Nighttime Visitors

June 19, 2010

So we were all sitting around the fire last night, wrapped up in thick wool blankets and full of delicious cottage pie when our ears perked up to the sound of falling trees. And when you hear the crackle of bark snapping and twigs breaking and whole trunks falling to the ground, that can only mean one thing...ELEPHANTS. And, sure enough, as the whole lot of us hustled over to the thin electric fence, there they were. Several eles had surrounded the camp looking for a late-night snack. And some of these eles were obviously in musth, which is when they are quite ready to mate, and thus quite irritable. We all shone our torches just to the side of where they were. There were a couple of big guys down at the bottom of camp and several out by the gate and we just stood there watching these huge animals munching and silently moving through the brush. And every now and then, we would hear loud cracks and watch a whole tree topple over. They were certainly aware of us, and began to get agitated the longer we watched, so we went back to the fire. Soon it was time for bed, and of course the eles had found their way to the fence, right next to MY tent. Try sleeping to the sound of trees crashing to the ground about 20 meters away with some flimsy wires separating you from a seven ton bull elephant in musth!
And those were not the only visitors to Nsikaze Camp last night. At dawn, when we all groggily trudged to our trucks for bird surveys and pitlines, we noticed leopard tracks right at the gate fresh from the night. And they were massive for a leopard. All morning people noticed leopard tracks around the perimeter of the camp. And, if that's not enough, two guides went off this afternoon to inspect lion tracks nearby and when we were out on our surveys, we found tracks from an entire pack of hyenas. I guess our camp was a hot spot last night...I haven't heard the hippos in a couple of nights though.
So, I was quite nervous last night and a little more uneasy when I found evidence of other nighttime visitors, but remarkably, I've become a little more at ease about sleeping in the bush. I'm beginning to sense a kind of mutual respect between myself and some of the larger, more dangerous creatures here. We each are curious of the other, cautious and alert when in each other's presence, but neither enters the territory of the other with malicious or selfish intent. And so, we all continue to live quite peacefully with one another as neighbors in this vast, exciting and untamed wilderness...even if we all do lose some sleep.
Love,
Bianca