The Agony and Ecstasy of the Hunters and Gatherers of The Chobe…

Dogs… Dogs…. came the siren like call from the back of the boat. We had had a quiet afternoon on the river and with the sun, just about preparing to set, we were busy exploring the different settings of our cameras when Killer, our apply named guide on the river that afternoon, bellowed again… Dogs.. Dogs… We swiveled in our chairs to see 4 of the African Painted Wolves appear from the tree line on the edge of Puku flats in the Chobe Reserve… and thus the story began….

Alarm calls echoed across the flats, Impala running in all directions as the dogs got between them and the ensuing chaos unfolded. Shutters rattling through the air like machine guns focused at the enemy lines of an full frontal attack. Animals exploding in all directions with wild dogs in pursuit. A giraffe hurtled off into the trees with dog hot on its heals… one of those what was he thinking, kind of moments. Impala pronking almost doing handstands trying to draw attention away from the others when there it was, that once in a life time moment of an Impala ewe in full flight coming right at us with a dog in hot pursuit. Hearts pounding, fingers stuck on the the shutter and settings… well mine were set for panning while Christa’s were close enough to catch that moment, that moment, that is the cover image of this story.

That was it, the Impala was done, about to run its last strides, or so we thought. Hitting the breaks as the dog came riverside, it stopped and ducked in behind it heading straight at us again, flying into the water, its adrenaline pumping through its veins driving it deeper and deeper while the dog was left con-fuddled on the banks staring at its dinner swimming away and out of its reach. I will never forget the look in that Impala’s eyes as it swam towards and then past us, carrying on across the inlet of the bay toward the bank on the other side. It had made it, safe out of reach of the hungry pack of painted wolves.

We turned our attention back to the the flats just as another dog chased its prey toward the water. This time the Impala was not so lucky, with splash of mud it went down in the reeds of the muddy bank, stuck with nowhere to go and a wild dog a couple of meters behind it.. but wait for it… the dog, confused by this, lost sight of the the poor Impala just in front of it. confused, bewildered and any other word you may choose.. it had no clue where its dinner had gone and after a minute or so, turned and ran off, glancing over its shoulder, as it try to figure out what had happened. Surely it can’t just vanish.. but the Impala, just sat there, as still as only a petrified animal could. It was safe! For the moment.

We then glanced back across the water to see that first Impala only a couple of jumps away from the dry bank that signaled its safety. But, it was not to be, to its left, a crocodile was heading towards the commotion in the water, while to its right, another. The Impala froze, standing in the shallow water, only a couple of strides away from safety, it stared into the eyes of its destiny. As if not knowing was was coming, it lent forward as if to greet the croc with a kiss.

It was then that it knew, HKGK….(Here comes big trouble :-)) the water exploded!

An Impala shot out into the air, a croc in full attack underneath it, but as luck would have it, it missed and the impala was swimming again, straight back at us, those wide eyes screaming for help, with two crocodiles in hot pursuit.

But its adrenaline was spent, the water was getting deeper and the ancients were gaining. In an instant, it was over. The signature twisting, turning and tumbling of a successful catch churned up the water and one croc after the other was drawn to the meal.

The trauma of this scene was too much, tears flowing on the boat as everyone looked away in anguish, trying to find comfort in a serene scene of a Chobe Giant in front of a beautifully lit cloud giving us a brief reprieve from what we had just experienced and what was continuing in the water in front of us. The Elephant just walk on by, not a care in the world… just another day on the Chobe and in a minute it would all just return to the peace that existed just a couple of minutes before.

By the time we dared look again, the water was filled with crocs, each trying to gets its share. There must have been about ten of them there and their faces still haunt me. Note to self, don’t ever fall into the Chobe River near Puku flats, there are things lurking below the surface that appear in a split second and disappear just as quickly, having devoured that that had the misfortune of crossing their realm.

What an afternoon, I can still feel my heart pounding to this day. The ecstasy and the agony of the Hunters and Gatherers of that wonderful place called The Chobe and the Pangolin crew.

And what happened to the Impala on the other bank? I hear you ask, well, we headed back that way and to our surprise, out of the dark, emerged this Impala, seemingly unscathed and with its pride and life intact. Standing there watching, the African Painted Wolves disappear into the dark of the edge of the tree line. Her, surviving to live another day. They, confused and bewildered and left looking for a meal in another place.

Thanks to the Pangolin crew and a stunning trip again, a day not to be forgotten. PS, this all happened after we witnessed the same wild dogs victorious in their hunt that morning. Twice… ;-). Images courtesy of Christa Goosen as well as mine.