Into the Wild

I wake up. It’s dark. No watch on my wrest. I can barely hold my eyes open, apparently something woke me up. It’s one of those times where for few seconds you don’t remember where you actually are. Where am I? What time is it? I guess all this traveling during the last 6 months confuses me. Then, the noise, again. I freeze. A cold shiver goes down my spine, and it takes me a fraction of a second to remember I am on a Tented Safari at the Eastern border of the Okavango Delta and what I am hearing is undoubtedly the deep roar of a lion. Close, very very close. Then here comes a second one, further away, at least 100 meters and in the opposite direction. I know I’m perfectly safe in my tent, but still the primeval memory of my cells remember that what I just heard is a predator. A pride of lions is just passing very close to our tented camp. The concert of deep moans and roars the lions use to communicate with the other pride members increases in volume. They are approaching. It’s now at least four distinct individuals I am hearing. I sit on my camp bed now, in silence trying to see through the mosquito net if I can spot them. No visual. I quickly find the spotlight, I collect my watch. It’s 4:30 am, 30 minutes before wake-up call. The lions are probably moving in search of prey. I then close my eye and keep listening to the concert of the bush slowly fading as the pride walks away . This is the start of another day into the wild. An experience away from civilization. In a place where we can feel how small and vulnerable we – Homo Sapiens Sapiens -  are after all. I’m in Botswana, hunting for images, taking only photos and leaving only footprints. Our crew passes by my tent at 5:15 to wake me up. The indistinguishable “knock knock” pronounced with a deep African voice makes me smile once more. It’s Jonas, part of our support crew of three. Jonas, KB and Mike had already prepared our fresh coffee.  Toasted bread is being prepared on the fire. It’s amazing what these guys can cook on a camp fire. How lovely this heat against the cold breeze of an African Fall morning. There’s nothing better to start off your day. It’s only 5:30 am, I’m already  overwhelmed with impressions and emotions and yet, it’s only the very beginning of another day in the bush, hunting for wildlife, working hard  to get the exceptional image, peeking in everyday life of untouched Nature. Not much time to catch the perfect morning light. Maybe today I will be lucky – I think – while Grant Reed, my experienced guide and talented photographer prepares his Canon camera loaded with a 300 mm f2,8 and shouts: “5 minutes to go!”. The quest for flying images of the Lilac Breated Roller is on also today!

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 29th, 2010 at 19:41. It is filed under Blog, Photography and tagged with animals, bird, Botswana, lilac brested roller, lion, mobile, safari, tent, wildlife. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.