The SMS, from a man unknown to me, read: ‘Her heart is still in Africa.’ He was messaging me from South Africa, on behalf of his sister who had very generously made a donation through Getaway that would assist my fuel expenses. It was odd, I suppose, that she’d chosen to move from Africa to Australia, while I’d chosen to do the opposite.
Those six words – ‘her heart is still in Africa’ – played over and over in my mind.
Africa for me is many things, most special of which embrace the elephants. It’s the way golden sunlight glints off ivory tusks; it’s the earthy smell of fresh dung; it’s elephants of all sizes revelling in dust, mud and precious water; it’s the extraordinary contrasts between the wet- and the dry-seasons; it’s those long elephantine shadows at last light; it’s their haunting rumbles amidst vivid sunset colours; and massive silhouettes wandering graciously under silvery moonlight. These are the special occasions that, once experienced, remain always in one’s heart. It’s these sorts of memorable times that cause citizens and tourists alike to leave behind a small piece of their heart in wild Africa.
It had been an unusually quiet time in the field. Some days are just like that; few animals visible in the open. Mid-afternoon I hopped on a game-drive vehicle and for the first two hours sightings of any animal were few. The gentle elephant Misty and her family came to our rescue for sundowners in Acacia Grove, and that made up for everything. They stayed close by while we enjoyed a cool drink and the privilege of peering into their remarkable family lives. We left them reluctantly, to drive the Hwange Estate vlei back to Ivory Lodge. It would be dark in less than half-an-hour. Not far down this sandy road we encountered a huge rhino bull … a little further on two lionesses … then a herd of buffalo … and then – could it actually get any better? – a leopard by the roadside! The ‘Big 5’ in just 30 minutes! Now that’s pretty incredible. Another slice of a tourist’s heart left behind in wild Africa.
Smaller things are just as memorable. Every year around late-July/early-August colourful toads in their thousands awake for just a day or two to fill the air with booming song, and to mate. Usually only vocal and visible in the wet-season it is indeed an extraordinary spectacle to hear and see so many of them around the pans in the middle of the dry-season. Then all of a sudden, once again, all is quiet.
But there’s always something else to look out for at this time of year, like manketti nuts in elephant dung. Just recently, in one huge pile of elephant dung at Kanondo, I collected 95 manketti nuts! (See last photo.) The bull who deposited this monstrous heap was indeed a nut-loving elephant. Shame though that he didn’t gain any real benefit from eating these. They are the fruit of the Manketti tree (Schinziophyton rautanenii) which grows in Kalahari sand. Their hard woody shell ensures that they remain untouched by the elephants’ digestive system. And they taste really very good as the key ingredient in ‘manketti nut cake’ – despite having been collected from a pile of poo! …Hhhhmmmm, delicious! You’ll have to trust me about this.
