as they played and rolled over one another, she then slowly moved off in the opposite direction. As her and her fluffy cubs drifted off into the surrounding bush we absorbed the silence, car engine still off, in absolute disbelief at how fortunate we had been and grateful that she had showed off her babies so generously to us! It is moments like this that will always pull at me, making me long for these adventures!
Apologies for the really poor quality photo, my husband took it on his phone and I have not yet downloaded any photos from my camera, so this will have to do for now...pity he didn't get the cubs in who were playing just behind her....beautiful beyond words!
Purchase paintings at Heidi Shedlock Fine Art
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