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23rd april - 9th may

Overlanding across Afica in our Land Rover Defender: Botswana

Andy Lees
2006-05-16 15:19:02

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through the land rover to get it.

his, now towering, approach ended my deliberations and i circled round one side of the land rover as he passed within a metre of the other, his head well above roof level, eye-to-eye with the roof-top tent. i joined claire in the front and we were pleased to see him leave our makeshift kitchen without even a passing sniff. he moved off slowly, but i like to think confidently, towards the re-inforced shower block.

we kept a roaring fire that night, and sat ourselves between that and the land rover. the threat of predators always prompts us to climb into the tent quite early and that night was no exception. having seen elephant beside it though, we didn't feel as secure as we once had. but as it turns out, it wasn't the elephants that woke us up, it wasn't even the lions or the hyena, but something much more sinister. it was enrique iglesias. not in person, but blared from the stereo of the south africans camping nearby. it's not really what you expect in the small hours of the morning in the middle of one of the world's finest national parks and this was something i certainly wanted to point out to them. unfortunately, as that would have meant not only getting dressed and climbing down a ladder, but then quite seriously risking being eaten by wild animals, we had to settle for driving loudly past their camp when we left at dawn.

chobe and moremi national parks - 27th april

after a fairly uneventful game drive across savuti marsh, we could hardly believe our luck when the silhouettes of half a dozen pairs of ears popped up beneath a bush. a lioness and her well grown cubs were resting in the shade beside the road; curious, but unconcerned by our presence. it was a slight shame that the cubs favourite toys were a coke can and a plastic bag, but they were having such fun with them it hardly seemed to matter.

reluctantly, we left the lions in peace ...