Submitted by SafariADV on Thu, 2019-11-07
This morning we woke up at the Bakgatla Campsite inside the Pilanesberg National Park in South Africa; according to our original plans this morning we would have had to get up before dawn, take a few hours' safari and then go to the Marakele National Park.
Instead we have been forced to change our plans because the other day our refrigerator has abandoned us and, since we cannot do the whole journey without a fridge, we must necessarily go and buy one while we are in South Africa and not far from Johannesburg, because then we risk not finding one anylonger.
Taking advantage of the fact that this morning we did not do safaris, we got up a little later, however no later than 7:00am, we prepared ourselves and had breakfast outside on our table; we enjoy the camping that is almost everything for us.
To tell the truth we are not really alone, there are the vervet monkeys; these cute and clever little monkeys are used to live at the camping looking for food and are formidable and very fast thieves.
As soon as the monkeys see us they immediately understand that we are about to take out the food table and they take care of us in the distance, but a guy from the camping throws stones to them with the sling, without aiming at them and obviously catching them, but only to make them run away.
At this point we take out our slingshot, that we bought last year for any eventuality, and we keep it on the table while we have breakfast; as soon as a monkey tries to approach it we show the sling and it runs away, a too funny situation.
We have breakfast and then we prepare Dr. Livingstone to leave, while we work we see a green vervet on a tree looking at the campsite, it looks like a military patrol; at a certain point it jumps off the tree and runs very fast towards a small square where there is a trolley that, once opened, looks like the castle of Camelot.
The monkey approaches furtively and looks for something to eat among the various things that are outside the "castle", at a certain point it runs very fast, keeping something with a paw; it climbs a tree where it is safer and begins to eat with a satisfied expression.
It's too funny and it's too ridiculous, it seems to think "even if you threatened me and intimidated me with the slingshot, I've done it today too!"
Obviously it is better that the monkeys, and the other animals that run around the campgrounds, do not eat our food because it could hurt them, and it is good that they do not associate food with humans because they could then become too aggressive and dangerous.
