This short film shows us leaving Savuti. Note for Brooksiders: Botswana has problems with an illness that cattle get, called Foot and Mouth Disease. Botswana has big cattle ranches in the South (the Game Parks are all in the north). To stop the spread of the disease, every few hundred miles or so, one needs to either drive the car through water dipped in Soda-ash (a kind of disinfectant chemical), or have all the wheels sprayed, and one has to stomp up and down on a soda-soaked sponge, which is what Mila is doing in the film.
Africa
Again a note, this film is shot with a gopro sports camera – we can’t film anything more than about 10 feet away (except ellies).
Step 1: Wake up early in the morning, around 5 o’clock. Lions are nocturnal so they are active, and hunt, at night. They don’t hunt every night, they spend most nights calling to each other as they walk along sand roads.
Step 2. Make sure that you have nice cup of hot chocolate ready, and jump in the car. At least one bar of chocolate is also helpful.
Step 3. If you have heard lion noises in the night, try and drive in the direction that the noises came from. Lions don’t roar, they make gruff snorting noises. Mila and I can do a good imitation.
Step 4. Look out the car window as you drive, until you find spoor (animal footprints). It’s always good to be out of the campsite before everyone else as cars ahead of you will run over the spoor.
Step 5. If you look closely at the spoor you can work out which direction its heading, how many lions there are, and approximately how big they are.
Step 6. Follow the spoor until…
Scenario 1: You get to a dead end, or until the spoor disappear off into the mopani (small shrubs/trees). The lions are probably trying to find a sleeping spot in the shade to spend the rest of the hot day.
You can try and find the lions in the mopani around you, but your chances of finding them are quite small, especially in the summer (the rainy season) when the grass is long and the bushes are bushy! Sit back, relax and enjoy the chocolate.
OR
Scenario 2: You find the lions. You will get very excited but lions don’t react at all to seeing humans in cars. We have had lion/esses look us in the eye many times, and then just carry on as normal.
We spent three mornings following spoor around Savuti game park but didn’t find any lions. Although we didn’t succeed, don’t give up hope, as there is always a chance… and just looking for lions is exciting in itself.
Picture of lion spoor, and us having found 3 lionesses, 1 male and three babies at Savuti in 2010.
“Oh my god! Lions!” my mom screamed. Five lionesses were standing on the side of the road, licking each other. Suddenly we saw two more lionesses! We heard a clap of lightning! It was pouring and getting quite dark. We were very excited since there was a herd of impala nearby. We thought the lions were hunting and we’d never seen a kill before.
The lions were sitting under the trees and every now and again glancing at the herd of impala. They started to fan out and we saw two of them out on the grass, but in well hidden positions, and it would been easy for them to run to the impala from there.
The impala were all standing stock still and staring at the place were the lions were. It was still pouring with rain. Standing about 20 meteres in front of a bush, was one male impala. You might think he was very brave, as the lions would have gone for him first -but in fact they would have gone for the herd, as if they’d gone for the one and missed him, the herd would have got away.
There were 5 teenagers and 2 adult lion. Their golden brown coats were soaking and probably dripping (you couldn’t tell since it was raining). We watched them for about an hour every now and then driving round to look at the impala. Finally we went back to the lionesses and too some photos. We got some really good ones!
We left with all seven lionesses sheltering under bushes. It seemed like the rain had stopped them hunting, at least for that night!
This film shows the croc farm at Vic Falls in Zim, crossing the border into Botswana, elephants, lions, dungbeetles, butterflies, dark skies and deep roads in the garden of Eden that is northern Chobe…
Before I came on this trip, a few people asked if I was at all scared. I answered, not entirely truthfully, no. I always get a bit nervous before camping in the wild.
This is my fifth time camping in the bush and, true to Ralph’s view that is more dangerous being near humans or driving a car than camping with wild animals, we have never been in any remotely dangerous situation, let alone been hurt by animals. However I do have a primal fearfulness, triggered by a combination of feeling out of control and the possibility of being eaten (figuratively or literally).
So I found myself staring into the dark on our first night sleeping by the Chobe River in Ihaha, Botswana, scared out of my wits.
It started with the sound of grumpy elephants, trumpeting close by. The material of the tent felt a pathetically thin skin. What if the elephants came stumbling over us? I knew it never happens…well THAT’S why we’re going to make the front page of the Botswana Times (I do actually visualise this kind of detail). But the elephant noise grew fainter. Dayenu.
Then the rain came bucketing down. Lightning flashed, illuminating my small family, sleeping. Nearby lightning + wet, leaking tent. I resolved to move us all to the car should the lightning zapped any closer, which it didn’t. Dayenu.
I actually laughed when I heard the lions outside. It is a curiously beautiful noise to hear at night, normally. But on this night I forgot that lions have never entered a closed tent. The lions moved on. Dayenu.
And then came the buzz of the mosquito. The $1000 of anti-malaria pills seemed badly spent as I fixated on the 2% of cases against which the medicine is not effective. I smacked myself in the face (try it, it’s fun!) and killed the perching mosquito. Dayenu.
Between the trumpeting, rain and thunder, lions and buzzing I heard the sound of a car – unusual in the middle of the night in the bush. Ralph went to investigate. He came back, looking worried. It was the police outside, there to protect us. Against animals? Ralph had asked, at which they laughed. No – against people. Across the river in Namibia, poachers had been crossing over at night to steal in attacks against campers.
Small comfort to Ralph that he’s right, humans are the most dangerous animal by far.
One of the most beautiful experiences of my life.
Hard to capture in pictures or words what it is to have a small part of the Zambezi River to oneself, to sleep beside hippos and crocodiles, to shower with a bucket carefully filled from the warm river, to see birds I have never seen before, to just be with my beloved family.
“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep.” ― Rumi
p.s. Ralph still hasn’t given me a Valentine’s card.
Evocative of a bygone era – two displays from the Zambezi Park Reception area.
Hi Team Griffin,
Great to hear from you. Right now I am at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. It is one of the world’s biggest waterfalls. I almost got bitten by a vervet monkey.
The chameleon film is now on the blog but but you need to scroll down to see it.
We have been camping nexto the Zambezi River with crocodiles and hippos below us and the hippos have been making noises all night. We saw impala, giraffe, zebras, waterbuck and warthogs but no lions yet. Tomorrow we are going to Botswana and I can’t wait to send pictures of lions and elephants to you.
From Mila
This film shows our gorgeous campsite 26km north of Vic Falls on the Zambezi (teeming with crocs and hippos, lots of birds + a kingfisher extravaganza below us). We had big electric storms and didn’t feel safe in the tent at night so took shelter in the car. After all the rain, the road out was wet and sometimes deep. We heard lions but didn’t see them as the summer-rain grass is too high. We saw zebra, giraffe, impala, warthog, waterbuck, hippos & crocs, and lots of new birds. Victoria Falls – huge and swelling with all the rain. A month ago Mila got bitten by a meerkat. Today she almost got bitten by a vervet monkey…