gone and on

January 31, 2011 AD

Hello beautiful creatures,

So, it has been a while.

I am in Victoria Falls and on my way to the Okavango Delta and who knows from there.  I left Liuwa a week ago and will eventually make my way to a different park, South Luangwa National Park, on the other end of Zambia.  But there is not much work to be done there at the moment, so I’ll probably ramble around a bit and end up there in March. 

Internet disappeared from the town of Kalabo for the entire month of January, giving me no reason to leave the park.  So I remained in Liuwa for a month without emerging . 

Often when I sit down to write one of these emails, my initial thought is that not much happened since the previous email.  This is probably because there is quite a bit of downtime when you are sitting in the middle of Liuwa Plain mostly alone.  But then there are the long days of lion darting, wild dog darting and collaring, hyena darting and collaring, watching wild dog hunts, interacting with Lady as she visits us in camp, or even hunkering down during tremendous storms. 

Work did become slower in January due to the rains and the rising waters, which made many places inaccessible and transformed formerly dry ditches into uncrossable streams.

Here is an exerpt from an unsent email from the second week of January…

“In the past two weeks, I have helped collar two wild dogs, a lioness, and a hyena.  Wild dogs are without a doubt the most difficult to dart and handle.  They are the smallest target with the smallest margin for error, and a misfire could easily result in injury or mortality, and they are the most shy about vehicles approaching them.  Once darted, they are also the most reluctant to go down.  Dogs by nature are much more energetic and prone to running than hyenas or lions.  So, both dog collaring endeavors involved 5-6 hours of sitting completely unshaded in the unrelenting sun, trying to get the perfect shot, but both collarings were ultimately successful, and now there are two dog packs with functional collars in Liuwa. 

We collared a lion on the day of my last email, December 27 I believe.  I sent the email from Kalabo in the morning, then we made the 2 hour drive into the park and went straight the lioness, who had been separated from her sister for two weeks--they had been separated ever since the night when they were feeding on the carcass we dragged and dropped for them, with all the hyenas surrounding them, and then the male lions coming in and scaring them off.  The two lionesses were about 40km apart via driving. 

The one lioness had been spending a lot of time near villages--so we darted her, and moved her to where her sister was, about 40km away.  After easily approaching her and darting her from the vehicle, we quickly loaded her into the back on the Land Cruiser and took off driving.  We had to go the entire 40km in about an hour, which is really difficult to do on the terrain around here.  Adding to the difficulty was the fact that we had to drive through villages for about the first 30 minutes.  In the first village, a young child noticed that these crazy Mukuwas (white people) were cruising through their village with a lion in the back of the truck…and not only that, there were two guys sitting in the back with the lion (those two people being my boss, Matt, and myself).  The tailgate was down, so anyone could see exactly what was in the bed of the truck.  Not surprisingly, the child started yelling and calling attention to us.  To people who are not familiar with chemical immobilization, it must look insane to see two guys riding around in a truck with a lion.  To prevent further commotion in subsequent villages, we did our best to cover the lioness with a tarp and Matt hovered across the tailgate to obstruct the view.  The strategy worked, except for a village dog who must have smelled the lioness and started chasing us, barking wildly.  These kind of stimuli can wake an animal from a drug-induced sleep.  We recollected later about the explaining we would have had to do if the lion would have woken up, jumped out of the truck, and mauled a dog or villager or two. 

Alas, that was not the case, and we made it to the other lioness just in time, after a bruisingly bumpy ride.  We gave the drugged lioness the reversal drug, laid her down 30 meters from her sister, and six minutes later (a surprisingly short amount of time) she woke up, made a soft call, and her sister immediately came over to her.  They greeted and all was well.  We dropped half of a wildebeest for them and they chowed as the sun went down and the thunder clouds crept in.  That was two weeks ago, and they have been together since.  I saw them this morning.  They crouched when they saw me, and then made a step towards me as if they were about to charge, but I revved the motorbike and they returned to resting.  They are not quite as friendly as Lady is towards humans, but most lions aren’t.”

About 10 days before I left Liuwa, the lionesses buggered off and as far as I know, they have not been seen since.  They are probably fine, but have just ventured off away from the area we usually survey.  The park manager, who is usually able to track them from a lightweight plane, is on leave and thus there is no easy way to find them.  Liuwa is too big of a place to find wandering lionesses via motorbike.  As long as they are not getting into trouble in villages, I’m sure they are fine and learning how to hunt in their new environment.  They are tough gals and will surely be fine. 


Other than the collarings and following dogs around and visiting hyenas, I spent a lot of time in camp with Lady.  We became good friends.  She would come into camp in the afternoon or evening sometimes and stay through the night.  She would walk around our camp purring affectionately, and would roll around on her back playfully when I called her name.  Flopping around with her feet in the air and big belly exposed (a friendly or submissive pose), staring at me upside-down. 

We had strong connection, and in many ways I think she is the main reason that the universe brought me to Liuwa.  It was a melancholy morning when I left.  I knew she would come to visit me on my last night.   She showed up in the evening and stayed until morning, and then she disappeared when a few local workers showed up in the morning.  I have a parting image imprinted on my soul of her standing illuminated in splintered sunlight, looking back over her shoulder at me and walking off. 



Victoria Falls will change your life if you ever get the chance. 


All for now.  Must go cook some steak and rice before boarding a southbound train. 


With infinite love,

Ramblin Mike