I love to watch animals in the wild. Seeing them moving
about without a care in the world is really exhilarating.
Botswana will always remain my favourite wild life
destination. Our trip involved taking a six seater bush flight
from Maun to “Oddballs Camp” in the Okavango Delta.
The river starts as a trickle in Angola, taking various names as it travels 1200 kms, via Namibia to Botswana to finally emerge as Okavango River, The delta irrigates an extremely huge area of 18,000 sq km. The waters spread over the 250 by 150 km area of the delta over the months of March to June. The entire volume of water is eventually absorbed by the earth or evaporated by the scorching sun of the Kalahari. No water reaches the sea.
The aerial view of the river is an entirely different experience.
Sitting in a small aircraft adds to the excitement.
The Oddballs Camp is located deep in the Delta, totally cut
off from civilization, no phones, no electricity, no TV. It’s just
us and wild nature.We stayed in canvas tents by the stream.
We went on safari twice a day but this was a different
experience altogether. We’ve been in a safari jeep a
number of times but this was the first time we were on foot
– with nothing to protect us from any wild animal that might
be lurking around, hidden in the tall grass. Imagine any
animal you met would be looking at you practically face to
face with nothing to protect you but the wisdom and
experience of a tracker and a spotter who accompanied us.
They take you into the sprawling grassy plains teeming with
Elephants, Lions, Zebra, Giraffe, Baboons, Antelope,
Springbok, Kudu, Warthog, Hyena, a variety of birds and
they carry only a long stick to ward off any attacks. They
completely rely on the belief – ‘keep a safe distance from
the animals and all will be fine”. They also add – if by
chance a lion comes uncomfortably close – stare him down.
One need to stand close to each other in order to appear
very big to keep an elephant at bay. Hippos, however, are
the most dangerous of the lot and no distraction will stop
them from chasing you. The villagers normally climb a tree
but when we had our doubts about accomplishing this long-
forgotten childhood skill, they told us to lie down behind a
big fallen tree branch to avoid a Hippo attack. Fortunately
hippos cannot jump. And even more fortunately, we didn’t
have to put it to the test as no hippo came charging!
Resident Hippo, two males and one female
Today, Botswana is home to 130,000 elephants, more than any other country, and a third of all the elephants in Africa. There is an increasing conflict between wildlife and people.
Evenings in the camp are reminiscent of movies like “Out of
Africa’ and ‘Hatari’. The setting sun, the vast expanse of
never ending grasslands, owls settling down on tree tops,
occasional lightning, dried up trees catching fire, the distant
roar of a lion, loud grunts from the three hippos that were
closeby, all add up to provide an incredible and
unforgettable wild life experience.
On the last night in the camp, we had an early dinner,
packed our luggage and retired. A very strange noise
resembling someone blowing air into a paper bag woke me
up from my deep slumber. Instantly I realised that Jayanti
was also wide awake with a startled, terrified look on her
face. In a very short while it dawned on us that an elephant
was next to the tent. It was so close, the body was touching
the tent and we could hear the elephant tearing down the
bark of a tree, chewing and swallowing, all the while making
these loud wheezing and grunting sounds, unlike anything
we had heard before.
We froze, involuntary sweating, heart pounding and went
absolutely blank, not knowing what to expect next. We lay
down in absolute silence, scarcely breathing, thinking of all
horrific possibilities. Would he tear down the tent, butt, or
just push it down? Would he explore the inside with his
trunk and discover us? Was he able to smell our fear and
anxiety?
There was no way we could contact anyone or raise an
alarm. Jenith and Sushama in the next tent went through
the same ordeal.
We were not prepared for an experience of this kind and for
the first time in our lives we had no recourse.
We held each others’ hands and anxiously waited in total
silence for the pachyderm to leave. It must have been about
forty minutes later (which seemed like aeons at that time)
that the elephant decided to move on. The brief respite that
we were granted, was rudely shattered by a very familiar
noise from the front of the tent. The second experience was
even more frightening as the elephant was making even
more noise, stamping the ground and appearing to be
irritated or agitated for some reason.
In the meantime, one’s mind goes into an overdrive and a
variety of doomsday thoughts enter your mind to make
things even more unbearable.
Again it seemed endless, waiting for the elephant to retreat.
Once normalcy was restored, we went back to sleep only to
be rudely woken up by two resident hippos in a territorial
fight. They had crossed the rivulet and come to the camp
side for the first time in four days.
Even after a year, I get goose pimples whenever I recall the
incident. We were alone and all this happened most
unexpectedly. It was very frightening and we felt totally
helpless in that situation. Of course, looking back on that
night, it was an awesome experience; one that would be
remembered and retold countless times. Each time we
related it, we felt the same shiver down our spine as we
relived the incident.
We can never forget Botswana. Ever.
On our return we had a shower bath in a very novel setup. A bucket is filled with water and hoisted above our head and secured. A shower arrangement is attached to the bucket. Once the tap is opened, out comes a spray of water flowing down under gravity. The screen to the bath area is made of dry bamboo pieces. As you move in and out of the curtain, all one hears is the rustle of the sticks. No unnatural sound.
Captain's Corner 
Enjoyed reading your blog, thank you for sharing Prabhakaravare🙏
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