Tranquility

The bush is a place to find peace and solace.  The feeling of immersion in a pristine wilderness area is something that only a few of us are lucky enough to experience.  It is a place where the complications of our world disappear.  The sounds of never-ending traffic, police sirens and the constant hum of electricity are nowhere to be seen, and instead they are replaced by a myriad of tuneful birdcalls, an underlying cacophony of insect life, the whoop of a distant hyaena or the crack of a branch as a gentle leviathan feeds. 

The holistic effect of the bush is often overlooked.  People come to the wilderness to tick off their marquis animals and get their certificate of seeing the Big 5, but many will miss the true meaning of being lost in one of the world’s most pristine wildernesses.  It is a place to find ourselves, to revisit the primitive nature of our ancestors and experience what life used to be like before the advent of technology.  Undoubtedly our advances as a species have opened up doors to new places and allowed us to enjoy a more stress free life…or have they?  Yes, television and a comfy sofa sound like a great way to relax, but I can assure you all that it is no substitute for sitting next to a serene waterhole, watching the setting Sun‘s rays dance across the water.  The colours that seep through the skeletal winter trees cannot be put in words and I struggle to believe that even Dulux could recreate some of them. 

Our current crop of budding new field guides was privy to experience such an evening last night.  After a gentle walk from the camp, stopping to discuss an old hyena den and tasting the moisture-rich roots of the aptly named ‘Mother-in-Law’s Tongue’ we stumbled across an oasis.  Stretching out before us was a small body of water with no road access and thus protected from our own destructive influences.  The golden light of an African evening filtered through the clouds, giving the whole scene a magical hue: the trees seemed to radiate the light and shine it back at us like something out of a fairy tale.  Learning about the fascinating organisms that inhabit this area is one thing, but there is no substitute for just sitting quietly and contemplating life in such an idyllic place.

The students found their own quiet corner to just sit.  We spend our whole life rushing from one thing to another, governed by time and the need to attribute meaning to everything.  We have forgotten how to truly relax and find ourselves.  This was the perfect opportunity and we all relished in the chance to be wrapped up in our thoughts about why we chose to come to such a place, just appreciating the beauty and wonder of nature in her purest form.  We sipped drinks in the warm evening air and listened to the wind rustle the leaves and last of the birds say their farewell to another perfect day in Africa.  The only movement came from little pond-skaters skimming across the glassy surface of the water and the occasional bumbles rising from its depths as the unseen aquatic world went around its business.  It was a perfect moment where time was irrelevant.

This is what the bush is all about, and the reason that so many of us come to the bush.  We are all looking for something.  Some find it in a bustling city full of social interaction and technological advances.  Others, like myself, and many of the students who pass through EcoTraining’s welcoming doors need only experience this solitude once and become addicted to this purity.  The ‘real’ world can be fun, but only in small doses.  The bush gets under your skin and for some, it will change their life, and their outlook on it, forever.

Blog post and photos by Ben Coley

Sundowner Surprise at Karongwe

We were nearing the end of the Level 1 55 day course at Karongwe Camp and
as is usually the case at this time in the course the students, who were now
preparing for their practical assessments, were now starting to explore the
area for a suitable route for each of their assessments whilst brushing up
on a few of their guiding skills. We left camp in the late afternoon and
wound our way through the woodland north of Camp towards an area known as
Beacon Rock. On the way, our "guide for the day", Katarina, stopped to point
out many interesting birds, flowers, trees and animal tracks from the game
drive vehicle.
Katarina had asked each of her guests, before leaving camp, what animal or
interest they had, and for one of the few times during the course, nobody
said "Leopard"!
One of the vehicles driving from a commercial camp in the reserve had found
a 3 Cheetahs in the direction we were headed, but Katarina and the group
decided to avoid the sighting and stick to the original plan of reaching
Beacon Rock for sundowners!!
Whilst winding our way down a road, having a small competition of "who can
identify that tree" as one tends to do from time to time on these courses,
thankfully our guide had her eyes on the road and when the vehicle came to
an abrupt stop, we all looked to the road to see what had caused the sudden
halt!
There in the road no more than 50 meters from the vehicle was a magnificent
female Leopard. She stopped for a few seconds to look at us, and then to
everyone's amazement, she just continued walking straight towards the
vehicle.
Straight away, we noticed that one of her eyes was darker in colour and in
fact was all "cloudy" in appearance. I have seen this a few times over the
years in big cats and in nearly all the cases I have witnessed, it was from
a bad injury to the eye that could have been caused by a claw of another
Leopard whilst fighting, an antelope's hoof to the eye or another such
injury. The amazing thing is that it doesn’t seem to impede the cat's in any
serious way from carrying out their day to day functions. One Leopard I
followed lived over 10 years after sustaining such an injury and
successfully raised a few litters of cubs in the process!
Anyway, back to the leopard in the road!! Just a few meters short of the
vehicle she moved into the bush to allow herself some breathing space before
returning to the road and resuming her march, stopping once in a while to
elegantly scent mark her territory with urine.
We followed at a distance that she was comfortable with for about 600meters,
before she decided to head off the road and into the open woodland. This
was a perfect opportunity for our guide to get some off road driving practice
in!!
We followed her watching her movements to predict the best route for the
Land Rover to take, avoiding all trees, such as Sickle Bush whose large hard
spines will deflate a tyre as quick as a six inch nail!! After about 100
meters into the bush, the Leopard stopped and put her nose into the air and
sniffed once. She then let out a vocalization that safari guides live for. A
short grunt followed by a few loud sniff like noises, then repeated them. I
quickly explained to the group, that what she had done, was to try contact
another Leopard at close quarters, possibly and hopefully young.
She called a once more and moved slightly deeper into the bush, where we
lost sight of her for a second. The anticipation and excitement on the
vehicle was electric, and we after repositioning the vehicle we saw what we
were hoping for. A Leopard cub bounded out of the grass to greet its mother,
and we watched as the two played and groomed.
After having enjoyed the Leopards for nearly an hour, we left them moving
into thick bush too thick for a Land Rover to follow, but we had all had a
fantastic time watching and learning about Leopards.
So next time your Safari Guide asks you your interest before a drive,
perhaps, Trees or Birds should be your response!?

Photos supplied by Joep

THROUGH THE BUSH TELEGRAPH: Look before you leap – Selati

If there’s one guarantee in nature, it is that the unexpected is sure to happen, as sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. As this update from Christine Jutz from our wilderness camp in the Selati Game Reserve clearly indicates:

“Instructor Mark Gunn would always tell us that part of guiding and conservation is to clear the road of any overhanging branches, as this would prevent the creation of new roads and so disturbing the natural environment. So every once in a while, he would stop the vehicle and say “Tracker, take the panga and help me to get this branch.”

Then of course the following happened on one of the drives… Our ‘tracker’, fellow student JJ, jumped off his seat, grabbed the panga, and as he was walking to the sickle bush, everybody on the vehicle started yelling “Lion, lion!”

Less than five meters from JJ, two lionesses and a young male rose from the vegetation where they were sleeping before we attempted to clear the sickle bush.

JJ levitated back to the vehicle in a single bound, and the lesson was learnt: Look before you leap!”

NOTE: The picture is not of the lions in this story, it is however of the Selati lions.