We had been given a pan in the far north of the Park, so we load up the open back bakkie with our entire essentials for a night of camping. Mum, Dad and Cathy were in the cab and Tom and I lay on a mattress on top of all our gear. We left home early to enable us to get to our pan by 12 noon. It was a very uneventful trip until we got to about an hour from our destination, when we came across a pride of about 13 lions being chased off their zebra carcass by a pack of 16 hyenas. We stopped and watched the fracas going on for a while, as it was very interesting. Suddenly Cathy hears a crack on the left of the vehicle and we all notice that the hyenas had chased a lioness up a spindly Mopani tree right next to us. Cathy was now more concerned about the two of us on the back of the vehicle and worried that we were going to be added to the zebra carcass and managed to persuade my father to drive on.
We got to the pan and found a suitable place to set up for our 24 hour game count. The rules were that we had to stay in the vehicle for the duration, but Dad always erected a canvas from the vehicle out, so that we could sit under it to record the game that came down to drink and the back of the vehicle was used for the people that were off duty during the night to catch up on a few hours sleep before their next shift. Of course my father always had to pick an elephant path to camp on as his reasoning was that it was the flattest ground around! By now Cathy had refused to get out of the vehicle, so my father told her that if she did not get out of the vehicle there would be no dinner for her! She reluctantly got out of the cab and joined us under the canvas for some warming stew and coffee.
Once dinner was over, Cathy now figured that it was quite safe to be out of the vehicle and was quite relaxed. We had counted a number of species of game come down to drink, among the lot a herd of elephant cows and calves. One female had obviously just given birth to a baby and so was very protective of her offspring and was not happy with the intrusion at her water-hole. She decided to mock charge us, at which my father calmly puffing on his pipe just tapped the side of the vehicle, which sent her away. But then she decided that we were a real threat to her young and came charging towards us in a serious charge. By now Cathy had grabbed hold of both my mother and I and was trying to get all three of us in the cab of the vehicle at the same time!! While my father carried on casually puffing away and telling the cow to go away that we were no threat. She finally decided to back of once she was within a few metres of us.
Pastel Picture of Elephant by author
Once the herd of cows and calves had finished their bathing and drinking and had meandered off, which was about 11pm, Cathy and I decided that it was our turn to do the next few hours shift, while the others caught up on some sleep.
All was quite except for the call of a Giant Eagle Owl and some nightjars joining in the melodies to break the night silence. We were having a hard time trying to keep awake during the our watch so we were eating chocolate and doing leg exercises in the hope of keeping awake. Suddenly a bull elephant came wandering down towards the pan to have his evening drink and bath. In the moonlight we could just make out his shape, and hear his splashing and sucking of water which made silver ripples on the muddy water. When he decided he had had enough he started ambling off in our direction. Cathy got a bit worried and started tapping on the car door as Dad had done earlier to let him know wer were there, which he seemed not to hear being an elderly male, or he just had selective hearing. So she started banging on the door frantically, which woke the whole camp and certainly broke the silence of the night. Thankfully with all the clatter he took off at a hasty pace in another direction. Well that woke us up and managed to keep on counting with hammering hearts, eyes wide open and ears listening for any crunch of kalahari sand or leaf breaking.
Lilac Breasted Roller in pastel by author
