By Roxanne Reid
On our first afternoon game drive from DumaTau Camp in the Linyanti, Botswana, we saw wild dogs and a leopard. We were beyond chuffed. We teased our guide that he’d never equal or better that on our next drive. But nature had other ideas, showing us the raw power of lions.
But we found no leopards.
What we did find was a green wood-hoopoe probing a dead tree trunk for borer worms to eat and a trio of strutting ground hornbills. ‘See how their legs are covered in scales like an eagle’s,’ said Evans. ‘Snake fangs can’t penetrate those scales so these birds are good snake killers.’
He talked about some of the local trees, like Kalahari apple-leaf, jackalberry and African mangosteen. We learnt that locals use the blue bush or Kalahari star apple as a toothbrush. ‘You dig up the root and chew it, then use it like a toothbrush, but it gives you an orange tongue. People that go to cattle posts still use them,’ he said.
An explosion of lions
We crossed a rustic log-bridge over the water and found six lions lying down next to a termite mound. Some young males were just starting to grow their manes. Two seemed half alert, lying like sphinxes, their heads erect but eyelids drooping.
We were settling in to enjoy watching them doze when a hapless impala ram wandered out of a thicket without noticing them. So pumped up on testosterone was he in this rutting season that he wasn’t concentrating on possible dangers around him – and he walked slap bang into trouble.
Although their tummies looked quite full, this was a chance the lions weren’t going to pass up. Sphinx Number 1 started the charge and the others joined in, fanning out in a pincer movement to cut off the impala’s escape. More lions appeared from behind us where we hadn’t seen them.
Eventually a lioness pulled off a leg and moved to a tuft of grass about six metres away to enjoy it in peace. Two others snatched a bit and walked off too. The smallest cub came towards us tripping over the stomach as it spilt its grassy contents on to the ground.
The whole impala was gone in 10-15 minutes, from a living breathing animal to nothing but bones for the vultures to pick over.
Electrifying though it was to see the raw power of lions in action, it’s always distressing to witness how fast the transition from life to death is for prey animals. To relieve some of our held-in tension we stopped at a waterhole for coffee and a recap of the events that had moved so quickly we’d each noticed only part of the initial drama as it unfolded.
But first Evans drove carefully around the area to check there were no dangerous predators in the bushes. We weren’t going to make the same mistake as that impala.
You’ll find the untamed Linyanti area in northern Botswana, with Moremi Game Reserve and the Okavango Delta to the south and Chobe National Park to the east. At 1 250 square kilometres, it’s a place of vast wetlands, floodplains and woodlands with wildlife like lions, leopards, cheetahs, wild dogs, buffaloes, and lots of elephants. If you’re a birder, you’ll love seeing some of about 400 bird species, including African skimmer, African fish-eagle, saddle-billed stork, kingfishers and bee-eaters.
The main source of water for wildlife during the dry season is the Linyanti River, while the mysterious Savuti Channel has a history of disappearing and reappearing. It has flowed erratically for more than a century, returning after a 30-year dry spell in 2008. Now it’s has dried up once more. The word Savute means ‘unpredictable’ and its rabbit-in-a-hat trick has to do with tectonic movement of rock plates below the surface.
The Linyanti is home to a number of luxury camps that offer game drives, guided walks and boat safaris, as well as a chance to interact with local communities and learn about their traditional way of life. When we enjoyed this lion experience, we were staying at Wilderness’ Duma Tau Camp. Appropriately, Duma Tau means ‘roar of the lion’. We have also stayed at Great Plains Conservation’s Selinda Camp not far away. I can recommend both for outstanding wildlife experiences with fabulously knowledgeable guides.
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