In search of big game

David C. Weber

“My Lord, look at the guns! Welcome to Zimbabwe.”

My son Douglas was as amazed as I at the gun cases that come off

the plane from Johannesburg -- nearly 10% of the 80 passengers on the

flight came to Victoria Falls with weapons for shooting big game.

There are governmental “concessions” designated for hunting.

“Have no fear,” our professional safari guide, Gavin, said. “No

hunting in any game concession we’ll be in.”

True enough. We first visited Botswana’s Chobe National Park for

close viewing of huge Savannah elephants, cape buffalo, giraffe,

Burchell’s zebra, Nile crocodile, sable antelope and on and on.

We had carefully chosen Botswana, a well-governed country with 22%

of its entire land protected in game preserves. Its game concessions

provide more isolated visits with all the popular cats and other big

game save the rhino. Nary a crowd around a kill! Each camp, with

tribal staff, provided marvelous food, whether it be the hot cereal

around the campfire at a chilly dawn, an ostrich steak, superb fruit

and veggies or the chocolate-crunch torte with pistachios and sour

cherries for dessert one evening. Safari life can have one feeling

pampered!

For the eight of us tourists (with two guides), the Land Rover

vehicle ride is itself a rather wild experience, holding on over

deeply rutted dusty tracks, some flooded with as much as 30 inches of

flood water.

Then “Wow! Look!” Gavin braked sharply when a rare wild dog

crossed our track in hot pursuit of a terrified impala. And one

night, Douglas and I were on edge all night as some dozens of

elephants surrounding our tent were fiercely trumpeting as if they

were rampaging, fighting each other -- their overwhelming raucous

bellowing going on literally all night long. No sleep for us that

night!

From Chobe, we moved to the legendary Savuti camp, a famous

watering hole for hundreds of elephants. The two-person tents at each

camp were on permanent platforms, with running-water facilities in a

private open-air annex. Since July is winter there, we were not

surprised by nights in the high 40 degrees. At noontime, it was in

the upper 80s, feeling even hotter sitting watching game on a morning

game drive in the sun and, after a daily siesta, another drive into

the evening. Insects were seldom seen: never the famous tsetse.

Then it was on to Jacana camp amid the famous Okavango Delta flood

plain.

Hippos en masse, their petite ears flicking out the water as they

surfaced. (During such safari drives, we learn collective nouns --

it’s a journey of giraffes, a raft of hippos, a dazzle of zebras, a

conference of baboons, a sounder of warthogs, and a clan of hyena.)

And how lucky we were to spot the shy sitatunga antelope, seen from

the mokoro dugout canoe poled so skillfully by a Bayei tribesman.

Finally, we stayed in the tents of Kaporota camp. Leopards and

cheetahs were awesome, as was a crashing herd of 1,000 cape buffalo.

We then returned to camp, notes in arousal, scanning today’s

digital snapshots, and curled up in comfy beds in our private tent,

perhaps to listen to the snorts of hippos plodding by for food, the

distant roar of a lion, or the raucous trumpeting in a nearby herd of

squabbling elephants.

Though we didn’t know until the next morning, two of our group

were frightened late in the evening when they spotted a leopard on

the path right by our tent.

And the sky! Never have I seen the Milky Way in such startling

clarity. Amazing silences and sounds with sensational sights of

myriad sparkling stars!

Each site sported spectacular birds such as African fish eagle,

Pel’s fishing owl and the saddle-billed stork (we counted 166 species

without trying!).

Though some safaris drive one from camp to camp, our program used

10-people Cessna Caravan planes, landing on clay strips cleared of

mopane brush within a few miles of the each camp, thus saving tons of

relocation time.

Daily game drives were constantly exciting. We watched 16-foot

Nile crocodiles bask on the riverbank and a female leopard sleeping

the day away high on a limb. We were surprised to hear that the

attack-kill ratio of such big cats as lion, leopard and cheetah is

actually poor. An animal more closely related to the felines than

canines, despite appearances, the spotted hyenas we saw have a far

better technique for hunting.

The lions impressed us, especially while hearing them loudly

chomping on a cape buffalo’s head -- viewed from the 25-foot safety

of our open vehicle!

The only time we were at all threatened by these wild creatures

was when a lone bull elephant flapped his ears and scuffed up dirt in

our faces, prompting our guide to bang the Land Rover side very hard

with the flat of his hand, the sound backing the animal away at once.

The cameras were ever busy.