CAMPING WITH WILD ANIMALS IN AFRICA
During the month-long road trip around South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia with The Africa Month [read more here], we stayed in pop up tents in our trucks in different camp spots every night. It still surprises me that there are even facilities available when you are miles from any form of civilisation, but even as we got further and further into the wilderness the campsites still came complete with toilets, showers and a washing up area. Each night we had got into the habit of parking our vehicles in a circle, to create a space inside to set up the campfire for cooking and chilling.
One of my favourite campsites in Botswana was Xakanaxa, located in the heart of the Okavango Delta. Having driven hours into the Delta, past wild buffalos, spring bok, and hippos [to name but a few of the epic animals living here], we arrived to our designated camping spot where we parked in the usual circle, except this time it was a lot tighter, the reason for which would become abundantly clear the next morning… we were not the only ones staying in this campsite! As we were milling about, chatting, sipping on beers, playing frisbee, we were suddenly hushed by someone who had spotted a huge elephant walking towards our camp.
Elephants are incredible animals - mighty, majestic, intelligent, and very protective, and when you are less than a few metres away from a wild one, you soon realise how threatening they really are. He was defiantly curious about us, and at one point walked towards us with his ears flapping, but thankfully the concrete toilet blocks provided an hiding spot for us to escape to. We hid in there until he moved on, admiring him through the windows.
During our stay at this camp [and others along the trip] we would experience some more frightening animal encounters, including the deafening roaring of a pack of lions waking us up one night and the harrowing sound of a hyena attacking my Tupperware below my tent! When you are sleeping with only mesh between you and these creatures it really gets your heart racing, but as terrifying as it sounds to have a hyena - with one of the strongest jaws in the animal kingdom - just a few feet from your face, it is these moments that made the trip unforgettable.
In a split second, these encounters with the wild could have ended differently but thankfully, the experience I had was nothing shy of magical, and I will never forget seeing these majestic creatures up close and personal like this. [We’ll just forget about the penguin who bit me in Cape Town, shall we!]
All photos by Rob Berry