"It is a popular belief that man-eaters do not eat the head, hands, and feet of the human victims. This is incorrect. Man-eaters, if not disturbed, eat everything - including the blood-soaked clothes, as I found on one occasion; however that is another story, and will be told some other time."
I'm safely back in Windhoek now and thought I'd share some of the
events of last night.
When I was sleeping out on the savannah I was woken in the middle of
the night by Jackals howling. They sound just like a pack of wolves,
but pose little threat to a Springbok let alone me so I quite enjoyed
listening to their wildness drifting across the grasslands... then I
heard something else. ArrhumpHH, arrhumpHH Lion! Or so I thought. I
was pretty sure they didn't exist this far south in the Namib and
anyway was quite sure I was safe in my tent. It did mean the next
morning I stayed inside till the dawn was quite light before venturing
out to scan the surrounding grass... no tawny heads to be seen (not
that I would have seen them anyway, the grass here is perfectly lion
coloured, or rather the other way round I suppose)
Later that day I met Mr Vilberts and told him what I'd heard. He
laughed and said no what I'd heard was a male Ostrich which makes a
similar noise and is often confused. So that was me told. I felt a bit
stupid, but was quite pleased really.
So later that day I'd set up camp on the top of the Bosua pass, at
about 1800 metres. I was no longer in the desert so there was plently
of old (v.v.v.dry) wood lying around and I thought I'd make a fire.
You'll read in another post how I laid with my head out of the tent
looking at the stars and seen the amazing meteorite. I even considered
falling asleep like that. I didn't.
I woke about two in the morning needing a pee. This always happens in
a tent. At least I wasn't on a moor in a rainstorm some where in
Scotland. So I was just about to nip out when... Couff, couff, couff.
Ha not gonna be fooled again. Yes that sounds like a Leopard and yes I
was in prime Leopard country, but this was probably some strange bird
call again. Anyway I had a fire so no problem getting out of the tent.
I unzipped the tent and nipped out. It was actually quite cold
outside. I noticed the fire was little more than a few embers by now
and the moon had set. It was really quite dark. So I did what I had
to, threw a few more logs on the fire and slipped back in my sleeping
bag.
Come morning I was up about 15 minutes before sunrise. The fire was
out and cold, it probably only lasted another few hours after my
little excursion. All round my camp, round the tent and my bike were
Leopard prints, perhaps that was it coughing in the night afterall, if
so it would surely have been crouching in the dark watching me pee!
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