The sand in the Ugab river is deep and our car is working hard. The sound of its engine bounces back off the high dark mountains that keep this sinuous river in its bed. Tall acacias grow here and it is prime Desert Elephant country, we have been following their tracks and dung, but it is old, weeks old so our chances of seeing this elusive iconic animal are slim indeed. Suddenly as we round one of the rivers bends, there they are, their grey mass almost hidden in a grove of tall trees. We stop quickly and turn our engines off so as not to worry them and sit enthralled as they saunter by, rumbling as they pass.
Deep in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve a small group sit under a Camelthorn Acacia around a fire at one of the campsites, Deception 6. Earlier in the day, only a couple of kilometres from here we had followed the spoor of a big male Lion who was walking slowly in the direction of our camp. There was an air of excited anticipation, albeit tinged with a fear of this powerful symbol of Africa. As the Milky Way filled the sky we heard him roar, quite close so as the camps here do not have fences we turned in for the night serenaded by his roars that got every closer, until he settled down some yards from our camp.
It is cold here deep in the Moroccan Sahara as the glow far in the east heralds the beginnings of a new day. The air is still, but as the sun creeps above the horizon, far quicker than you would imagine, a breath of cold air flows over us. Within minutes the awesome power of the sun has already pushed the temperature from near freezing to 20 degrees celsius. The day is going to be hot as we head off into the dune fields and gravel plains of this beautiful desert.
Our camp for the night is beside a small river that flows into the White Sea, the forest is behind us and white sand leads down to the sea itself. The tide is out at the moment revealing a long expanse of weed covered rocks and shallow pools. We have just gutted a salmon and its innards are gently rolling down the river bed and Its not long before some gulls spot the remains and begin to squabble over them. Suddenly from the trees directly behind me, unheard a Sea Eagle launches itself and spreads its wings, gliding down, missing me by millimetres as its builds up speed and whisks the entrails from under the gulls noses………..
Our camp for the night is beside a small river that flows into the White Sea, the forest is behind us and white sand leads down to the sea itself. The tide is out at the moment revealing a long expanse of weed covered rocks and shallow pools. We have just gutted a salmon and its innards are gently rolling down the river bed and Its not long before some gulls spot the remains and begin to squabble over them. Suddenly from the trees directly behind me, unheard a Sea Eagle launches itself and spreads its wings, gliding down, missing me by millimetres as its builds up speed and whisks the entrails from under the gulls noses………..
