Savute Journals - Savute Travel Guide

Savute Journals: Nights of contrast

Savute Journals: June 17: ‘It is cold and very quiet, only an occasional rustle in the undergrowth disturbing the silence. I strain my ears in an attempt to pick up any sounds, hoping for the distant whooping of a hyena or the roar of a lion but the silence has permeated the being. What were the lions doing – we had being watching a pride of seven lionesses just before sunset – and why were the hyenas so silent? After what seems an eternity a tiny breeze rustles the leaves and my thoughts are broken for a moment’

‘Sleep always comes slowly to me in Savute – and I find myself spending a great deal of time pondering the significance of things whilst watching the stars or listening to the sounds of the African night. I am not sure what the reason is but the Savute nights are the most primeval of any other African wilderness area. In Savute the nights are a series of extremes – penetrating silence or screaming death’.

Lions, Hyenas and Elephants

Savuti is a place of contrasts, a place that defies our prescribed laws of nature. Savuti is the place where the bitter enmity between lions and hyenas was first recorded – documented so dramatically in Eternal Enemies – and the place where a lion pride adapted to preying on adult elephant.

Changing between a waterless enigma and a lifeline for wildlife in the dry season Savuti is a place of legend – and it is about to undergo another dramatic change with the water in the channel within reach of its destination.
[Read more about the Savute seasons]

Savute Journals: October 10, 1.46 am: ‘The noise is deafening. Elephants are screaming and lions are growling. Sleep is impossible …. The lions have not eaten for almost ten days and are getting desperate, the elephants need to drink … there is a standoff at the waterhole’.

6.37 am: ‘Sometime during the early hours of the morning the commotion stopped and you could almost hear the relief. Dawn finally brought some feeling of calm – and the lions were relaxing around the waterhole, playing as any cats would. Last night’s hunt was unsuccessful – indicating another disturbed night to follow’.