I’m a recovering Grinch who’s married to a Christmas enthusiast. It’s been wonderful seeing Brianne’s joy during Christmas and it’s something that’s becoming contagious. Still, it was a bit harder for Brianne to be away from family for Christmas than it was for me. What made it easier still was being with the Nicoletti’s who are family to us and who went out of their way to make the day special and fun. We decided to stayed at Track and Trail safari lodge Christmas Eve/Eve, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, which is along the banks of the Luangwa river where you can watch crocodiles and hippos vie for space on the crowded, muddy banks.
I’d never been on Safari before and, to be honest, I was slightly hesitant about it. I’d heard stories of zoo-like safari experiences and it all sounded quite contrived. However, when we arrived the atmosphere, even at our accommodation, was wild. We were camped on the edge of the Luangwa river, which was really the African river of my imagination. Full of sediment, slowly moving, wide and shallow the South Luangwa river was home to hippos, bush bucks, alligators and others all right down from where we ate our dinner. The camp hosted an outcast hippo in a small pond about 200 feet from where we camped the first night (up on a 20 foot platform, thankfully). And every meal was a bit of a battle as monkeys would swoop in with stealth and speed to take unguarded food items right off of your plate, right in front of you.
On Christmas eve we took a morning drive into South Luangwa National Park in an old Land Rover that had been converted to comfortably sit nine safari goers in stadium style seating (fortunately, it was just the four of us). The diversity of species in the African bush is totally crazy. While on safari I couldn’t help but think of the incredible power of evolution at work as I saw creatures living in their respective niches. There were many different birds that all had different mating and pairing behaviours, there we tons of Antelope (in fact, a safari enthusiast and Chris' boss at IDE referred to the sighting of a bushbuck, impala or other antelope as “AFA,” or “Another ‘Effing’ Antelope) gently grazing on the myriad grasses, plants and trees, and then there were elephants, hippos, lions, leopards and other evolutionary giants that were all tenuously supported by the ecosystems in place.
Watching an elephant slowly walk across a great grassland is something that really makes you think about how fragile our world is. It makes you think about how fantastic all these different species are that exist so that such a large creature can be sustained. It makes you think about how elephants aren’t really that different than humans; their eyes look just like ours,they give birth to infants that are incredibly dependent on their mother for life, it takes about 18 years to raise a baby until it’s ready to head out on it’s own, and elephants can live to be 80 years old. As I watched this extremely large, female African Elephant in the habitat she had evolved to suit, gracefully, methodically and intentionally walking across the Savanna, I saw that it was good. I saw that it was incredible. I saw that so many tiny changes had happened over millions of years so that this elephant could exist in present form, and it took my breath away.
So that’s my main take on safaris. I think for a westerner like myself who’s only ever seen animals so large as elephants and cats so large as lions in the zoo it’s so shocking and so beautiful that you can’t help but to dissolve into a writhing puddle of enthusiastic mysticism.
But, there’s another, exciting and thrill seeking type side that I’d be remiss not to talk about, which occurred on our last night's drive. It was Christmas night, actually, and we had had a wonderful day with a self guided safari drive in the morning (where we accidentally came upon a family of elephants with young who flapped their ears and test charged our Nissan truck while Chris was frantically trying to get the truck into reverse and Brianne rolled her window up as if a thin piece of glass is going to make any difference if a four ton elephant decides she doesn’t really appreciate your proximity) and enjoyed an afternoon sharing gifts and being family. Our guide showed up at 4p to take us out to enjoy the last two hours of daylight and the first two hours of night in the park. As the sun began to set, we discovered a pride of female lions - three juveniles and two adults - and the adults were about to start their hunt.
Our driver that night, JJ, was a seasoned safari guide who had been working in the park for 25 years and who carried the quiet assurance of someone highly capable in their job. Somehow, JJ new just the place the 2 lioness would likely emerge to find an unfortunate impala for the pride to eat. We waited on the outskirts of an open, grassy area teaming with Impala and saw our hunters emerge from the bush. What happened next was really a scene out of Jurassic Park or a Planet Earth feature, but instead of watching the action on a television, you are some feet away in an open air Toyota. We watched and chased the lions, using red light to try to minimize the distraction, as they worked in unison to weed out the injured or young impala that they would try to make their dinner. At several points, the lions came right up behind us, close enough that we could have whispered to them. We watched the scene unfold for 30 or so minutes (I actually don’t really know how long we were watching because for the entirety of this thing I was 100% completely enthralled with what we were seeing) until our wise guide, JJ, decided it better that the lionesses be left alone to seal the deal with the next impala to misjudge the lions speed and power.
Thinking surely this could get no better, we began to return to the park entrance when JJ spotted a leopard who herself had begun hunting. I’ll never forget watching this leopard slowly and methodically weave through giant hippos, almost using them as barriers to hide her presence from the unsuspecting impala. We only watched for a brief period, I think because leopards are more sensitive to safari vehicle presence or because we had already been out too long because of our lioness chase, until we began to head back for park entrance. And, to continue with the Jurassic-Park-Is-This-Real feeling, our last encounter came as JJ was taking a turn at speed and a giant hippo reared it’s big ugly face right in our path. Earlier that night JJ was telling us that he is most afraid of hippos, because once hippos feel threatened, they’ll work to extinguish that threat until it’s gone. Luckily, this hippo decided a retreat back into the bush wiser than an assault on our safari vehicle.
When we returned back to Track and Trail the adrenaline was pumping and we all felt like high fiving each other and digesting what he had just seen. The coolest part was that JJ was equally enthusiastic and even said that nights like that one were the ones that kept his enthusiasm for his job.
I’d never been on Safari before and, to be honest, I was slightly hesitant about it. I’d heard stories of zoo-like safari experiences and it all sounded quite contrived. However, when we arrived the atmosphere, even at our accommodation, was wild. We were camped on the edge of the Luangwa river, which was really the African river of my imagination. Full of sediment, slowly moving, wide and shallow the South Luangwa river was home to hippos, bush bucks, alligators and others all right down from where we ate our dinner. The camp hosted an outcast hippo in a small pond about 200 feet from where we camped the first night (up on a 20 foot platform, thankfully). And every meal was a bit of a battle as monkeys would swoop in with stealth and speed to take unguarded food items right off of your plate, right in front of you.
On Christmas eve we took a morning drive into South Luangwa National Park in an old Land Rover that had been converted to comfortably sit nine safari goers in stadium style seating (fortunately, it was just the four of us). The diversity of species in the African bush is totally crazy. While on safari I couldn’t help but think of the incredible power of evolution at work as I saw creatures living in their respective niches. There were many different birds that all had different mating and pairing behaviours, there we tons of Antelope (in fact, a safari enthusiast and Chris' boss at IDE referred to the sighting of a bushbuck, impala or other antelope as “AFA,” or “Another ‘Effing’ Antelope) gently grazing on the myriad grasses, plants and trees, and then there were elephants, hippos, lions, leopards and other evolutionary giants that were all tenuously supported by the ecosystems in place.
Watching an elephant slowly walk across a great grassland is something that really makes you think about how fragile our world is. It makes you think about how fantastic all these different species are that exist so that such a large creature can be sustained. It makes you think about how elephants aren’t really that different than humans; their eyes look just like ours,they give birth to infants that are incredibly dependent on their mother for life, it takes about 18 years to raise a baby until it’s ready to head out on it’s own, and elephants can live to be 80 years old. As I watched this extremely large, female African Elephant in the habitat she had evolved to suit, gracefully, methodically and intentionally walking across the Savanna, I saw that it was good. I saw that it was incredible. I saw that so many tiny changes had happened over millions of years so that this elephant could exist in present form, and it took my breath away.
So that’s my main take on safaris. I think for a westerner like myself who’s only ever seen animals so large as elephants and cats so large as lions in the zoo it’s so shocking and so beautiful that you can’t help but to dissolve into a writhing puddle of enthusiastic mysticism.
But, there’s another, exciting and thrill seeking type side that I’d be remiss not to talk about, which occurred on our last night's drive. It was Christmas night, actually, and we had had a wonderful day with a self guided safari drive in the morning (where we accidentally came upon a family of elephants with young who flapped their ears and test charged our Nissan truck while Chris was frantically trying to get the truck into reverse and Brianne rolled her window up as if a thin piece of glass is going to make any difference if a four ton elephant decides she doesn’t really appreciate your proximity) and enjoyed an afternoon sharing gifts and being family. Our guide showed up at 4p to take us out to enjoy the last two hours of daylight and the first two hours of night in the park. As the sun began to set, we discovered a pride of female lions - three juveniles and two adults - and the adults were about to start their hunt.
Our driver that night, JJ, was a seasoned safari guide who had been working in the park for 25 years and who carried the quiet assurance of someone highly capable in their job. Somehow, JJ new just the place the 2 lioness would likely emerge to find an unfortunate impala for the pride to eat. We waited on the outskirts of an open, grassy area teaming with Impala and saw our hunters emerge from the bush. What happened next was really a scene out of Jurassic Park or a Planet Earth feature, but instead of watching the action on a television, you are some feet away in an open air Toyota. We watched and chased the lions, using red light to try to minimize the distraction, as they worked in unison to weed out the injured or young impala that they would try to make their dinner. At several points, the lions came right up behind us, close enough that we could have whispered to them. We watched the scene unfold for 30 or so minutes (I actually don’t really know how long we were watching because for the entirety of this thing I was 100% completely enthralled with what we were seeing) until our wise guide, JJ, decided it better that the lionesses be left alone to seal the deal with the next impala to misjudge the lions speed and power.
Thinking surely this could get no better, we began to return to the park entrance when JJ spotted a leopard who herself had begun hunting. I’ll never forget watching this leopard slowly and methodically weave through giant hippos, almost using them as barriers to hide her presence from the unsuspecting impala. We only watched for a brief period, I think because leopards are more sensitive to safari vehicle presence or because we had already been out too long because of our lioness chase, until we began to head back for park entrance. And, to continue with the Jurassic-Park-Is-This-Real feeling, our last encounter came as JJ was taking a turn at speed and a giant hippo reared it’s big ugly face right in our path. Earlier that night JJ was telling us that he is most afraid of hippos, because once hippos feel threatened, they’ll work to extinguish that threat until it’s gone. Luckily, this hippo decided a retreat back into the bush wiser than an assault on our safari vehicle.
When we returned back to Track and Trail the adrenaline was pumping and we all felt like high fiving each other and digesting what he had just seen. The coolest part was that JJ was equally enthusiastic and even said that nights like that one were the ones that kept his enthusiasm for his job.
No comments:
Post a Comment