DAY 145 - 146 - Third Bridge - The Hyena that came for Tea - The Elephant that came to supper!

The Spotted Hyena (stock photo) - didn't have time for my camera as probably would have been eaten!

 

Botswana is renowned for its abundance of wildlife and Third Bridge is infamous for its Hyena population. The Hyena is a highly effective scavenger with a sense of smell that can detect carrion some 4 kilometres away, down wind. The whooping call of a Hyena at night is quite a haunting sound and unmistakable,  and can be heard from distances of some 5km or more. I love the sound they make and many a night was spent falling asleep to this haunting serenade, only to find in the morning that what started as a distant call had been circulating the tent whilst we slept looking for food, sometimes quite a clan from the number of Hyena tracks left in the sand as we rose for breakfast!  

We had been warned about the number of Hyena present at Third Bridge by Johann, a friend and an amazing guide, who taught the children all about wildlife back in Shamwari at the start of our African adventure.  He warned us to make sure that the children were up in their tent on the Land Rover roof shortly after dark as Hyenas were chancers and would take what they could. A year before, a young girl had been sleeping on a camping chair in front of the fire, when a Hyena rushed in and grabbed the sleeping girl by the neck and dragged her off into the bush.  She was 8, the same age as Imogen.  We later met up with somebody who knew the family and told us that her life had been saved by the metal pole of the chair, which the hyena had grabbed, which stopped her neck from breaking.  She survived, but only after 8 operations on her head and neck.

We made sure we had a strong fire roaring and ate supper quickly, managing to get the children up into their roof tent just after dark.  Our ground tent was 4 or 5 metres from the fire and after washing up we turned in shortly afterwards.  I had noticed when we arrived at our sandy tent pitch, that there were fresh elephant tracks running right through the middle of the pitch, clearly a visitor from the night before and broken branches were left sprawled around where he had been feeding.  I had a sneaking suspicion that he would be returning at some stage so placed some of the broken branches at the back of our tent so that if he did return I would hear him before he crushed the tent!!  -  Being in a tent with an elephant outside is usually fine as long as you don't keep food in the tent, especially fruit.  If you do .................... he will find it and there won't be much left of the tent or you!  ..... I made sure I left the outside window flap open so if he did return we could get a great view of him.

  The next day we had an easy day catching up on washing, showers and reading and cajoling the children catch up with their journals that each of them were writing.  As this was quite a slow process we left it too late for a game drive so planned an early supper over the fire and an early night.  Not 20 minutes after getting the children up into their tent, Jo called me as she heard something very close by in the bushes behind our tent.  'John .........  shine the torch over at the bushes, I heard something like a low growl'.  I quickly grab a torch and shine it on the bushes.  At first I don't notice anything, but then I catch the glistening eyes from the torch light of something relatively large, looking in on us.  'It's a Hyena', ..... I quickly shouted to Jo and as I shone the torch, I realised there were two of them, not 7 metres away, staring straight at us, totally undaunted by our presence.  I thought they would run off, but they didn't, I couldn't believe it, not really knowing what to do  .................. they casually walked along the edge of the bush, around our pitch, circling the fire.  That took us by surprise and I quickly said to Jo to get into the tent and fasten the zips fairly quickly ..................... time for an early night! ..............  The children were still awake and peaked out of their tent door to see them strolling round the edge of our pitch in a very brazen way, but I shouted them to zip up and no pee trips in the night!  Not sure how long it took them to get to sleep!   ..................... It seems absurd that within a canvas tent made from material not more than a few millimetres thick, you felt quite safe!  ................  thankfully Lions and Hyenas hadn't worked that out yet!   

 

This morning we head out to Mboma Island, next to the camp site. It is a beautiful drive and we watch Giraffe eating fruit from the sausage tree and then only some Impala as they spring into retreat on hearing the Landy.   We stop for a coffee and bump into a safari vehicle where we have a chat with the guide, who had just dropped his clients off for a boat trip.  He tells us about a family of Lions off the beaten track just by Second Bridge, which is about 30 minutes away, so we drink up and head over to find them, heading along the river bank, with Harry, Freddie and Imogen all eagle eyed, competing as to who could spot something first.  They spot Hippos along the way in the shallow waters and with an excited whispered shriek from Harry, we then come across two large very beautiful birds, that are some sort of crane.  They are amazing and we sit and watch them quietly for a while.  We later find out they are Wattled Cranes, which are on the endangered list and are very rare to see and feel very lucky to have seen them.  

We carry on and do not see much except several Impala, startled by the Landy and jumping high across the track in front of us, disappearing as quickly as they came. The Land Rover is going well through the dusty tracks and another coffee stop is needed for a break, just outside what looks like a huge field of brown corn, but what is actually small reeds, reddened by the sun.  

 We head off in search of the family of Lions and end up driving beyond Second Bridge, so realise we must have missed the wheel tracks leading off into the bush, so turn around and head back for another look.  After taking various openings off the track, winding our way through long grass, getting deeper into the bush, I finally catch a glimpse of what looks like a Lion, staring right at us, with cubs at her side. We have found them, but quite difficult to see from a distance as they blend in well with the dry brown grasses.  I move slowly, as close as we can and manage to get about 25 metres away from them and turn off the engine.   Although they have a close eye on us, they appear very relaxed.  What an amazing site!  The children are whispering, as loud as they dare with excited voices, wide eyed and keeping very still.  There is a full family of Lions, Mother and three young cubs, Granny and then Dad appears on the scene to show a bit of affection.  ..................... This is certainly not something you would see very often and I put the tripod slowly out of the window to take some better photos, aware that if there is a sudden charge, the tripod would have to go. 

We sit and watch the family for nearly an hour and I have never heard the children so quiet and totally focused.

    

After that amazing experience, we head back to Camp for some lunch, bumping in to more elephants along the way and patiently waiting for them to cross in front of us.  However, we get back to Camp only to find that Baboons have tried to get into our tent and have ripped a canvas strip off the tent right at the base of the door. This is not good as now there is a direct view into the tent for any animal that might get curious and suddenly realise that this 'structure', that they thought was made of concrete is only made of CANVAS!  -  had to make sure that was blocked by a rucksack every night.

After lunch, we head back out on a drive in the direction of 4th Bridge, which is only a short distance as we need to be back in Camp by 6.30pm and on the way back I spot 5 Ground Hornbill, which are quite  

a rare bird to see, their jet black coats with bright red head and throat sack (for the males) under their bill.  They are about the size of a large, but slim turkey, standing some three feet tall with an impressive wing span of about four feet across.  These birds are classified as 'vulnerable to extinction'  and like Crows back in England have an annoying habit of crashing into glass windows (breaking them most of the time) as they battle with to the death their reflections.

We wind our way off the track through the long grass to get a closer look and Fred is very excited as this is one of the animals on his list of 'Things to See'.   After our little detour, we just make it back in time to camp and get the fire going and food prepared, as in the African summers the sun sets at about 6.00pm, so darkness comes around very quickly.  We eat, wash up and get the children up in their tent by 7.30pm, which is just as well as our friendly Hyena pays us another visit at 8.00pm, so we turn in for bed.

We were fast asleep fairly quickly as driving every day was quite exhausting, but at the same time very exciting as you never knew what was going to happen.  The noise of the bush at night comes alive and tends to sooth you to sleep, helped with the distant whooping of Hyena calls, but at 2.15 in the morning I woke instantly to the sound of crushing branches right behind our heads at the back of the tent.  I nudged Jo and whispered in an excited but rather anxious voice .......... 'Its the Elephant, ...... its back ........... its just crushed the branches behind the tent'.  Jo immediately woke and I quickly and as quietly as possible, un-zipped the inside window to reveal a huge black shadow walking silently right next to the tent.  Jo decided to grab a torch to shine out of the window, much to my horror! I quickly managed to turn it off before we attracted some attention! with various whispered expletives coming out as we grappled in the dark!  .................  It was exciting but the shear size of this animal and the fact that it was merely feet away from our tent was quite scary.  We had to be as quiet as possible as if it was a young bull, it could be very aggressive and our tent would be destroyed with one swift blow from its trunk.  We silently watched through the window as the elephant moved toward the edge of our pitch and ripped branches off trees, as if they were paper, one at a time, filling his stomach with supper.   This was such an experience and one we will never forget.  We watched and listened for about half an hour and he eventually moved away back into the bush  -  This was Jo's queue to go outside for a pee!! 

You can see the branches behind the tent where the elephant stood and my 'chair barricade' which wasn't going to help much!  -  Imogen is standing where the elephant came from behind the tent and across to graze on the trees.

The next morning we woke early and in the near distance was our midnight visitor, the Elephant, still finishing his supper. 

  

Never a dull moment!  We show the children our late night visitor and get the fire going for breakfast.  they befriend a not so shy yellow Hornbill, who has a damaged foot and he joins us for breakfast.

   

Third Bridge - certainly a place we would go back to.  There is so much wildlife here.