Wild Night
At the shower block last night we met a South
African couple on their honeymoon. They were having a bit more excitement than
they bargained for. The previous night elephants had been in the camp and she
had slept in their buggy in fear of them. Just before seeing us yesterday they
had been on a short game drive and as they returned they came across a herd of
elephant fleeing from lions. The key background info here is that Savute is the
only place in the world were lions have learned to group together to hunt down
elephants. So our couple were driving along one of the sandy tracks near the
camp when elephant stampeded alongside them, and a she-elephant turned towards
them and, in the assessment of the girl, took against them. The elephant raised
her trunk and flared her ears out and then charged their car. They report that
as they raced away the elephant chased them for around a kilometre, approaching
within 100m of the car. When they told us early yesterday evening they were
evidently still very shaken.
Before turning in we stressed to the girls that if they heard anything outside the tent that they thought may be dangerous they should remain still and silent. We knew that hyena usually come into the tent site at night, that elephant are here at night as often as not, and that lion occasionally come through too. We hadn't been in the tents too long when we heard a frenzy of elephants trumpeting and stamping around. Alan believes that they were more agitated than usual because of the incident earlier with the lions. One of the most dramatic sounds was that occurred sporadically throughout the night came, I found this morning, from red-billed francolins; the nearest familiar analogy that I can make, which is not very close, is the kookaburra. There were plenty of sounds of animals padding around and noises that I suspected were lions. I slept fitfully. At 2:50 I awoke and heard the very distinctive whooping sound of hyena. Shortly after that I heard a sound that was, without a shred of doubt (male) lions calling to each other. Then all the calls stopped abruptly. Knowing that lions don't call when hunting this didn't put me at complete ease, especially as I could still here something padding around, apparently close to the tent (it's difficult to judge distance at night with no visual clues or background noise). Then, shortly after that, at 3:15, I heard Paula stir and saw her torch go on and sweep around from her tent door in obvious preparation for a walk outside the tent. I called her and warned her that I'd just heard hyena and lion. "I don't care about them!" she replied, "It's quiet now." Then she had her loo trip and returned into the tent - safely! Later, I heard more elephant and more hyena, snatching the odd hour or so of sleep, before Alan woke us at 6 am for tea and biscuits and then a game drive.
Here's a snap of our tents in the still of the day:
I wont enumerate all of the animals we saw this morning (Zoe counted about 20, including birds). Two of particular note are the tsessebe, because I'd never heard of it, which turns out to be the fastest type of antelope, and a leopard that we stirred on our way back and which ran across the Defender in front of us. (Unfortunately, this happened too quickly to get a snap.)
For the record, we have no guns with us.
It seems that most of the other groups pitched out at Savute are also South African. There are five groups in all here, including us. One is a group of boys who have come to drive and bond. They have a black guy with them, probably a little younger than them, to make camp. He was on his own when I went to the ablution block earlier; I said Hi and he replied Hello, Sir. Isn't this over with yet? At least one of the other South African groups also have their black guy staying in another tent to help out. I don't see any groups of blacks with a white boy to help. Maybe this is why Zanu-PF is doing so well. (Alan's view is liberal-optimistic re Mugabe - he thinks that he'll get deposed by his own party soon and that Zanu-PF, who are more popular than their leader, will pursue a more conciliatory policy of nation building.)
One last note: the shower blocks here, while starkly institutional in style are far better than any I've come across in, say, hotels in New York. They have that design where you have an ante room to dump your clothes and a half wall round to the shower proper. It's all-wet and the water, being heated by solar power, is warm and has a good head of force.
Ian
Before turning in we stressed to the girls that if they heard anything outside the tent that they thought may be dangerous they should remain still and silent. We knew that hyena usually come into the tent site at night, that elephant are here at night as often as not, and that lion occasionally come through too. We hadn't been in the tents too long when we heard a frenzy of elephants trumpeting and stamping around. Alan believes that they were more agitated than usual because of the incident earlier with the lions. One of the most dramatic sounds was that occurred sporadically throughout the night came, I found this morning, from red-billed francolins; the nearest familiar analogy that I can make, which is not very close, is the kookaburra. There were plenty of sounds of animals padding around and noises that I suspected were lions. I slept fitfully. At 2:50 I awoke and heard the very distinctive whooping sound of hyena. Shortly after that I heard a sound that was, without a shred of doubt (male) lions calling to each other. Then all the calls stopped abruptly. Knowing that lions don't call when hunting this didn't put me at complete ease, especially as I could still here something padding around, apparently close to the tent (it's difficult to judge distance at night with no visual clues or background noise). Then, shortly after that, at 3:15, I heard Paula stir and saw her torch go on and sweep around from her tent door in obvious preparation for a walk outside the tent. I called her and warned her that I'd just heard hyena and lion. "I don't care about them!" she replied, "It's quiet now." Then she had her loo trip and returned into the tent - safely! Later, I heard more elephant and more hyena, snatching the odd hour or so of sleep, before Alan woke us at 6 am for tea and biscuits and then a game drive.
Here's a snap of our tents in the still of the day:
I wont enumerate all of the animals we saw this morning (Zoe counted about 20, including birds). Two of particular note are the tsessebe, because I'd never heard of it, which turns out to be the fastest type of antelope, and a leopard that we stirred on our way back and which ran across the Defender in front of us. (Unfortunately, this happened too quickly to get a snap.)
For the record, we have no guns with us.
It seems that most of the other groups pitched out at Savute are also South African. There are five groups in all here, including us. One is a group of boys who have come to drive and bond. They have a black guy with them, probably a little younger than them, to make camp. He was on his own when I went to the ablution block earlier; I said Hi and he replied Hello, Sir. Isn't this over with yet? At least one of the other South African groups also have their black guy staying in another tent to help out. I don't see any groups of blacks with a white boy to help. Maybe this is why Zanu-PF is doing so well. (Alan's view is liberal-optimistic re Mugabe - he thinks that he'll get deposed by his own party soon and that Zanu-PF, who are more popular than their leader, will pursue a more conciliatory policy of nation building.)
One last note: the shower blocks here, while starkly institutional in style are far better than any I've come across in, say, hotels in New York. They have that design where you have an ante room to dump your clothes and a half wall round to the shower proper. It's all-wet and the water, being heated by solar power, is warm and has a good head of force.
Ian
Posted: Sun - April 10, 2005 at 06:14 PM
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Published On: Feb 08, 2006 06:20 PM
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Published On: Feb 08, 2006 06:20 PM