Fredrik and Mikael had set the morning aside for a game drive and some serious birdwatching. Leaving Umkhumbi Lodge in the wee hours of the morning they set out for the reserve.

Lots of birds meant they rapidly worked their way down the bird list and even saw lots of other animals including the Wild Dogs who were playing in front of the vehicle at the side of the road – many people can go through their lives never seeing these animals in the wild, and certainly never that close.

While they were gone, we had two more snake call outs – both for the “Snake of the Week” the Snouted Cobra. It is the curse of Fredrik, as soon as he is around, there are no snake sightings. So the boys didn’t miss out on all the Forest Cobra fun we had a handling demonstration from Anton. It was only when he was in the sunshine that we realised quite how beautiful this particular snouted cobra was.

Road cruise after dinner, Beef Lasagne – one of Meva’s specialities – with a side order of a beautiful sunset.

This evening has been dubbed the Night of the Chameleons. We saw no snakes, very few frogs but hundreds of baby flap-neck chameleons. Where ever we looked, there swaying in the grasses was a very small and sleepy chameleon.

So we thought, where are the parents of this multitude of babies (flap necked chameleons can lay 25-60 eggs so we were looking at the least two females)? Ignoring the baby chameleons (mostly anyway, the lure for more photos is always strong) we searched for the adult chameleons. Then on two nearby roads, we found them, sleeping in the branches hiding behind clumps of leaves.

But still no snakes, maybe on tomorrows drive!