I'm not so good at trip reports so try this!... And it's high time I gave something back to Bushdrums.
We had been joined on this trip by Benson a qualified guide & possibly one of the best & most knowledgeable guides I have ever met & we were firm friends from previous.
Pitching our tent on the banks of the Linyanti River in good, hopefully, Aardvark territory we were also there for Zebra who cross into Namibia to the lush grasses for the day but then back into Botswana for the night on the plains.
As we were outside the National Park we were able to night drive lamping for Aardvark, no luck but a total of 3 porcupine were spotted, Gennet & a million & one Spring Hares!
Well into the night we prepared our camp ate a meal of cheese & peanut butter spread crackers, our staple diet on Safari, washed down with a beer....Of course!
A cursory sweep of the lamp pinpointed eyes on the Namibian banks, alas too far to see any form of the creature which was also hidden on the bush line.
As is our custom we started to call the animal to us, going through our repartee of animal calls, injured wart hog, lost goat, injured rabbit even some dubious cat type calls to see if we could get what we believed to be a Leopard to come investigate.
The calls got louder & louder as the eyes continued to watch us but stayed put. Remember we had the river & a few hundred meters of ground between us & the eyes!
Brave or what?
We did manage, however to attract two Jackal to the waters edge to investigate!
We broke camp & moved on the next day into Linyanti NP where in the early afternoon a male lion was spotted far in the bush. I would add that it was unseen by us & took time for Benson to point him out to us due to the heavy bush.
I got out & sat leaning against the rear wheel to get a better view through the bush cover, I would add there was quite a distance & heavy bush between us.
I sat there with binoculars watching him!
He sat there without Binoculars watching me!
We had eye contact through the binoculars.
"Try & call him in" Laughed Benson remembering the loud calls from the night before!
Silence!.....(I'm not really stupid it's only a rumour!)
"Go on, call him"
Silence! Benson continued to goad me until...
The meekest quietest "Meow" escaped from my lips!
We all cracked up laughing unfortunately the lion didn't see the funny side & took off!
