Editor's Note: Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me, and even if I had my camera with me, I would probably not have taken a photo either, but rather enjoy the sighting. Nevertheless, here's a picture of a rock dassie (source: http://pagesperso-orange.fr/gerard.joannes/03damanrocher2.JPG).
It really looked like the one in our presentation slide show. Except that this was larger.
That was my immediate reaction when I saw the rock dassie appearing from the bushes less than three metres away.
I was chewing on my breakfast/burger at my favourite spot when I heard some rustling. When I turned to look in the direction of the bush, I was pleasantly surprised to see a rock dassie popping out of the bush. Yes, popping. It definitely popped out from the bush, like a rocket that had failed to launch properly and just popped out from the launcher.
It was so cuddly and adorable that I wanted to go over and hug it! But I knew the slightest movement from me would have alerted the oblivious dassie. Thus, I stayed frozen at my spot and enjoyed the sighting. The dassie sniffed around the rock surface with its animated face and nibbled at some plants near the rocks. It continued its little adventure exploring the rocks towards my direction until it spotted me.
It froze and stared at me straight on – face to face.
Time stood still for the next 5min as we competed to see who would blink or break away from the stare.
I won.
It started to turn and walk upwards towards another rock, turning to check on me ever so cautiously. I tried to turn my head slowly inch by inch towards the back to get a better view of the dassie, stopping and pretending to be a piece of rock whenever it turned around to check on me. It reminded me of a game I used to play in my younger days, where I would creep up behind a friend and everytime when my friend turns, I would have to freeze in my position, until she 'catches' me moving.
Just as I was in a totally uncomfortable position, with my head twisted more than 110 degrees at my neck, the dassie decided to stop and challenged me again.
Time stood still for another 5min as we started our second competition. It was really not easy. I was in an awkward position. I was starting to have pins & needles at my feet, my hands were starting to freeze due to the cold morning breeze, and I wasn't getting enough oxygen or blood to my brain due to my twisted neck. The rock dassie obviously had a better advantage this time round. I was quite sure I saw it smirked before it went up to the nearest rock, and stood up there with its head up high.
I tried to shift my body towards the dassie to get a more comfortable view. Unfortunately, my movement startled the dassie. It probably thought that I was a piece of fallen rock, and did not expect me to move. It quickly scampered behind some grasses and disappeared from my view.
Gesh. What an idiot. Myself, I mean.
Disappointed, I went back to my original position, completed the chew in my mouth which had stayed untouched since the start of the encounter, before taking a second bite off the burger in my hands.
Yo, what a morning breakfast in the veld.
No comments:
Post a Comment