Alternative Top 10 Items to Take on Safari

I am often asked what people should take whilst on safari.  There are the normal things such as mute and natural coloured clothing, sturdy walking boots and decent sunglasses, but there are other things I always take that you might not think of.  So here is a list of my Alternative Top 10 Items to Take on Safari:

1. A Warm Hat. It is often assumed that Africa is always hot, not so. A warm hat is greatly appreciated for those early morning safaris. To get the best game viewing you may find yourself up even before the sun and sitting in the back of a landrover can be a bit of chilly experience!

2. Gifts. A gift of clothes, biros or even a football makes an enormous difference. Giving to the local community benefits them and ensures that you are a special part of that community.  It also breaks the ice and you may even find yourself being invited into a homested.

3. Binoculars. By the end of your trip your binos will be stuck to your eyes! It is better to bring a not so good pair than none at all. You will be amazed at how more rewarding it is having your own pair of binos, and you will probably end up using them to spot all sorts of animals and birds.  Binoculars could add enormous value to your safari.

4. A Decent Camera. If you have a pretty good camera, thing bring it.  So may people ask me whether it is worth bringing a digital camera (and all the lenses) and what the likelihood is of it getting damaged.  Yes, it might get damaged (although this is unlikely), but wouldn't you rather create some incredible memories of your safari than not at all?  It is also a great way of engaging with the local people, showing your pictures of them makes it is easier to strike up a conversation, enriching both yours and their experience. Just make sure that you ask whether you can take a picture of them first.

5. Head Torch. Once used you will never go back. You will never have to put a torch in your mouth again when looking for that essential bit of kit!  A head torch makes life so much simpler.

6.  Copies of Documents.  Having a copy of your passport, insurance certificate and your airline ticket give you a bit of a safety net in the event that your real documents are lost or stolen. It makes life easier when being issued a new one or if you need their details.

7. A Bird Identification Book. You may think that you are not a twitcher, but after visiting Africa you may want to rethink this!  There is no way that anyone can ignore the fact that the birds in Africa are much more colourful, more dynamic and have fascinating and quirky habits.  By the end of the holiday you will be using your binoculars to spot yet another bird. Twitchers unite!

8. Hand Gel.  Hand gel is a great invention and handy to have when out and about in Africa.  Using hand gel before eating helps to seriously reduce the risk of you catching something whilst on safari and potentially putting you out of action for a few days. Better to be safe than sorry.

9.  A Good Book.  There is always time for relaxing and taking time out and reading a book by a waterhole, it is a small pleasure in life. You may even need two, or three...

10.  A Small Day Sac.  To put all the above in!

Sahara Trekking - more than I had anticipated for

I love the desert, the large wide open spaces where the distance never seems to end and the heat on my face warms my soul.  I love it how the warmth bounces up from the hot sand and makes my skin prickle from the sweat and the smell of dust and sand is intoxicating to me.  That was what I was looking forward to in my Sahara trek, travelling through one of the last true wildernesses of the world.  Little did I know that I was going to get more than I had bargained for, much more.

I was leading a group of people, for Across the Divide, on a five day trek through the desert, a maze of golden sand dunes, rocky valleys and wide wide open spaces which could take a day to cross.  I arrived a day earlier than the group in order to meet the in-country agents and ensure that everything was arranged correctly.  The group was made up of 42 people, so I had to get it right.  The route was in order and all the right food and provisions had been packed away.  It was all looking ship shape.

Our first day involved a journey in a dilapidated truck that would take us from the outskirts of the desert into the dunes of the Sahara.  The general consensus was that the Sahara was a sea of dunes, how wrong we were.

The Sahara is one of the hottest, driest and most inhospitable places on earth, and covers an area larger than the USA. It is made up of sand dunes but also boulder strewn plains where ceaseless winds and ferocious sandstorms have weathered rocks into weird sculptures.  There are rocky plateaus, canyons and dried up river beds and small oases with date palms giving a minimal amount of shade.  It is not a place for the faint hearted.

We had two good days of walking before the Sahara showed her true force, and there was nothing that we could have prepared ourselves for it.  A wall of sand bore down on us in the middle of day three and remained with us for a gruelling 36 hours.  Luckily we had all bought local scarfs and these were tied around our faces and over our noses so that only our eyes showed - from behind sunglasses.  Our sunglasses took a real hit and have never really been the same since!

I made sure that everyone knew who was in front of them and if they lost sight of them then they should not move until the people behind had all caught up. The local agents were brilliant and we kept everyone in a tight group - I was not going to loose anyone in this storm!  With myself at the back I would be sure that everyone was in front of me - although I could only see three people at any one time, the rest had been swallowed up by the sand storm. It was very disconcerting not being able to see the whole group but I trusted that they were all sensible and would follow my instructions.

The wind whistled by us, tearing at our clothes and blasting sand at us.  At times the sheer force of the sand being thrown at us was very painful.  The worst thing was when you opened your mouth to talk, and if your face was not well protected there was a mouthful of grit that played havoc with your teeth - akin to having your nails scratched down a blackboard.

Fours hours of purgatory later we found our campsite, all ready for us, and everyone spent the rest of the evening in their tents to escape the wrath of the desert.  One tent blew down so we had to dig in every tent to ensure that it did not happen again.  There was sand every where, even in my mint tea - how did it get there? Showers are not common in the desert, water being a rather valued commodity, so baby wipes were the order of the day.  Never have so many baby wipes been used on an expedition.  I needed five just to clean my face!

The wind was relentless through the night but in the early hours of the morning its tirade on us dissipated and it disappeared to persecute some other poor unsuspecting souls. The quietness was deafening. What a memorable experience, seeing the true soul of the desert.  Despite this, I still loved her.

Back in England I discovered the Sahara in all sorts of places; my sleeping bag, my boots (although I could have sworn that I had cleaned them out), my toothpaste (?!) and there was still mementos coming out of my ears and nose.

I will never underestimate the Sahara. And I would go again, even if it was for a repeat of the same experience. Wonderful.

Sleeping under the African stars in the wilds of Botswana.

I love spending a night out on the salt pans, it's an out of this world experience. Nothing really seems real. Imagine spinning around and around and around and the view simply not changing at all, just a white expanse of nothingness. This is what it is like out on Makgadikgadi Pan in Botswana.

The first time I spent a night out on Makgadikgadi Pan is still a fresh memory. 

We travelled in two vehicles - I was in the one behind and I learnt from this mistake for the future.  The dust from the vehicle in front often prevented me from keeping my eyes open but I could still see the odd ground squirrel scampering for cover and a couple of lone jackals searching for something tasty to eat in the harsh environment. An eagle circled in the sky waiting for some hapless creature to succumb to the searing heat bouncing of the white sand and the vegetation diminished until there was little more than grass, grass which was yellow and with little hope of surviving into the next month.

The horizon expanded even more, if that was at all possible, and I am sure that I could see the curvature of the earth. The sky was full of wispy zebra (horse) tail clouds galloping across the sky, it would be a perfect night. And then the salt pan filled my vision. A vast sea of white, flat as a pancake and exceptionally difficult to ascertain how far you could see. There was nothing to gauge distance on it at all. This was once a lake and had dried up leaving behind a superficial maze of enormous curling salt flakes and not much else. We drove out onto the pan and into 'nowhere', where we stopped for the night.

'Nowhere' was our planned destination; there were a few logs left behind from a previous visit and these were lit along with more firewood from the truck. A toilet was dug, a whole in the middle of 'nowhere', and an awning erected around it. Not much to hide behind here!  By now the fire was blazing and the aroma of sizzling steak being grilled over the braai made me drool like Homer Simpson. Sitting as the sun sank into the horizon was also out of this world - it seemed to be larger, brighter and redder than I had ever seen before.

Tents are not needed here, it is one of the few wild places in southern Africa where you can sleep out under the stars without the fear of an unwanted slithery guest in your sleeping bag in the morning or the fear of an attack from scavenging animals . A roll mat and your torch will do.

So after supper, I picked up my sleeping kit and marched out into the void of Makgadikgadi Pan.  Well, marched was not really the word I would have used, more tentatively walked into nowhere feeling sure that I would come across something scary.  I felt rather vulnerable as the light of the fire diminished to a small spec.  Why was I doing it I hear you ask?  Well why not?  It is not often you get the chance to sleep literally in the middle of nowhere, to have the peace and tranquility of Africa wrapped around you, and with the knowledge that you are safe. It takes a bit of guts as it is the fear of the unknown that ties you to the fire, but once stretched, or even broken, it is remarkable experience.  

I had a great nights sleep that night, although I have to admit I was a bit twitchy to begin with, complete quiet can be very disconcerting.  

Silence is deafening.

When was the last time you slept and only heard your own breathing?

Biltong is like Marmite, you Love it or Hate it.

Biltong - you either love it or hate.  And I love it.  But then I am a bit of a carnivore and I love cured meats of any kind.

 

Biltong is a kind of cured meat that originated in South Africa. Many different types of meat are used to produce it, ranging from beef to game meats to fillets of ostrich. It is typically made from raw fillets of meat cut into strips which are dipped in vinegar and then have salt and a variety of dried herbs rubbed into them. The strips of meat are then left to dry for about 4 days or until ready to eat. 

 

This was the way that meat was preserved in the olden days to prevent flies laying their eggs on the meat and to stop the meat from rotting in the intense heat. This method is still used today and it is a popular snack for eating on the move or with gin and tonic in the evening.  

 

The first time I ate biltong was on a journey through Zimbabwe and we had bought some 'wet' biltong. Wet biltong means that the meat has not been dried all the way through and is still soft, whereas normal biltong is completely dry and can be quite brittle and tough to chew at times. I loved the wet biltong but a limit was imposed on me as to how much I could eat - this was not because I was going to demolish the whole lot, although this was possible, but simply because there is a lot of chewing involved, eating too much if you were not used to it can result in serious jaw ache!  I did moan about this, ate too much and got jaw ache, but it was worth it every minute!

I remember the first time I made biltong. I was given an impala carcass and as I had not got enough room in the freezer for it all I decided to make biltong, like one does whilst one is in Africa! It was quite an easy process, although it did take a long time to cut the meat up into suitable strips. I used coriander and black pepper as my seasoning and hung the meat from a makeshift washing line in my veranda by clothes pegs. I can proudly say the end result was delicious. I did, however, physically see the reason for the vinegar – it kept some very fat blue flies (with bulbous red eyes) off my tasty snacks whilst they were drying. Three days later they were ready to eat, and there was no one there to stop me from getting jaw ache!

 

Biltong anyone?

Swimming with Whale Sharks

I am off to France for a holiday on Monday, and I am really excited.  It will be the first beach holiday which I have had a for a long time and I can not wait; the sun on my face, feeling warm, reading books and swimming in the sea.  I was contemplating taking my snorkel when I realised that the last dozen times I have been in the sea I have been with the most extraordinary creatures and that the Mediterranean may not have the same sort of creatures!

Mozambique is a great place to snorkel and an even better place to SCUBA dive. The coral reef is spectacular there and you can see clown fish swimming in amongst colourful corals, sea fans at great depths and even manta rays at 'cleaning stations'. Magical.  I have been on a dive when I could have sworn that I had seen a great white, even the instructor had rather larger eyes than usual, I have seen manta rays with wing spans of over 4m and I have seen squadrons of  devil rays, all swimming over us like planes in WWII. The fish are curious and not scared of divers allowing me to have incredible sightings of all kinds of fish ranging from powder blue surgeon fish to red fang trigger fish and clown fish to scorpion fish.  However, the best fish sighting was a whale shark.

And yes whale sharks are fish, despite their size, in fact the largest confirmed individual was 12.65 metres long and the heaviest weighed more than 36 tonnes although unconfirmed claims report considerably larger whale sharks. Whale sharks have spots all over them and is known as "pez dama" or "domino" in Mexico for its distinctive patterns of spots. It is a deity in Vietnam and is called "Ca Ong", which literally translates as "Sir Fish". But the best name is from Kenya, Africa, where it is called "papa shillingi", coming from the myth that God threw shillings upon the shark which are now its spots and in Madagascar the name is "marokintana" meaning "many stars".

My first sighting of a whale shark was off the coast of Mozambique when I was going to Manta Reef to do my last deep dive for my Deep Diver Speciality Course. It was a long boat journey out, well 40 mins, and we were told that there were often chances of seeing dolphins as well as whale sharks along the way.  I had been keeping my eyes peeled for a whale shark for ages and had yet to see one.

My luck was in that day in 2003, as a whale shark suddenly loomed up from the deep below to surface very near our boat.  We had been briefed that if one did surface we could get in the water with it and swim close to it, but not to touch it.  Touching the skin could damage it as we could pass on chemicals that might affect the shark.

I didn't need second telling, as soon as the boat cut its engine I elbowed my way past everyone else to get into the water first, I never thought I had it in me!  It was a wonderful moment as I snorkeled up to this giant fish and watched it as it swam leisurely past me.  It was enormous. Despite its size, whale sharks do not pose significant danger to humans and although massive, whale sharks are docile fish and snorkelers can swim without risk, apart from unintentional blows from the shark’s large tail fin! So I kept well away from its tail and spent a glorious 10 mins with this whale shark before it dived into the deep blue sea.

Memories of a life time.

Meerkat Magic

I was recently working in Swinley Forest and had the opportunity to hold a meerkat..... again. I know that it seems a bit of an odd place to find a meerkat, near Bracknell, but I was working on a team event called 'I am a Team Player, Get Me Out of Here', loosely based on the very similarly named popular TV show. We were providing a scaled down version of the hit series and there was a guy who pitched up with £5,000 worth of creepy crawlies and other exotic animals in the back of his van for 'animal encounters'. This included a Chilean rose tarantula (which I gingerly held - I have a bit of a phobia about large hairy spiders so it was a big thing for me), a vat of crickets, a number of snakes including an impressive albino python and two adorable meerkats.

The last time I held a meerkat was in the back of beyond in South Africa, a rescue meerkat from the bush, and as I cradled the one in Swinley Forest whilst it made a chirrup purring noise, it brought back memories of my wonderful meerkat experience.

I had been working with a game capture unit and we were based at a farmstead where we were trying to catch inyala. There was obviously a caring side to the owners as there were rescue animals of all shapes and sizes living in the house, ranging from wild cats to meerkats. All things fluffy and cuddly and I fell in love with the place.

It may not seem much, but I was asked to look after the new addition, a meerkat, a small bundle of fluff that needed constant supervision and needed to be kept warm.  I was offered this rather important roll and this small male pup instantly became attached to me, and me to it. Meerkats go around in groups called a 'mob', 'gang' or a 'clan' and I like to think I became part of his 'gang', with him tucked into my fleece to keep off the chill of the cold African mornings.

Meerkats are intriguing animals, they can dig as much dirt as their own body weight in a couple of seconds, they are immune to the poison of snakes and scorpions and they are such good hunters that some have been tamed to become rodent catchers. However, they are the favourite food for eagles and hawks and with a sharp shrill from one of the meerkat sentries the whole clan will disappear into their burrow network - young meerkats are so afraid of predatory birds that even airplanes will send them diving for cover!

And that was where I came in.  I protected this bundle of joy from 'airplanes', kept him warm from the harsh African weather and spoke to him as a team member.  It was a joy that only lasted for two days but provided memories for a life time.

You never forget when a wild animal accepts you into their pack, despite its size.

Tick Blitz

Getting a tick is not high on any ones list. 

There are over 850 tick species in the world, of which 100 are capable of carrying a disease such as Lymes disease or Tick Bite Fever. Ticks are not born with a disease, they pick it up from their hosts.  They are quite clever really, in their adult form ticks will climb up vegetation and use their forelegs to feel/grab for a host, using carbon dioxide, scent, body heat and other stimuli to find the host. Ticks are usually found from ground level to three feet above the ground. 

These past few days I have been walking in the North Wessex Downs assessing Silver Duke of Edinburgh groups and I didn't really appreciate how rife the ticks were in the area.  I spent a good while removing ticks with carefully selected tweezers.  I found these ticks much harder to remove than the ones in Africa, these ones were much smaller and once they had really buried their heads into the girls flesh they proved to be difficult to remove. Ticks have not got good biting mouth parts so have to bury their mouth and head into their host in order to get to the blood vessels.  Charming creatures.

African ticks also come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but seem to be easier to remove. I remember advising a group of girls that walking through the bush in a strappy top was not a good idea, the bush was over head height and they were off the beaten track walking transects across a game reserve.  But they wanted a tan and it was too hot.....  They only needed to to be advised once; that night I spent many an hour meticulously picking ticks off from around a number of bra strap lines!  Once you get the hang of the method - twist and pull, it can be quite therapeutic.

Ticks can be avoided with insect repellent but the best thing to do is to wear long trousers and a long sleeved shirt - also helps with preventing sunburn when in Africa, and the UK (at the moment)!