• An ostrich has added to the spectacle already caused by a baboon and a hippo
Image: GARETH JONES
After Kataza the Cape Town Baboon and the Johannesburg Hippo, the latest South African wild animals to be making a splash, literally, are a couple of ostriches caught on film taking a dip in the sea at Cape Point.
Cape Point is the southwestern-most tip of the African continent, with some of the most breathtaking ocean and coastal scenery in the world and home to a sizeable ostrich population.
The ostriches hit the headlines after a woman named Kayleigh Tuck posted a video of the ostriches on the beach on TikTok and Instagram.
Tuck told reporters, “The male ostrich went straight towards the water, while the female just stood on the saa nd, watching. After his dip, he and his girlfriend took a walk along the sand and ended up right in front of us."
"They then spotted another ostrich behind us and walked right past to get to it. It was so bizarre."
When it came to stories of ostriches walking on the beach, I couldn't help wondering if this is where the notion of them burying their heads in the sand comes from. I wouldn’t dare assume it, but it would make sense.
Meanwhile, following in the footsteps of Kataza, another baboon, Buddy, was recently found roaming around the Tokai urban area. This, by the way, is a mere stone’s throw away from where I sit typing this.
Buddy has since been captured and safely returned to his troop. Reports from Cape Town’s municipal authorities, commonly referred to here as the City, said, “The male baboon crossed the very busy M3 road in Tokai. The City consulted with CapeNature, who are responsible for biodiversity conservation in the province and the SPCA, and decided to capture and return the baboon to his natal troop.”
The City has since asked residents from neighbourhoods adjacent to mountainous areas to store their bins in a safe space; to enclose vegetable gardens and composting areas; and not leave food out for pets to discourage opportunistic foraging by wildlife.
Stay tuned for more animal adventures from South Africa.
***A word of farewell to an old friend***
Exactly 42 years ago, give or take a day or two, my friend Michael Mukasa brought his next door neighbour Jack Ojiambo to my birthday party. They lived up the road and had come down on their bicycles as a bit of an adventure.
I didn't know Jack then, even though our parents knew each other socially. In fact, for years afterwards, I always pointed to him in the pictures of that party as the kid who gatecrashed.
We had other connections, unbeknownst to either of us at the time, such as my cousins and his sisters being at school together. Also, his mother and one of my aunts were comrades in the women’s movement.
When we met as adults in the mid-1990s, we were part of our mutual friend Munyao's wedding committee. After I realised who he was, I told him about the birthday party and my description of him as a gatecrasher, and we laughed about it.
We became fast friends, so much so that whenever he dropped into my watering hole, Gipsy bar, we sat together and put the world to rights over a drink.
Over the years, our meetings at Gipsy became less frequent, but whenever we met, whether we were talking music, politics or just shooting the breeze, Jack was always good fun.
In the last decade while I have been away from Kenya, our friendship was mainly confined to Facebook, but we stayed in touch and kept tabs on each other through mutual friends. However, it still came as a shock to learn that Jack had died after an illness.
Go well, Jack the Groove. My deepest sympathies to Dr Julia Ojiambo, Jack’s mother, at this awful time.