April 9, 2009
Dear David,
First day with mail connectivity. Seems erratic. Not surprised. We’re a long way from anywhere. So, glad I can drop you a mail.
All systems are working. We came in four or five days ago, vehicles are in place, fuel drums dropped in strategic places and exactly a day before we arrived the zebras started dribbling in. Seen about 4,000 so far and understand that there will be 15,000 plus this year...
This is a stunning place... Got into position to film moonrise with zebras tonight and suddenly clouds came over and blew my shot, but gave some relief to the 90 degree day. Unless it buckets now, we may have timed this well.
Issues so far are few... but one is that no one here has seen a lion in a while. Rabies seems to have taken its toll and wiped out the lions. New pride in, seen once, is from hell, so they run like demons... By contrast, I am getting to within 100 yards of the herds of zebras, and chipping away at that, so getting some pleasing material.
Chopper work starts Monday... Should be stunning.
All the best
Dereck
April 11, 2009
Beautiful full moon over the past two nights. Tonight it came up blood red orange. It’s yours.
Zebras suddenly on the move everywhere today... we will be moving with them and camping out behind where ever they go, so if we drop coms for a while late next week it is because we are sleeping on the pans somewhere west of here. Will keep you updated as and when it happens or I can...
All the best
Dereck
April 15, 2009
Hello David,
So the update is...the pans have now dried and the grass is turning. We managed to catch that transition so from here on it is yellow grass and no water.
When I first suggested this particular migration it was because it was just starting to be heard of... the best reliable information was from an old friend of ours who had died years ago. But we both remembered him saying that this migration was the best kept secret in Botswana...for good reason. It is a harsh harsh place where the wind blows salt laced sand at you daily. The grass looks wonderfully soft but sit on it and it rejects you with spikes and biting ants. Stepping out onto the salt pans is like a visit to Dante’s inferno, and if you are less that robust, and want shade, you won’t find it here except lying under the truck (with the biting ants.) It is in short, paradise! In a world where space and time is the most precious commodity to many, Makgadikgadi has both in abundance, but it’s the trade off for water.
I am not a wilting violet and skin moisturizing is not my strength, but even I burned a solid line across my leathery arm during one shot at midday from the sun as if I had leaned against a stove...
A few days in we started finding zebra herds of about 50 strong, mixed with wildebeest. I flew a half a dozen times to find this mystical big herd hoping that it still existed, and that old man Jack wasn’t exaggerating. We had confidence in the tracks, lines and lines of them dotting the pans and carved into white lines in the amber grasslands. But as you look out here, from ground or air, you see hundreds of miles of exactly the same landscape as what you have at your feet. It is all but featureless, and I can only imagine what it must have done to the hearts of explorers as they stepping into this world. As I say, its paradise!
On the eighth day we spotted light dots on the grassland, and I angled the plane parallel to the rising sun and dropped down, to make the most of the reflected light against white bodies. You may know those stereographic images that are not immediately obvious, then suddenly as your eyes adjust they pop out, well somewhere dozens of miles away from any road or reference, a line of zebras cast long shadows and lead my eyes to a clump of dozens, then hundreds. As I circled our estimate increased to thousands and not wanting to be overly dramatic about this we settled on around 5,000.
It took us a day and a half to get them on the ground, and the herds were wild as hell, as if they had never seen a human who didn’t want to slaughter them or take advantage of the obvious value to nature as a massive walking protein source. We invested two more days staying with them to get their trust, using every skill we know, from hiding, creeping up to boldly moving past them and ‘using’ their herding instincts to follow. Eventually we are now at a place where we can get to within 100 yards to get decent behaviour. So far we are getting visually beautiful material, walking resting feeding, lines, masses, etc. But they are still getting to trust us, and winning the trust of a pride of lions may take a few weeks but we have to win the trust of a few thousand skittish horses here. If one spooks there is a stampede.
We have been seeing a fair amount of soft things like grooming and suckling, and one or two good fights. Generally we have covered the visual massive herd during that day spectacle.
We had a card reader go down, so we had P2 cards filling with no way of downloading... So no joy there. Then the old method kicked in and the chopper cameraman handed one to some tourist coming this way, and she gave it to a guide and he detoured to leave it in our tent, the evening my final card was full!
I flew again that day, and the herds had moved further from our camp, now a half a day’s drive, so soon we may have crossed a threshold where we can base out of here and have to follow on and live out of the trucks. But that day we went out and saw finally after twelve days, long lines of thousands and thousands of zebras weaving through the heat haze and finally towards sunset where we switched around and filmed into that red orb. I remember looking through the lens and saying a silent thanks to old man Jack. Between 8 and 10 thousand zebras were moving towards the sun as if they were being sucked into it from all angles.
We spend the day and night there and had a second sunset with that same feel, as scattered herds joined up. I fear it is the start of a major movement north and west, into a piece of land that I doubt anyone but a handful of crazy people have ever gone into, ever...
So far David, I can say we have breathtaking material of massive herds of zebras moving across stunning landscapes in an area unknown to most...
So far so good. All the crew are safe in what is seriously a marginal and risky habitat, and we have material in the can...
April 2009
Hi David,
Filmed a major story element today, with a dead mother zebra, which we wondered how when etc BUT then noticed its one week old foal trying to suckle from the carcass... but as the story developed, the stallion of the herd came back and got very upset and would not leave for hours, and then did something very bizarre... One of those never filmed before moments, he refused to go with his herd and waited for the baby, the herd actually left as it got hot and he let it go (self sacrifice) but marched broadside to the baby to get it used to his stripe pattern for hours. When the vultures arrived he was very distressed as did the foal and the stallion came in and finally took the foal away. (close up as the foal stands in amongst the vultures ripping into its mother!!) The rest of the day he shepherded the foal around searching for their herd but never found it. Great great scene...more when we do talk but if anyone does not cry, they are heartless. As I write this I am in a tent somewhere and the stallion is out there looking after the foal. Its midnight and I need to sleep but must get this one e-mail at least out now...
David this is the moment people will be talking about in this segment.
Feel very good, and very tired...
Dereck
