News Letter
Matlhose News Letter
I agree with the other guides who have written an article for Motlhose that when you are asked for a nice story to pick from 15 years guiding you have to sit back and think about it. There are numerous great stories to tell but I could only pick one so I decided to come up with one of my earlier experiences.
I was in Moremi on day five of a 17 day safari with 12 French clients and so far we hadn’t gotten any close contacts and I could feel that most clients were thinking I was greatly exaggerating the dangers of the bush.
That evening we were camping and having dinner at Xini Lagoon. The tables were half under the trees and half in the open allowing nice views of the millions of stars above us. Being French, the wine was flowing and all were happy. One couple had their 16 year old daughter with them and she felt tired and wanted to go to bed early. Up till today I don’t know why I said this but I asked her to wait and first had a sweep around with my spotlight. Commotion all over: not 10 meters from the tables 6 lionesses were walking in line towards the water, it took a lot of persuasion to keep the people seated and quiet but luckily only the last female stopped and looked us over. You could see her thinking, worth investigating? She saw her sisters walking away and decided that on her own this was not worth it and walked of. Needles to say that dinner was cut short as suddenly all clients felt tired, no, they were not afraid, just suddenly tired??? I must admit that I thanked the lions for giving me an early night and after dishes went to sleep also.
Early morning during breakfast we heard a male lion calling from far, we took the game-viewer and went hunting. About a km from camp we could see a male lion walking “on a mission”, but very far away. I told the clients that if we continued some 2 km the road took a bend and with luck we might get closer. So done, when we arrived on the spot where this lion was aiming for we found 3 other males already there, looking at number four arriving. On our arrival 2 lions had gotten up, giving us a frightened look but now with the males greeting, sniffing and looking for a nice place to lie down, the clients were asking to move the vehicle for getting better pictures and also the people on the right side of the vehicle wanted to see better so after telling them it would be better not to disturb the lions, I had to start and move the vehicle a couple of times to please my clients.
The lions were visibly not pleased with the movement and noise so I told the clients I was not moving any more as you shouldn't annoy animals and added jokingly “that they should realize that these lions were only 3 km from camp and would take their revenge tonight for disturbing them”. Big ha-ha-ha’s, what-a-joker-guide-we-got-ourselves were the reactions from the clients.
That evening, all quiet in camp, dinner was again a quick business as many thought about the night before and wanted to be safe in their tent instead of around the campfire. My thanks went again to the female lions for another early night and as a happy chappy went to bed at nine.
I had not even finished one page of my book when not a meter from my bed a male lion roared full blast. I had had this experience once before when I stood next to a huge speaker during a rock concert: my whole body trembled with the sound. Immediately after this first roar the three other males joined in from the other corners of the camp and for one and a half hours those four males tried to “roar us away”. The sound was tremendous and I found it a wonderful end of the day but in the morning the clients had another vision about this. They all assured me that from then onwards they would always listen to what the guide told them and would I please not disturb any lions anymore …..
I was in Moremi on day five of a 17 day safari with 12 French clients and so far we hadn’t gotten any close contacts and I could feel that most clients were thinking I was greatly exaggerating the dangers of the bush.
That evening we were camping and having dinner at Xini Lagoon. The tables were half under the trees and half in the open allowing nice views of the millions of stars above us. Being French, the wine was flowing and all were happy. One couple had their 16 year old daughter with them and she felt tired and wanted to go to bed early. Up till today I don’t know why I said this but I asked her to wait and first had a sweep around with my spotlight. Commotion all over: not 10 meters from the tables 6 lionesses were walking in line towards the water, it took a lot of persuasion to keep the people seated and quiet but luckily only the last female stopped and looked us over. You could see her thinking, worth investigating? She saw her sisters walking away and decided that on her own this was not worth it and walked of. Needles to say that dinner was cut short as suddenly all clients felt tired, no, they were not afraid, just suddenly tired??? I must admit that I thanked the lions for giving me an early night and after dishes went to sleep also.
Early morning during breakfast we heard a male lion calling from far, we took the game-viewer and went hunting. About a km from camp we could see a male lion walking “on a mission”, but very far away. I told the clients that if we continued some 2 km the road took a bend and with luck we might get closer. So done, when we arrived on the spot where this lion was aiming for we found 3 other males already there, looking at number four arriving. On our arrival 2 lions had gotten up, giving us a frightened look but now with the males greeting, sniffing and looking for a nice place to lie down, the clients were asking to move the vehicle for getting better pictures and also the people on the right side of the vehicle wanted to see better so after telling them it would be better not to disturb the lions, I had to start and move the vehicle a couple of times to please my clients.
The lions were visibly not pleased with the movement and noise so I told the clients I was not moving any more as you shouldn't annoy animals and added jokingly “that they should realize that these lions were only 3 km from camp and would take their revenge tonight for disturbing them”. Big ha-ha-ha’s, what-a-joker-guide-we-got-ourselves were the reactions from the clients.
That evening, all quiet in camp, dinner was again a quick business as many thought about the night before and wanted to be safe in their tent instead of around the campfire. My thanks went again to the female lions for another early night and as a happy chappy went to bed at nine.
I had not even finished one page of my book when not a meter from my bed a male lion roared full blast. I had had this experience once before when I stood next to a huge speaker during a rock concert: my whole body trembled with the sound. Immediately after this first roar the three other males joined in from the other corners of the camp and for one and a half hours those four males tried to “roar us away”. The sound was tremendous and I found it a wonderful end of the day but in the morning the clients had another vision about this. They all assured me that from then onwards they would always listen to what the guide told them and would I please not disturb any lions anymore …..