Sharing infinite space with the African wildlife, the writer feels a sense of calm, after the initial storm.

The still and dark night was rife with movement and transactions. Preys and predators, herds and solitary stalkers, food and scavenging, everything was going on but all I could see and hear was the Luangwa river flowing by under a billion stars and the Milky Way.

In a walk-in safari tent at the Ituba camp managed by the Chifunda community in Zambia, I rested, a good 100 metres away from my nearest co-traveller. The only light was from the mobile phone, which had no connectivity. Occasionally a baboon or monkey’s call broke the silence, or the loud snort of a hippo leaving the waters in search of food. The unmistaken cry of the hyena sounded too close at times. Everything else was quiet. It would be no exaggeration to call it one of the best nights in my life.

Sometimes you ask for something impossible and least expect the Universe to deliver. But it does and how! In the Khwai campsite in Botswana, lying inside the plastic tent my senses were all alert to approaching elephants and hippos in whose direct path we lay. I imagined a huge herd on way to the water and counted my chances of not being trampled. 

I had landed in my dream continent thanks to a friend who wanted help I just couldn’t say no to! Even before the pastel colours of Africa that I saw from the flight had been displaced from my thoughts, I faced my first challenge. It was the team’s second camping out, after the first at Savuti, and this one was at the Khwai Community Concession in Botswana.

Most camps in Africa’s parks are well managed with very good facilities, and often run houseful in season, like the one at Savuti. The one at Khwai was not so frequented, is wild and does not house space for more than a couple of groups. Sandwiched between Moremi and Chobe parks, this region has high concentrations of wildlife, with sightings guaranteed. Adjacent to the village, the campsite was on the banks of the river Khwai with tall evergreen trees. This region falls at the start of the great Okavango delta.

Perfect, right? For someone who had always dreamed of the African wilderness. Yes and no.

It’s one thing to sight wildlife from a moving vehicle. Quite something else, to get into your 6×4 flimsy plastic tent and zip up, with the words of the park guide still ringing in your head. ‘Yes elephants will be moving in this region but not to worry as long as you do not distract them with loud noises. They will find their way between the tents! So also hippos.’ Lions we were already hearing all around since dusk.

And yes, he also had cautioned us not to leave even shoes outside tent as hungry hyenas have no discerning ability! Sure enough, they came, sniffing in search for food. If you think hyenas are mere ‘ugly dogs’ that can be shooed away, you are right and wrong. We did see it shooed away at one place by a park ranger protecting cheetah cubs but we also saw how it had sunk its teeth into a live wildebeest and pulled out the flesh even as the prey’s heart was still beating.

In short, as I stretched out in the tent that night, it was to mixed feelings. I was happy to be here, in the place where it all began some 200,000 years ago. The ground seemed to throb with stories imprinted down the ages — back to a time when man truly belonged to the land. My mind tried to visualise the past.

And yet, a part of it was rooted to the present. Transfixed. The roar of the lions was not too distant but not as scary as the thought that a herd of elephants maybe walking down any time for a sip in the river. All it would take was one giant leg to bring down the tent and snuff a life out! In the tent alongside, someone was already snoring.

Peeking through the netted part of the tent in front, the magical star-studded sky beckoned me. I declined. Till nature’s call got strident. With the miner’s torch strapped on my forehead, I stepped out and strayed a few yards away to finish the task, all the while scanning around with my head. I remember thinking how I might have looked to a wandering hyena or lion. Up above the stars shone brightly. In the African wilderness, somehow the stars seem bigger.

Back in my tent, my mind dwelt on those back home, wondering if I would ever see them. I then thought of my heroes like Jane Goodall and Diane Fossey and decided to shove aside my fears and allow sleep to ‘soothe the burning brow’.

Morning began early at 5.30 am and did I count my lucky stars to have escaped being trampled. As a friend observed later, one is safer with the wildlife than in a crowded street in a city. If you can resonate with the pulse of nature, there can be no happier moments.

By Jaya

(The trip was part of a recce of Wander Beyond Boundaries – https://tr.ee/jK8puCI6fP)