African wildlife adventures live from the bush
This next lot of paintings is on the opposite side of the rocky outcrop from the previous paintings. At the base of the outcrop is a seep which holds water for a considerable amount of time. The paintings are on that small rectangular overhang.
This whole canvas looks like typical daily life around a settlement.
The 2-Step probably started with the bushmen. Looks like a happy fellow anyway.
27th March 2000
Early in the evening Tjololo was walking down the road close to where he had his buffalo calf kill. He had presumably just finished the carcass and was off on patrol. Heading south he then headed cross country. Nervously we followed fearing that we’d get stuck at any moment. But Tjololo too, wasn’t interested in getting his feet wet and took us through some dry country for a couple of hours. But still wanting to head south he had to move across a swampy area and Dale got stuck. Having helped him out we tried to pick up on Tjololo further south without any joy.
It was great to at least spend some time with him again
I was up early as usual and took a stroll out of camp past the tennis court that is close by. There inside the court was Civet running around the perimeter now wanting to get out but having forgotten where it came in.
These animals always amaze me how they survive out there in the bush. They can’t run very fast and their only real defence mechanism it to spray you with a rather foul smelling liquid.
Even when this animal ran along the fence almost scraping past me it showed no signs of aggression to bite or anything.
They’re predominantly nocturnal and this guy was just a little late in getting home.
When it did find the gate it bolted away but not at a very brisk pace.
This weird image is thought to possibly be some sort of underground tuber. And possibly that bulge under the man’s arm is one that has already been collected. If all is to scale that tuber above is rather big.
26th March 2000
Just as we were about to take to the road a giant thunderstorm hit us from the south dropping an inch of rain in some 10minutes and knocking out the power to camp. As it moved north it apparently offloaded twice as much rain which flooded the river over night. With all the lightening, down went the data line again. We were camp bound for the night.
Annette and I were travelling around Zambia many years ago in the northern part of Kafue National Park. Back then one was free to do almost as one wished and so we walked everywhere.
At dusk the one day we saw this huge cloud of dust on the other side of the floodplain. Eventually it cleared and there must have been a herd of some 2000 buffalo.
They were still quite a ways off and as usual I wanted a closer look.
The floodplain was scattered here and there with thickets of palm trees and the odd Fig tree growing amongst them. It was going into the dry season and the grass was already flattening being now only a couple of feet high.
We had the wind in our favour as we walked towards them. Eventually at about 500m they saw us, and the whole herd stopped, focussing their every bit of attention on these 2 little figures in the distance. We sat down in the grass. I then started my buffalo calf distress call. It worked. As one, the herd moved slowly closer and the more I called they kept coming and coming.
We had nowhere to go except one of those palm thickets about a hundred meters away. But I felt safe. In a herd like that they’re generally not dangerous and just curious. But it’s those lone grumpy old dagga boys who are the guys to worry about.
Eventually we had some 2000 buffalo only some 50m away standing watching us quietly. I too had now gone quite. The experience of all this wild animal on the hoof almost surrounding us was truly amazing.
But the sun was now setting and after taking a number of photos, I knew we had to get moving so as not to be walking in the dark. But if we stood up the herd would stampede, away from us I was sure, but having got their trust so far I really didn’t want to disturb them. So we sat a while longer. Then the slight breeze suddenly changed and catching out sent the buffalo stampeded out of there in one massive dust cloud.
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