The land cruiser launched itself into the air and then bounced off the sandy desert. My rearview mirror showed the paved street receding like the end of a rope fading behind my trail of dust. Soon only sand and brush could be seen in all directions. After spending several days in South Africa, I left the paved roads and walked through the sand to the Kalahari desert in southern Botswana.
The road was undulating like a washboard, forcing the truck to vibrate violently and veer from side to side. As I drove further into the desert, the deep sand was like snow and made the truck more difficult to drive. With no cops, speed limits, or people for hundreds of miles, I felt free to drive as fast as I could. But loose sand would eventually throw me out of control when I dared to push my luck.
This truly untamed part of Africa is endless rust-red sand dunes dotted with lone trees and scattered grasses. The Kalahari Desert is part of the largest continuous area of sand in the world. The area covers approximately 2.5 million square kilometers within the countries of Congo, Gabon, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South
Africa, with some sandy areas reaching more than 300 feet deep. Despite the fact that the Kalahari lacks surface water, it is not technically a desert. It is a semi-arid area, but nevertheless it is one of the most treacherous lands to travel. Yet this harsh climate has been in constant balance and has supported an overwhelming diversity of life for millions of years. When I got to the camp, I pitched my two-man tent by a dune and built a fire. As I was cooking an ostrich steak over the flames, I saw the moon slowly peek over the horizon.
Sitting hundreds of miles from modern civilization, he could hear the faint hum of silence. Since our world is drowning in human-made noise, silence is a quality of life that many people lack; Many people have never experienced a single minute of pure silence, be it the faint hum of a refrigerator or the popping of a car, noise surrounds us. As night approached, a strange sound began to echo in the bushes next to me.
Eee Eee Eee, Eee Eee Eee …
Soon the air was overwhelmed by sound. I stuck my flashlight in one of the bushes and knew there were Gecko lizards, thousands of them asking for a mate from the bushes.
The gecko love song got quite hypnotic as I lay down on the ground and gazed at the stars. The sheer number of stars was overwhelming and the cool air made them vibrate and vibrate intensely. When gravity connected me to the lower hemisphere of the earth, I felt as if I was looking from the night sky contemplating an infinitely huge city. To this day, I have never looked up and found more magnificent stars than in the Kalahari sky.
The bright moon illuminated an eerie glow over my surroundings and without the need for a flashlight, I clearly saw a black-backed jackal tiptoe past my tent in search of food. When his sensitive ears detected something under the ground, he jumped straight into the air and, landing quickly, unearthed a mouse that was quickly swallowed whole. Most jackals perform this unusual vertical leap while locating their prey; it’s a pretty comical habit to watch.
Weighing only 20 pounds, the jackal resembles a small coyote. These nocturnal animals feed on small rodents, insects and, occasionally, wild fruits. One morning I learned that jackals are very curious and mischievous after noticing that my leather sandals were stolen during the night. The only clues left were jackal tracks leading into the desert, accompanied by my sandal tracks bouncing off the sand as they were dragged into their mouths. This seemed past for the course at the time, as a human thief in Johannesburg two days earlier stole my slippers.
Fortunately, I was barefoot for only three days when a Bushman noticed my need for shoes and traded in a pair of sandals for a toothbrush (unused, of course) and a knife. The sandals weren’t exactly fancy, made from the tread of a blown truck tire, they looked more uncomfortable than hot sand at times, but I guess they were better than nothing.
After the jackal swallowed the mouse, it raised its nose and quickly detected my presence. When he tilted his head and made eye contact with me, I realized that he was probably the first human being I’d ever seen. After several seconds of interest, he tiptoed past me without any semblance of concern and out of sight over the dunes.
I turned my attention to the sky and noticed that the moon seemed to be shrinking. Half an hour before it was full, and now it was in the middle of the phase. It was a lunar eclipse. As the earth’s shadow gradually covered the moon, its last bright sliver turned black and the desert was swallowed up in utter darkness. Seconds later, a group of jackals began to howl frantically like dogs in a pound and then a spotted hyena began to cry over and over again.
scream, scream, scream.
Spotted hyenas have more than ten different vocalizations that can be linked to specific behaviors. If you are familiar with these sounds, one can imagine many of their actions without seeing them. For example, when a spotted hyena “whines or neighs,” which is a series of loud, high-pitched squeaks and chattering noises, it is usually begging for food or was simply weaned from its mother.
Like a squad of air raid sirens, the rest of the pack intervened like a frenzied band of looters. Their sounds totally drowned out the little jackals and, as they ranted and fought, they painted a clear picture of the fierce competition for survival in the Kalahari. The accelerated speed of the screams led me to believe that the hyenas were challenging a lion for the kill. Most likely, a lion took advantage of the complete darkness of the eclipse and shot down an antelope.
The Kalahari lion with its characteristic black mane was once thought to be a subspecies of its own, but it is now classified as a lion particularly well adapted to a desert environment. Their fur is lighter than that of lions elsewhere and serves as excellent camouflage in the sand. They have also adapted the ability to go weeks without drinking water and survive on minimal prey. In this vast region, they must fight more for their food than in any other territory because stalking is more difficult in such an open area.
As he suspected, the deep roar of a lion pierced the night and immediately the hyena’s screams were replaced by high-pitched laughter. This comical but sinister sound, which is associated with the common name “laughing hyena”, is typically made by individuals while being pursued or attacked.
The lion must have been protecting his prey when the hyenas tried to steal it. I specify “she” because after a typical twenty hour lion’s day off, 90% of the time it is the female that hunts. The males simply follow behind the female until the quarry dies and then he will run and claim “the lion’s share”. With two deep bursts from the lion’s lungs, he called out to the rest of his pride.
AAAAAHHHHOOOO!
AAAAAHHHHOOOO!
The chilling sound took my breath away. The rest of the pack must have arrived pretty quickly because the hyenas started screaming again. But now the sound had a long, slow “oooo”, which meant that the competition for the kill had become too fierce and the hyenas decided to stay at a safe distance and wait for the lions to finish eating. Occasional quick screams followed, expressing their impatience as they sat on the sidelines.
Then the moon gradually reappeared, lighting up the desert once more, and I retreated to my tent. As I fell asleep, I heard hyenas fighting over the remains of the slaughter, and the sound of lions calling out to each other soon faded into the night.