Our first stop was Etosha national park where we joined friends and spent time with them at selected waterholes where we watched some great elephant interactions in the parched landscape. A real highlight was however when we left Etosha and headed West into the Damaraland area of Namibia, famous for its’ desert elephants and rhino and spectacular parched landscape. For two days we were the only people to visit the Palmwag concession and had a wonderland of scenery and wildlife to ourselves. We sat amongst herds of Hartmans Mountain-Zebra and watched as giraffe strode across the grassy landscapes. Unquestionably the highlight was when we almost bumped into the desert lions which were hiding from us as we crossed a drift. I looked down the stony drift hoping to see the famous desert elephants and to my surprise not 10m away from our car two adult male lions were crouched staring straight at me. It is always unnerving when you don’t expect to see something like this but that initial surprise turned into excitement at the thought of how lucky we were. The two big males quickly slinked away and to our surprise three lionesses stood up right next to our car and ran off to join the males. We had not even seen them until they got up, not a good time to have been a zebra. Heading south from Damaraland we took all the gravel back roads we could find as we wandered through the unending landscapes that flanked us on both sides. Fields of luxuriant straw blonde grass stretched to the horizon laced with herds of gemsbok, springbok and occasional zebra and ostrich. Further into the drive we crossed into the Namib Naukluft park and watched in awe as gemsbok kicked up red dust as they galloped across 200m high red sand dunes whilst the golden grass licked at the feet of these huge mounds of red sand. It was like looking at an artist’s giant palette board that had been infiltrated by animals, it was nothing short of breath-taking, all 600km of it. Finally we exited the back roads along the Orange River and Richtersveld and left for home. If ever there was a place to unwind and simply appreciate the emotion of being alone in a world of beauty Namibia was it.
Upon arriving home we were scheduled to start a film shoot in Gansbaai as a culmination to the Air Jaws series we had worked on earlier in the year. As the weather did not look good we decided to use the time to try to show them some of Botswana’s treasures in the Okavango area. We headed off to the famous area of Savuti for 5 days and spent a great time with friends in this legendary concession previously so famous for its’ massive lion prides. Well for the time being the lion prides have splintered and whilst not good for lions it has been a godsend for the endangered wild dog. We were lucky enough to spend time with these charismatic and super-efficient hunters and watched as they chased and caught impala and even taunted an angry young bull elephant who ran this way and then the next in a rage at the precociousness of these painted wolves. It was also particularly great to spend time in this area with our mate Grant Atkinson who has guided here for so many years and was coming to the end of his tenure, a happy sad time too so many wonderful times he had spent in this wonderful region. I guess the curtain on our time in Savuti came when a pack of dogs chased an adult impala ram into the Savuti channel and the entire pack ran along the rivers flanks in excitement as on the opposite bank a herd of a few dozen elephants fed on the lush green grass. This all happened whilst an angry purple summer sky threatened to drench us. It was an amazing site and one I will hold as a very special memory. I don’t know what happened to the impala but dogs, and crocs did not get it.
