Camping with Elephant & Hyenas - Too much Excitement for One Night...

I have recently organised a family holiday to Botswana for Joy Harcup and her family. They are travelling in August and having just gone over their itinerary I am very envious that I am not going too!

There is something magical about Botswana, it has this peaceful air about it, probably because Botswana is a destination for the more discerning traveller, staying in exclusive lodges and in the tranquility of the African wilderness. It has taken luxury to the extreme.

One of the best ways to see wildlife in Botswana, especially in Moremi and Savute, is to go on a mobile camping safari. I remember the last time I was camping in Botswana was in Savuti campsite, where Joy and her family are staying, and where I saw a host of animals just by sitting in my campsite. The first animal to be spotted was an elephant, this one was busy digging at the ground right in the middle of our campsite. As we approached our tents I could see that the elephant had dug a hole to locate the underground water pipe, which he had smelt out, broken the water pipe and now there was a small watering hole in the middle of the campsite! Close encounters of elephants can be good but when going to our tents we made sure we were as far away from this drinking hole as possible! The elephant did not seem too bothered by us, he just wanted a drink of cool water.

As we had supper we saw wildebeeste, impala, kudu and zebra, we didn't even have to get up to see them, they just walked past us on the way to their water hole. It was all a bit surreal.

Our last known visitor was something special. Night had fallen and we were sitting around our campfire watching the twinkling stars and listening to the noises of the African Bush, it was a beautiful night that night. We had got used to elephants and other animals coming into drink at our waterhole, but when yelping and growling were heard we knew we had some new and exciting visitors. I gradually trained our spotlight onto our waterhole to see four bright blue eyes glaring back at us. The eyes seemed to be the same height as I was when I was standing and then there was that familiar 'laugh' which gave our visitors identification away. I could not believe how enormous these hyena were, we all had our mouths open watching them.

It had been an incredible evening and as I lay in my tent I realised how lucky I was to see these animals - and in my own campsite.  It is not often that you say you shared your campsite with an elephant and two hyenas, but then these sort of things happen in Africa.

I am looking forward to hearing about Joy's safari to Africa, I hope they all have some incredible memories too.

The Lioness and My Bacon

Mana Pools, Zimbabwe, is an extraordinary place and I would certainly classify it as one of the true wildernesses of Africa.

A few years back I camped in one of the remoter campsites of Mana Pools. In order to use the wilderness camps you must have a registered hunter with a firearms licence in the group - you really are stuck out in the middle of nowhere. We had this wonderful campsite, overlooking the River Zambezi, with the most incredible vista along the floodplains.

And it was here that the excitement began.

During the night there was a lot of lion activity down on the floodplains; roaring lions throughout the night, clashes between nervous lionesses and the mewing of cubs caught in the fracas. It was a surprise anyone got any sleep at all - I certainly didn't.

In the morning I tentatively got out of my tent to find Stewart, gun in hand, standing on the outskirts of our campsite checking out the area. There was a large male lion defending his pride from a younger male, all happening about 200m away, it was quite extraordinary.

I started the braai (BBQ) for our breakfast of bacon and eggs, whilst Stuart kept an eye on our distant neighbours. The bacon was on the braai, sizzling away and the eggs were boiling, perfect. There were five of us in the group and we all stood cleaning our teeth, like sentinels, watching the lion saga unfold.

"If any of the lionesses breakaway from the pride, get into the vehicle immediately", said Stewart, " do not think about it, just do it."  We all nodded, completely understanding the implications if we didn't act quickly.

Of course this is what happened, two lionesses broke away from the pride, coming in our direction at a steady trot, and we clambered over each as we dived in through the windows to get to safety. It did not take the lionesses long to cover the distance and before we realised it they were in our campsite. Unbeknown to us there was also another lioness in the area with her two cubs, protecting them from the incoming male. They were not a threat to us, they were keeping their distance from the newcomer, but it was still quite a hairy experience having these five visitors, and so close too.

And then they smelt the bacon… inching closer to my breakfast wondering what that mouthwatering smell was.

There was no way I was going to leave my breakfast to these cats. That was not an option. Luckily I was sitting in the drivers seat and I decided to take direct action. With some careful manoeuvring I managed to position our vehicle right next to the braai so that I could finish cooking breakfast through the driver's window, in complete safety.

And that is my memory of Mana Pools; me dispensing breakfast as if I was in a Drive Thru, surrounded by salivating lions.

Weird Bird Names

I sometimes wonder who on earth was given the role of naming birds.

I understand that there are a large number of birds in the world but sometimes their names do not seem to do them justice. For instance, why the African Wattled Lapwing is named as it is whilst the White Crowned Lapwing  has much larger wattles - this can cause some confusion at a waterhole.  And why does the African Pitta sound a rather dull and boring bird when, in my opinion, it is one of the most colourful birds seen in Africa. And as for the Broad Billed Roller, don't get me started, it has extraordinary lilac/purple underparts, but those aren't mentioned are they?  Its bill is not that broad really, but its lilac chest is something to sing about...

Then there are all the exotically named birds such as the African Paradise Fly Catcher, the Gorgeous Bush Shrike (which really is gorgeous) and the Greater Double Collared Sunbird, now they are named correctly. I think that after a while the person naming the birds got a little bit bored and resorted to naming them after their more obvious characteristics - the Red Winged Starling has red wings (although I would probably call them russet,) the Yellow Billed Stork is a stork with a yellow bill and the Long-tailed Paradise Whydah does in fact have a very long tail.

There are also some wonderfully named birds where you would have had to have taken something illegal to think of these names – the Secretary Bird which has some plumes sticking out of the top of its head which may or may not resemble a pen behind the ear, the Twinspots which have two white spots on every small feather but you would have had to captured them to find this one out and the Tambourine Dove has not a musical instrument in sight and does not sound like one either.

Whatever your thoughts on birds, Africa does actually bring it all to life, and once you have got your head around the unorthodox names you will become a twitcher - be proud of it!