Fauna

We haven't seen any lions but we have been seeing plenty of other creatures.  Mostly mosquitos!  I seem to be a magnet.  Researching ways to safely repel them I came across a site that explained that they are attracted to carbon dioxide (which we exude while working hard) and cholesterol.  That doesn't mean I have high cholesterol compared to Mary and Tom.  What it does mean is that my body is efficient at expelling it, and one of those ways is through the skin.  Ouch!  I have to dive under the covers at night (even with being smeared with repellant) to avoid getting bit.  And without A/C you can imagine the discomfort.

Which is worse, sweating or being bit?

Anyway, here are some of the creatures we've encountered:

spiders (!) .. one day in the Guest Lodge Mary glanced to where I was sitting, and told me "Move, as quick as you can!"  I did, and looking back we saw a gargantuan spider on the curtain, about 1' from where my head was.  Did not stay long enough for a photo.  Instead, we found the manager.  He sprayed it with Raid, told us it was "one of the bad ones, that sting from the abdomen with venom".  The Raid didn't phase it.  He shook the curtain and flicked it onto the floor.  We though he was going to just kill it (isn't that what the Raid was supposed to do?)  No!  Instead he just shooed it with his foot out the room, down the hall, around the corner, through the lobby and out the front door!

geckos ... in that same guest lodge we had this little fellow.  He was only about 1" long.  The next morning there were 4 more in the shower, two drowned, and Tom felt bad.  However, soon there were 6!

Now that we are moved into the house (on Tuesday) Thursday evening there was this fellow on the wall, he was 3" long, and wasn't the only one in the house.  He was in the dressing room of our Master bedroom.  They eat bugs, right?  So we weren't entirely creeped out.  Oddly, the person in charge of getting the house painted assured me, laughingly, that the paint would seal out all the bugs and spiders.

But, last night Mary came screaming into our room, well, not screaming but a little alarmed.  There was a 6" lizard in her bedroom.  Tom rescued her by shooing it, with a plastic hanger, out the window, and outside the screen.  Mary opted to sleep in a different bedroom last night.  Sorry, no photo of that one, but I have a feeling it isn't a lost opportunity.

Finally, our house backs onto the golf course driving range.  Don't imagine that we look onto it.  No, the back fence has concertina wire, foliage, a sort of alleyway, more dense foliage for the golf course's fence with concertina wire.  What it does offer is monkeys, lots of monkeys.

These are some pictures of only a few we encountered while at the guest lodge.  When we asked what kind they were, we received a blank, "are you stupid" stare, and were informed that they were just monkeys!  If you look close you'll see juveniles and moms with babies.  No males would stay still long enough for their photo op!