Bush Updates

Business or pleasure? Marco, the “Camp & Walking guide” at Tarangire Oliver’s luxury Tented Camp, asked me at what time I wanted my wake up call? Being an extremely early riser – especially when in the bush, I casually replied “6a.m!!”  given that I did have some work to do and needed to be back into the Arusha office before I was missed again.

Now in my books there is nothing better than getting up whilst it is still dark, pouring yourself a strong coffee and watch the skies begin to lighten with the automatic response of bird-song to accompany a new day in the bush back into life. I especially enjoy the mourning doves as they coo away for the first couple of hours of light it seems hoping to entice the rising sun to warm their inner being as they puff themselves up into unrecognizable objects. So with all the above in my mind I drifted off into a much needed sleep, slightly aided by the 2 to 4 glasses of Hill & Dale South-African red that had accompanied the fantastic evening meal.

Instead of a ‘Hodi’ (a Swahili phrase used when a approaching someone or a property as a visitor), the silence and my awakening were brought back into full focus with the unmistakable low extended groan of lion several hundred meters outside the front of my tent!! Still with complete blackness in and out the tent I grabbled for my phone – 04.50!! A little too early still for that coffee but with the mini orchestra of repetitive low calls from one side of the camp over to the other left me with nothing else to do but smile inwardly as I snuggled deeper into my feather down duvet and listen to the groans as they subsided to a soft rumble and repetitive huff and puff.

Lion – panthra leo are amongst everybody’s most wanted on the wildlife check list. They truly are magnificent cats, males weighing in at around 190kg with females not to be sniffed at with an impressive 120kg of pure brute muscle. To help you all with the comparison, the average house cat weighs in at 5-8kg (unless its name is Garfield) so there’s a whole lot of kitty power behind panthra leo as you can imagine and instead of house sparrows and blue tits as it focus for an average dinner, a female lion can pull down a number of plains game wildlife of the same weight or double when we start looking into buffalo and eland!!

Apart from viewing these cats in the wild, hearing them in my books has to equal any visual sighting you may have. Calls are amazing experience when in the bush; I suppose most concepts of lion are huge roaring males giving it the outmost straight out the movie Tarzan. However the most common call you may hear whilst out there is exactly what I heard on Monday 20th!! After my 11years here in TZ, Monday mornings wakeup call would have had to be the loudest communication amongst one pride I have had the pleasure of hearing.

I hope for those who are on your way to us, you will also have a tale or two to share around the fire, the night chorus is truly special and a definite point to consider when choosing between lodge and tented camp, 2mm of canvas or 4 inches of mortar with 6mm glass!!

I will leave it up to you all to decide which one allows for better bush acoustics.