Routine ... with touches of excitement

The vast majority of our walks are very routine: walking for quite a while, looking at tracks, examining poo, stopping to look at the horizon with binoculars & spotting the animals that saw us ages ago so are usually 100-500m off in the distance.

However, sometimes there's the excitement of finding something up close (a squirrel, honey badger, herd of zebras, troupe of baboons, hundreds of red lentshwee antelopes or even a leopard) that normally take off as fast as they can as soon as they see you. The sight of them galloping off with thundering hooves, leaping effortlessly over rivers, or scurrying frantically up trees are definitely the highlights of the day.

Sometimes, there's also a little danger as MD will hurriedly tell me to "Walk fast!" when he's spotted a water buffalo that's a little too close or an elephant approaching our location. Fortunately, there aren't too many incidents like that & so my underpants have remained relatively stain free. A little bit of terror goes a long way out here!

I asked MD whether he'd had customers who wouldn't do what he told them. "Oh yes," he replied, without hesitation. "Japanese people!"

We're not sure whether it's the language barrier or whether they've all been brought up visiting petting zoos but they don't seem to appreciate that 6 tonne African elephants aren't something you can just walk up to & start patting!

MD told me he is constantly having to save them from themselves by stopping them from trying to take selfies next to pissed-off elephants.

One evening as I was brushing my teeth after dinner, I thought I could hear something moving in the bushes. I looked off to my left & saw the giant shape of a large elephant emerging from behind a bush, less than 20m away.

I slowly backed away, retreating to the apparent safety of the camp fire and whispered frantically to Lucky, "elephant!!"

He went off & got MD who was also brushing his teeth. They both returned & decided to shine the torch light in the elephant's eye! "Won't that just piss him off?" I enquired.

"Probably not," MD replied. Very comforting!

Lucky stepped up & picked up a couple of giant seed pods he'd previously collected from the sausage tree we were now camped under. He hurled these at the elephant & told it that it was very naughty & should go away! "Great," I thought, "let's antagonise the giant wild beast with huge pointy tusks & a nose that can push over small cars!" I had visions of doing my first climb in Africa, looking at what holds I could use on a nearby tree, since I was certain Lucky's strategy would just piss him off.

To my pleasant surprise, the elephant obviously understood a lot more Botswanan than he let on because he took the hint & turned away from our camp, heading out across the moonlit savannah.

Phew! Crisis over. We all live to search for lions another day.

Not all nights out on the savannah are peaceful however. Some nights, the lions seemed to be growling all night long. At one point, I'm sure I heard the thunder of hooves & zebras crying out as they were attacked. Zebras have a nasty habit of hanging out with smaller, weaker animals that they can kick & injure when a lion comes along so the lion will eat the other animal & they can escape. With friends like zebras, who needs enemies?

I also heard MD unzip his tent & bang the side of it to scare away an elephant that had decided to visit just before we were due to get up! Stuff is getting real when it's that close!!

The ship that sailed past

Last night, I asked MD if he'd be able to go over to the other couple who were camped at the other end of our island (we still call it an island even though there's no water surrounding it) & ask them if they'd like to join us for dinner as I thought it might be nice to have someone else to talk to. Unfortunately, he just spoke with their guide instead of the actual visitors as he quickly returned with a story about some other couple that had written a nasty letter when the two guides brought them together previously.

"That's why I wanted you to ask the visitors themselves," I muttered in my head as we dined by ourselves again. It's too late now to change anything as they're going back to the camp tomorrow but it might have been nice to talk to someone else for a while.

I think I now have a mild sense of what it's like when you're on a deserted island & a ship sails past.

I decided not to follow through with the plan I'd made in day 1 of asking if I could transfer back to the main camp. Despite working out the exact wording of what I was going to say in such a way that he wouldn't be able to refuse, I decided that maybe it would do me some good to have some time completely away from absolutely everything, rather than karaoke-ing with everyone in the camp every night. I mean, my main purpose for coming up here was to see the animals, not to have a party, right?

It's certainly peaceful out here, especially at night. Except for the odd lion growl now & then, hippo grunts, elephants shaking palm trees, zebra hee-haws & the occasional hyena cackle, it's almost completely silent. Seems strange I know as you'd think the savannah would be full of noises but in between all the noises, it's as blissfully silent as an African church mouse.

Out here, it's hard not to be struck by just how harsh the environment is & how difficult survival is. We don't have this struggle very much in our modern society, but out here, any day could easily be your last if you don't pay attention or if you're just unlucky. Leaving aside human factors, you have to deal with searing heat, freezing cold, frequent fire due to lightning strikes, whirlwinds, lack of food & lack of water. On top of this, if you're an animal, you have the constant threat of any number of predators, sickness or injury. If you're a plant, you could also get shredded by elephants or destroyed by multiple herds of animals passing through. It's amazing that life exists at all but exist it does & for many, it flourishes. Often it clings to the tiniest of niches - a true wonder of evolution!

Was that a Lion?

Out walking one morning, we were trying to find the lions again. MD stopped & listened. We heard a low growl & I whispered, "Lion?"

"No, just my stomach," he replied. Maybe we should go lion-hunting after breakfast next time!

Later that morning, we stopped again & I saw something run out of the bushes up ahead whose shape didn't look familiar to me. "What's that?" I whispered. MD replied excitedly, "Leopard!!" and a frenzy of photos ensued as the leopard posed for us for a few seconds before racing off across the savannah, leaving a trail of dust. Now I feel completely spoiled! Two leopards in 4 days! Many people spend months in the bush & still never see one! Lucky is our lucky charm!

Later that day, after getting tired of carrying my drone around on each walk, I decided to pull it out & do a few flights. I was hoping it wouldn't get blown into a crocodile infested waterway, the gaping mouth of a hippo or get snatched by the talons of a marauding eagle.

MD & Lucky were very excited by the drone. "I like this thing very much," exclaimed MD so off we went to find a suitable launch pad, just across the river from unsuspecting elephants. Termite mounds are great for all sorts of reasons: hiding from animals, a vantage point for spotting animals, and launching drones! We launched the drone & off it went.

I managed to terrorise a few groups of animals, although not for too long as each flight only lasted about 7-10 minutes in the strong breeze. I'll have lots of fun soon editing the footage to create a 2 minute masterpiece.