Leopards and lessons

I didn't sleep well  last night, just lay awake listening to the hyena in camp and a lion roaring close by.  Hils got up at 4am to go to the toilet.  She carefully checked outside  with her torch and was as quick as possible but  had no sooner got back in the tent when a lion let out a tooth rattling roar.  Hils nearly needed to go again, I can tell you! We were up pulling down the tent and packing up at 5.15 and then had breakfast, a pretty stingy effort, just a slice of bread and coffee. 


 The men in our group notice a bolt has sheared off the coupling of the trailer so it is kiwi men to the rescue again.  Ike and Mfana are pretty disorganised and casual so don't seem to notice when things are going wrong until it is too late. They are so lucky to be travelling with our willing and practical men who repair the coupling very quickly. By 7.30 we are on our way  with a pleasantly good humoured Ike at the wheel.  We stop, briefly, to collect more firewood from the bush.  It is never a problem finding firewood as there are always a lot of branches and logs lying around.  Elephants cause, what seems to us, horrendous  damage to the trees but Ike explains that the damage is all part of the necessary ecological cycle required to thin out the bush so it can  regenerate and provide food and shade for the animals.  Part of our journey today is over the infamous Savuti Sand Ridge, a distance of about 90 kilometres. The road, if you can call it that, is an undulating track through deep sand,  passable only by four wheel drive vehicles.  We travel through mile after mile of smouldering, burnt landscape, so recent that we can feel the heat coming off the ground.  Apparently these fires are a common problem in Africa where things get tinder dry in the dry season and the swirling and fickle winds spread it over large distances.

Gary has a wonderful ability to sleep anywhere, any time, and soon falls asleep en route.  He provides us with entertainment as he bobs up and down and from side to side on the uneven road with Cherry propping him up and gently protecting him from bumps.  When he wakes up, with a start, he tells us he dreamed he was riding a wild horse.... very apt. 

It takes us five hours to get to Savuti Game Reserve and as we arrive at the reserve gate  Ike hears from a safari guide that a leopard has been spotted up a tree near by.  Suddenly it is all actions go... Ike and Mfana uncouple our trailer and leave it at the gate and we race off to find the leopard, crashing and bashing our way through trees with all of us ducking and diving in the back.  It is a hair raising trip but worth it when we see the leopard right where Ike thought it would be, up a tree, calmly looking at us.  It looks like a giant domestic cat with its tail dangling over a branch and its huge paws resting comfortably in front.  It licks its paws, yawns and stares straight at us with its enormous amber coloured eyes.  So gorgeous, thrilling and scary.
 

 

 We crash our way back through the trees to collect our trailer and head to our camp site, right beside a river, home to many crocodiles.  It is hard work putting up our tents in the 37 degree heat so that by the time we have set camp we are sweaty and filthy.   We have a lunch of cold meat, green and potato salads and then another delicious bucket shower.  All things are relative and a 50 second shower is a joy when you have to go days without any shower at all.  Ike tells us not to go down the short bank to the river.  He says that crocodiles are very smart and will watch you approach the river a number of times, allowing you to become complacent, and then, just when you think there is no danger, they will pounce.  I am certainly not going to test that theory!  He tells us that the bank is steep enough to prevent the crocodiles coming up into camp. Around 4pm, as the day starts to cool, we set out on safari.  There are a lot of safari trucks, from the many lodges in the area, circling the reserve, the passengers looking decidedly cleaner and better dressed than we are  but we are proudly intrepid and wear our dishevelled state as a badge of honour.  We find some female lions and cubs under a tree however they are a long way off and hard to see so we drive out to the river marsh. 
 





 Ike stops the truck and we all get out and gather around him as he produces a large map of Botswana and gives us an interesting lesson on the rivers and tribal history of the area.  Then another guide stops to tell us he has seen a baby leopard alone  high on a rock face so we go looking for it and quickly find it.  Ike says that it's mother would have left it there while she went hunting.  The cub looks very cute and vulnerable waiting for it's mum but the light is behind it and it is too difficult to photograph. As we head back to camp we see two giant eagle owls up in trees and a herd of water buck bouncing happily along in the marsh. Back at camp we have a welcome glass of wine before dinner and enjoy spaghetti bolognaise followed by apricots and cream.  We are happy but worn out again so in bed by 9pm.





Interesting, but entirely useless, facts I learnt today:

* An elephant's penis weighs 27 kg, on average

*An elephant will use it's penis as a scratcher...we saw them using  them to scratch their stomachs

* Male elephants like walking around with their penises extended and they almost touch the ground, the locals call it the elephant's fifth leg.

 











Photos: (1) Some of our group help repair the truck while other give "helpful" or should that be "unhelpful" advice, (2) It is a long trip through this savannah, ideal cover for lions, (3) And hours passing through this burnt landscape too, (4) A gorgeous leopard peers down at us from a tree, (5) Nice pussy cat!, (6) The very pretty river marsh in Savuti reserve, (7) Ike gives us a lesson on the history of the rivers and tribes of Botswana..... (8) ...and we inspect the map of Botswana