Savuti Park and Moremi Park

We drove for miles over sandy bumps and crevices that passed as a road. We were loaded with food and enough water for six days. We would not see a tarmac road again for all that time. We passed through scrub, wintery trees and trees trashed by elephants. We passed giraffe and zebra, kudu, impala and hundreds of hornbills.

When we arrived we found the campsite already erected and Kreetcher and Matcher had the water heating for our showers. We ate lunch off tin plates under an umbrella tree then somehow I washed my hair and had a good scrub under the bucket shower. I have never felt so refreshed.

Our game ride that afternoon led us to a leopard. He was flat out under a tree and almost impossible to make out, but Bibi with his eagle eyes saw the twitch of an ear and a flick of a tail. Thank God for binoculars is all I can say.

That night a pride of lions walked past in front of our campsite. I slept like a log. I must be getting used to this.

The dawn broke with the squawking of the collared doves, and the sun eventually rose on John’s Special Birthday. He was quite a picture with designer stubble and his ‘cleanest dirty shirt’ and blue shorts that are about ready to leap into the nearest washing machine, but somehow his wild-man look blended well with his surroundings.

We did go on an early game drive as Kreecher and Matcher packed up our tents. We drove out on to the plain and I viewed the wide empty grasslands where wildebeest and impala were grazing. We saw other jeeps had stopped further along the road and we saw why. The King of Beasts himself, in all his splendour, sat erect and regal, as though holding court. It was as though the world press of different nations had gathered to snap and record his every move.

Finally, he stood and strutted along the road, paused and turned towards our truck and and walked past John, and as he did he turned his head and looked up into his eyes. John felt he had to look away first! Then the lion sauntered on and lay down amongst the lionesses, who were resting in the shade of some trees.

Deeper in the undergrowth we saw the leader of the pride, an older scarred male.

Bibi thought that this King would be due a leadership contest very soon. In the meantime, a lioness was stalking a lone wildebeest and warthog out on the open grassland.

She took her time, creeping ever closer and we all willed her to make the kill. We were like a bloodthirsty mob, we watched, we waited. She moved closer. But – the wildebeest caught her scent and shot off like a bullet and so the lioness turned to the more modest prize. She sprang at the warthog and chased for about ten metres before giving up. Her killing skills are to stalk, pounce then go for the jugular, apparently. Endurance running is just not her forte.

Nonchalantly she turned away and padded back to her waiting photographers. I was amazed. Why had she no fear of the trucks? It seems she sees them as harmless things that pose no threat. I couldn’t believe it when she walked towards our vehicle and turned and walked down by the side I was sitting. I could have reached down and stroked her. It would have been my last act on earth as any contact is seen by her as an act of aggression. So – no Joy Adamson experience for moi!

The journey to Moremi was like riding a bucking bronco. I sat forward holding the seats in front and keeping my back straight, forcing my core muscles to support my spine. My Pilates teacher would have been proud.

We passed wide empty plains with winter grasses of pale lemon and bleached straw stubble strewed the ground. The wild sage was like perfume, the scent suffusing the car. Along the way we passed an umbrella tree – all alone and seemed to symbolise Africa. I blinked my eyes to capture the image.

We passed elephants bathing, submerging themselves and showering and drinking and blowing. It was a wonderful sight, the baby trying hard to emulate his mighty superiors.

Further along hippos wallowed and grunted and lay about in the sun.

Hornbills flew about and a martial eagle soared above us. We finally arrived at our new location. The camp was set up, the tents in position and we took turns to shower. I discovered that the zipper of one of the toilet tents had broken. It was actually quite nice; it was the room with the view. On one occasion I had the privilege of seeing two kudu pass by as I was doing what I had to do! Outside was an elephant footprint. I was quite bemused, and hoped it would not choose to pass this way again any time soon.

The afternoon was set aside to rest. It was heaven. Bibi cooked an amazing beef stew with vegetables and we had his speciality desert, tinned fruit salad, complete with cherry. The night was dark, the stars were so bright and the milky way was like a soft swathe of cobwebs. That night Bibi told us our bedtime stories of experiences he has had over the last twenty years as a guide. Of a lion attacking a hippo, and the hippo running towards the water with the lion on his back. As he splashed the lion leapt off and the hippo had ‘gained another day on this beautiful earth.’

He admitted he hates snakes; he is very afraid of them. Once one got in his car and a head popped up whilst he was driving. It kept disappearing until it finally emerged just by the gear stick. He managed to stop the car and throw a towel over it and then throw towel and snake out of the door. His own mother had died because a snake being in her car whilst she was driving. She panicked and drove off the road and died in the crash.

He also had an unwelcome encounter in a shower. A snake slithered under the door so he scrambled up and over the wall, badly cutting his hip. Needless to say the snake had skedaddled. Bibi did reassure us that, although the snakes are starting to waken from their winter hibernation, it would be unlikely that we would see one. Let’s hope he is right.

And so to bed. No sounds of lions roaring. We left the top flaps of the tent open and we gazed up at the full moon, the brightest stars and the cloudy swathe of the Milky Way. I asked John if he had had a good birthday.

‘The best,’ he said – ‘Who could have wished for more?’

Goodnight moon.