Africa

Ahhh! How good for a long lie, not up until 0820. Funny how back at home that time is considered almost the middle of the night for me. A slight exaggeration I am aware, but you get the point.
After a decent breakfast with proper freshly squeezed orange juice and toast, we took a stroll up to the local supermarket for bread, cheese and a few other things for lunch.
We were going to be going down to the beach for an hour or so, but because we going out to a safari park and African entertainment evening at 1255, so we decided, after I went for a dip in the pool, to just to spend a wee while sitting on our balcony reading and drinking chamomile tea, whilst occasionally watching the pool aerobics going on.
There is a palm tree just outside our mezzanine floor room, and this morning there was a man up it, with a rope around him and the tree, and he was cutting off some of the quite dense palm leaves. I know not why, as they looked fine and healthy to me. But right now there are garden assistants cleaning up the remaining debris, whilst atop one of the pigeons who alight there daily, is flitting about from branch to branch confused by he fact that it knows it is it's tree, but realising something was different. Finally acceptance of the change, but every now and again it moves around just to verify. Right now it is getting harangued and chased away by a sparrow who wants to occupy, not only and adjacent tree, but the pigeons one as well.
Little bully it is.
When the pigeons, and the other birds, but mainly the pigeons as they are larger; when they fly over the pool, the reflection makes their underneath look azure blue in colour. Very beautiful indeed.
When I have time I must look up online, the birds of Tunisia. As there are several that I wish to identify. Outside the back door, on the way back from the pool, on some foliage, there were several green finch type avians, and sometimes you can see birds that look like wrens, but larger flitting about on the ground.
Yesterday we spotted dozens of black and white egrets nesting on top of electricity pylons. Not the huge ones that can be seen in the rural areas, but the smaller urban ones. Now what was strange about this was that the large nests were not made on the flat bits of the towers, but on the pointed pinnacles, perfectly balanced sticking out a good bit at each side.
Just back now from our Zulu night out. This included a trip to an animal park, which I mistakenly thought was a safari park, which was in fact a zoo. Now, I am always in 2 minds about zoos. I appreciate that they do serve a purpose in preserving endangered specifies, but not always, and they do give the chance to see animals you would not normally see. But sometimes...
And this one in parts falls into the later category. It was interesting seeing civets, the favourite part of the visit, but it was not nice seeing the cheetah.
Obviously not comfortable in his surrounding, not helped by the keeper who, for 1DN would take your camera and get a close up photo for you. We were hoping the cat would have enough of being pestered and prodded and have a go at the man.
Also despite signs all over saying " do not feed the animals, even if a keeper lets you" people were, after being invited, feeding certain beasts. Even going into the Turtle enclosure people wee being allowed in and picking these wonderful creatures up.
And don't get me started on the performing seal.
But, thankfully the evening meal and entertainment was excellent, the dancers from Tunisia and South Africa, as well as he corresponding musicians, was brilliant. It really did give a good taste of Africa
It was helped of course, by sitting at a table with Neil, who is a recently arrived rep, giving up his day off to do the trip, so he knows what he is talking about, and another couple from a different resort.A more pleasant, gay, drag queen Brummie you will be hard pushed to find.
N.B. For those who don't know, a Brummie is the name given to the
residents of Birmingham, England.
Coincidentally, the other couple, whose name we didn't get, are friend with a couple who are staying in one of the hotels that Neil has under his belt, and the male friend is one of these people who complain about everything, as Neil has already found out.