Why ‘Wild Camping’ really is ‘Wild’
I woke up looking up at a canvas ceiling that I could just make out in the dark, with noises of voices and the rustling of leaves being mixed with wood. Slowly my mind reminds me of where I am: in the middle of Moremi National Park, Botswana. I attempt my morning routine with the help of a torchlight, hyper aware of the fact that a flashlight through a canvas wall would equal an unintentional show. Having been able to successfully dress myself with my iPhone placed a metre away from me, I unzip the tent and step out. As expected… darkness, broken up by a glazing fire that dances on the trees that encircles our camp. I greet our guide, Sylas, put some coffee granules in a metal mug and help myself to the hot water. Stories start their morning circuit around the group about noises people heard, from large hippos plodding past our tents on their way to the flanking lake or the noise of rasping breath, which was confirmed by our guide to have been a leopard. I immediately recount my alone voyage to the loo, or rather delightful hole in the ground, the night before and cannot not feel slightly intoxicated by madness from this recollection. Armed with a flask and a rusk, I hitch myself onto the open safari vehicle as the sun started to rise above the Botswana horizon.
‘Look, there, under that bush,’ said our eagle-eyed guide, Sylas, cutting the engine of the 4WD safari vehicle and pointing to a yellow paw that was emerging under an acacia bush. ‘Can you see what is next to her? She has cubs.’ He was as excited as we were as we started to drive up to a pride of lions. Numerous sets of eyes, tails and paws become increasingly recognisable as we drove closer to Africa’s highest ranking animal.
During a game drive, your eyes quickly adapt to detect the slightest of movements or differing of shadows: the scuttling of warthogs with their piglets (‘Africa’s Wi-Fi’); the flash of green and yellow from a weaver bird; the prancing of impalas as they become startled of the vehicle. We passed crocodiles basking in the sun side by side with, what looked like, massive steppingstones. They were rather Africa’s edition of steppingstones, and there were 20 of them and half-submerged: Africa’s most dangerous animals. When the sun started to sink into the skyline of trees, we started our venture back to camp against a backdrop of a sky mixed with bright orange and gold.
For four nights, we became residents of Moremi National Park. Admittedly, we did overstay our welcome; this was confirmed on our last night. After climbing down from a favourite spot to watch the sun go down and stars replace, the roof of the safari vehicle, we helped ourselves to the freshly cooked dinner. Feeling satisfied and slightly forgetful of our current positioning, we sank further into our camp chairs with a blazing fire in front of us. This complacency was short-lived as I started to hear a rustling that was originating from approximately 2 metres behind me. I flash my light, believing it to be our camp’s resident honey-badger, to rather be introduced to two spotted female hyenas, Botswana’s version of the ‘London Fox’. Attracted by the smell of a collection of four days of waste, these hyenas also joined our camp for that last night of ours. Case and point as to why Wild Camping really is Wild.
