MIC’S MEMOS

Organisations in charge of wilderness areas where potentially dangerous animals can roam freely into camping areas should do more to educate visitors, says Mic van Zyl.

Ihave just returned from a long weekend break at a private lodge in the Madikwe Game Reserve. Sadly, we didn’t do any fourwheel driving, but it was a good break nonetheless. We went on a few earlymorning and afternoon game drives, and our game ranger was in constant radio contact with all of the other vehicles. This resulted in a couple of great sightings. It really is marvellous to be spoilt once in a while. I am not really into the whole walking and hiking thing. I did my fair share back in the day dressed in “Browns” and carrying a rifle and a backpack. However, mid-life is upon me and with much encouragement from my lovely wife I am exploring avenues of enhanced fitness and health. So when the option to do an earlymorning game walk rather than a drive presented itself, I gave it a try. We walked for around three hours and covered a number of kilometres. The distance covered was recorded by a watch-like device worn by a colleague. It recorded the amount of steps that she took on the walk and it was fascinating. I realised while walking though that she was the shortest person in the group taking the shortest steps. THE JURY IS STILL OUT on how far we actually walked. There were six of us plus a ranger carrying a large rifle and a handful of rounds. The previous evening we had spotted a number of animals in the area that could potentially spoil our day. Slow, tasty human on foot had to be on the menu. That’s the theory that was milling in my head anyway. I must state though that at no point did I feel in any danger and I had total confidence in the knowledge and abilities of Dave, our ranger and guide. Notwithstanding his thorough briefing on the dos and don’ts should the lions or rhinos take too much of an interest in us, I found myself always scoping out the surroundings for the biggest tree should things become exciting. I was certain that I was not the slowest in the group. This experience made me realise how fortunate we are here in Africa to be able to get close to wild and potentially dangerous nature. Not only is it thrilling, but I am in constant awe of nature both big and small and it presents great photographic material for this budding amateur. Sometimes, however, things can go wrong. Spare a thought for the very unfortunate couple who recently had a horrific encounter with a leopard in the Kgalagadi. I cannot imagine the absolute horror of the encounter and I sincerely hope that the lady fully recovers. I am not going to add to the deluge of comments about what these people did or did not do or about the actions of the leopard leading up to the attack. WILD ANIMALS DON’T FOLLOW a book of rules. They are wild, act mostly on instinct, and are unpredictable. An old or wounded predator or worse, one that has been fed by humans, will certainly go for an easy, out-ofthe-ordinary meal. I am surprised that there are not many more such incidents happening with the increase in the amount of people visiting these areas. I do feel that the organisations in charge of these wilderness areas, especially those that have potentially dangerous animals that can roam freely into unfenced camping areas, should do a lot more to educate and assist the visitors to these areas. I do not think that the people involved in the incident were stupid or acted carelessly. I think they were inexperienced and ill-informed about where they were and what the potential dangers are. Personally I would not sleep in a ground tent, nylon or canvas, in an area where lions, leopards, hyenas, hippos and elephants roam free. It’s a roof-top tent for me every time. It’s called the “Wild” for good reason. Stay safe.

Sometimes, however, things can go wrong. Spare a thought for the very unfortunate couple who recently had a horrific encounter with a leopard in the Kgalagadi.