As a boy living in the Kruger Park with my family, I would often hear the frustrated exclamation, “We drove all day and saw almost nothing!” That would roughly translate into “a few impala and some blue wildbeest and zebra grazing in the distance.” A walk through untouched African bushland would, probably to their surprise, be even more dissapointing.
Very little typically happens on such walks. One can easily be left with the impression of slogging through an endless expanse of savannah vegetation which, apart from the few birds that might flit past, is without life. Of course the truth is that it is vibrant with life and activity, most of which is never noticed. Focussed as the average visitor is on the large and the dramatic, they are closed to or unable to recognise the evidence of a vast and vibrant alternative world around them.
Quietly looking for and recognising the evidence of this alternative world is often, to me, more rewarding than a dramatic encounter with one of the famed “big five.”
Here is a short narrative of part of such a walk:
Enjoy!