Tourista Africana listica

There is a species of African Tourist that always puzzles me. They are the “checklist” tourist (Tourista Africana listica). They travel around with thier little spreadsheet / card of birds, mammals and reptiles they should expect to see on their African Adventure. I am convinced they don’t actually care about what they’re seeing, they just want to be able to return home and parade their completed shreadsheet / card of “sighted” animals to their family and friends, with the presumption that the family and friends will be impressed.

Well, I’m not impressed. So that’s not a good start for Tourista Africana listica.

Experience Africa, people. Don’t categorise it into our otherwise categories lives. It can’t be put in a box or condensed into a checklist.

However, for the purposes of illustration, if I was a Checklist Tourist (Tourista Africana listica), my last 3 months would look something like this: (in alphabetical order)

• Antelope (the usual suspects: impala, puku, waterbuck, bushbuck, kudu, wilderbeest)
• Baboon
• Birds (no need to elaborate or we’ll be here all day!)
• Buffalo
• Chameleon
• Civet
• Crocodile
• Elephant
• Elephant, angry
• Elephant, baby
• Elephant, chocolate dipped
• Elephant shrew
• Genet
• Giraffe
• Hippo, hungry hungry
• Honey badger
• Hyaena, spotted
• Leopard
• Leopard, up a tree
• Lion
• Lion, cubs
• Mongoose (slender, banded, bushy-tailed, white-tailed)
• Monkey, vervet
• Porcupine
• Scrub hare
• Serval
• Snakes (black-necked spitting cobra, black mamba – both deadly)
• Squirrel
• Turtle
• Warthog
• Water monitor
• Wild dog
• Zebra