Desert environments long distill time and allow for undiluted thought processes to take place. Its also a place one can test to see how resilient one really is. Absolutely no city static to interfere with ones deep thinking.
The Kalahari is a very special place for me and if you have the opportunity to go to the trans-frontier national park - Kgalagadi, its really well worth a visit. Even for a few days. The intensity of the place for me is absolute food for the soul. To my mind its as Africa wild as one can safely go now days. However what do i know, the mists of Africa are now lifting. Those who have been stripping it bare are finding it harder to hide behind long tall stories and tall elephant grass.
Many, many years ago before all the rules started accompanying every trip to the hinterlands of deep Africa. Things like game parks did not really formally exist to contain the wild. I went on an excursion into the wild with a Zambian copper miners son and a proper Rhode. I am a Capetonian or what is called a Kaapenaar, so the "bush" isnt an environment i am really comfortable in. Put me on the sea and im home - put me in the bush and im suddenly very respectful of every single small noise i hear. What with lions and some serious wild animals - The deep bush is not for the feint of heart. and its definitely not a place to venture in with 2 old time Africa wild men who are scared of absolutely nothing. We did have ol cliff richard keeping us company - need i say more. Summer holiday and all.
We drove 300km deep into the "bush" from a known spot. The area we transgressed was to my mind over predatised and along the single dirt track we traveled was plenty of lion spore. The occasional cheetah spore and plenty of game tracks. Cheetah spore is amazing as the claws do not retract - Giving the cheetah sprinters spikes whilst chasing down springboks. So its easy enough to differentiate from other cat spore. Im no expert but some sign is even obvious to the bush tone illiterate like me.
The reality with the lions within a desert environment - You see evidence, you see their tracks but you rarely ever see them - They are super stealthy and brilliant at keeping hidden. They always watching, always watching you.
For this excursion i brought along my little 2 man pap tent which was a miserable excuse for a tent really - Made in a far off land for children to put up in the back yard. Not for the bush at all, which really requires a proper canvas fabric tent - Not the pathetic tent i brought into these unforgiving lands. A Zambian copper miners son and an ex Rhode aint gonna tell you niks, nadda about common sense survival. They have stories up to whazoo about those who have lacked common sense in the bush. Most end with, then they where eaten, savaged, mauled, spit braaid and struck by lightening, dead!!!.
So that night we found our spot to camp near a waterhole and had a lekker braai. A couple of whiskeys and enjoyed the night time sounds and green eye torch show that only Africa can dish up. Shine a torch into the night and it lights back with green eye reflection. The hyenas where fairly well behaved - However im not hugely scared of these creatures of the night, respectful yes, but you can reason with them if you dont look pathetically weak. Its the lion that leaves me completely absolutely cold. It was a full moon and i got to sleep around 9pm in the tent designed for keeping the mist from your face. Anything other than mist and the tent is completely useless. In fact i was a little scared to even break wind in fear the tent would immediately be whisked away into the Africa night sky.
It was then the car was started and the one Africa Rhode bush maestro headed out with the only vehicle for miles around. To sleep under the stars far away from the paper thin tent and its snoring 2 occupants. The Zambian wasn't perturbed and started his snoring immediately - I was extremely fortunate to get to sleep fairly easily and was out until 3am. i was suddenly woken by the urge to go to the loo. Fortunately the minor of the 2 options.
I didnt realise it at first however I was also awoken by lions making a sound that i couldn't even attempt to even explain. A sound like many deep resonating instruments playing over each other. It was a low rumbling type roar - It was an extremely deep growl that came out like a ooooooooOOOOOOWAH!!! Chuff Growling type sound. Very deep ominous and completely and utterly poop releasing frightening. I lay awake for half an hour listening to the noise of the lions conversing and hunting around our tent - Im not sure how close they where as water tends to bounce sound over it. But it sounded like they where exactly right next to me. I lay their completely frozen, i suffer from huge ptsd to this day from this single experience. - It was then i realized something i never thought possible. Why exactly these cunning predatory creatures emit that exact chuff type sound. Its a sound that the base of which comes up through the ground and hits you exactly in the middle of your stomach. Then because the sound is so completely frightening your stomach and its contents becomes a huge massive issue. Now fear and bravery are a very strange thing. Your fear leads you to the point you desperately need the loo - whilst your bravery is linked to how urgently you need to go. So at a point in this cacophony of lion growling sound i charged off from the safety of the paper thin tent and into the night. Total silence, well other than me lumbering around like a novice night snack. To answer natures call, i didnt realise natures call had several meanings. No it wasnt the lions nature call i was answering. How i did not get completely eaten is a complete mystery only Africa can explain. My fat white ass looking like chicken wings on a braai grid. As the next day we saw lion spore all around the paper thin tent and a big young male lion made his way into the veld close by our camp very early the next morning on the drive out. When the Rhode decided to return from his sleep in the safety of the car.
Africa in its raw undiluted form is incredible - However from then on i didnt go further than 1m from the vehicle - The little metal cubicle of safety from the wild. Now i am braver in the bush now days but i made 1 resolution that day - I would never ever go into the deep bush again in someone elses vehicle - I would only go into the bush if i was driving my own car and only on my own terms. If im going to be a lack of common sense statistic, its going to be 100% on me. While im being chowed at least i can reflect i did all i could. Rather than become a meal and have a pride of lions chat about how super dumb that last 2 legged burger was.
Africa does not suffer fools gladly at all. Im just really glad on this one rare occasion the fool prevailed.
I was party to another real Africa raw experience once. When I finished school and took 6 months to waft around as one does when youve sacrificed so much for so very little. 12 years learning to be institutionalized cannon fodder for the world of work. My brother whom was living in Zimbabwe in Harare at the time, said i must join him for some weeks traveling the length and breadth of that very fine land. We went to Victoria falls, ive also subsequently been to Ruacana falls in flood in northern Namibia. Both very impressive waterfalls i must say Ruacana is incredible and very underated.
My brother booked myself and my sister into a houseboat on Karibe dam and an island game safari lodge for a week. Karibe is a massive dam and requires a high powered boat to go from one side to the other. We went on a game boat viewing on one of the days. Back in the days when the only pictures you took where in your own head. We came across massive crocodiles, huge units, just sunning themselves, elephant and a few other game views on the shore. While we motored past feasting our eyes on wild Africa and its incredible savanna. Not much comes remotely close. We got to this one little quiet bay and engines off drifted to the shore. I was in the very front of the boat and i noticed a full grown hippo and a calf in the shallows. For some completely unknown reason the hippo didn't like us, not one little bit. She, with a temper like that, im assuming it was a she. She came stomping towards us. our boatman at the back of the bost immediately kicked into gear. He powered reversed and while i was watching bubbles getting alarmingly closer incredibly fast, he backed away. Now being at the front i had a unique vantage point of appreciating the incredible speed this absolutely angry behemoth was traveling. Fast is an understatement. Our long in the tooth boatman veered to the side to turn and seconds later the water erupted like a cauldron of hydra in scolding boiling water. Me being at the front got wet in more ways than one. It was very close but i will never forget the pigs eye on a strangely horses head and the feeling i was a miniscule mosquito that just avaded a deadly accurate fly swatter.
Ive had other incredible Africa deep influence stories over the years from catching springhares at night. Their eyes reflect back red which helps you know your not grabbing the tail of a leopard. To looking for.a leopard only to realise it was 2m infront of me in the long grass. Ok there was a fence between us, but still. It was completely invisible in the grass.
From mambas standing up to the eye level of my open car window, to huge 25cm scorpions coming out in the wind of the desert night. Africa is a beautiful dangerous jewel.
The point of this reflection is to let you know that if youve never experienced a wild savanna sunset on the African continent. You havent experience the moment when earth and sky blend into one incredible experience. Its.really spectacular.
