It was touching a full metre in length and most of the scientific documentation about them puts their size at between 40 - 70 cm.

I was on safari on the Kruger National Park in South Africa and was scanning the horizon at the Orpen Dam lookout point for game when I heard a scrabbling noise down below.

I gasped when I saw two of these monsters shuffle onto the rocks and start rotating their heads in that peculiar motion that lizards have of looking.

In most lizard photos its a struggle to get the subject to fill the frame but that really wasn't a problem here. They sat there for a few seconds more and then dashed of into the undergrowth.

The females lay 2 - 5 large, oval eggs in soil-filled rock crevices in midsummer and their diet consists of flowers, leaves, figs and other soft fruit but they will also eat small lizards and even baby tortoises.

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