As night falls, the thrilling bedtime story begins
In South Africa's Kruger National Park, when darkness invades, it is the night of the hundred beasts, and the long forest grass is swallowed up by the night and then spits out, in the moonlight like a skinned white bone, teeth and claws.
At this time, My favorite thing to do with Lao Xu was to hide in the tent, drink a large cup of strong coffee, and then stay up late at night, turn off the lights, hold our breath, and listen to the movement outside with our eyes wide open. There was a waterhole outside our camping tent, and late at night, this silent waterhole came alive completely.
There was no wind at all this night - the weather the animals loved. Surrounded by the sound of insects, the tent was quieter. We leaned back against the bed, without a hint of drowsiness, and in the darkness all the senses were added to the hearing. I glanced at the time on my phone, 1 a.m.
Suddenly there was a very slight sound outside, the sound of some kind of animal's body rubbing against the grass. We both jumped up from the bed and quietly opened the curtains in the tent, and by the moonlight I saw a long black shadow looming by the waterhole. This animal paced at the edge of the pool, stopping from time to time to lick the water, it was medium in size and had very light steps, because it had a meat pad on its feet - I'm sure it was a big cat! I couldn't see the color of the big cat, but I could feel its powerful stride. Just then, its head suddenly turned in my direction, and two green lights flashed by, like phosphorus fire, and it approached the tent. I saw a long, stout tail that was bent and dragged behind me, just as thick from root to tip.
A leopard!!!
I held up the camera that I had prepared, but the camera that did not have the flash on (not allowed in the park) was now far inferior to our dilated eyes, and there was darkness in the lens, and there was nothing. I leaned over the window, staring at the dark shadow, listening to the sound of it striding through the grass. The night is its home, it is covered in darkness, invisible from time to time, killing everywhere it can be. Several pairs of green lights suddenly flashed across the waterhole, and as soon as my eyes focused, they disappeared, and then appeared in the afterglow, unable to catch. By this time the leopard was gone.
There must have been a bigger predator coming. Who else but them —
Lions, more than one. The roar of male lions can even be heard farther away. October is the dry season in Kruger National Park, water is scarce, and this small waterhole has become a necessary place for nightcrawlers to replenish their water. The lion seems to be more relaxed than the alert lone wolf leopard,
They drink cheerfully and chase after the waterhole from time to time. Africa's fiercest big cats toy with the darkness in their palms, and their extraordinary night vision makes them proud to be at the top of the food chain. The lion drank enough water and disappeared into the darkness. The waterhole fell into a dead silence.
At 2:14 a.m., drowsiness struck. There are still 3 hours and 16 minutes left before the start of Safari in the morning, and you can still sleep for 2 and a half hours. The two of us reminisced about the sense of security that had been implocating under the semi-unknown wildness that had loomed for more than an hour, and when we entered the bed, we heard a scream.
"Hey hey... Giggling..." Just outside the tent, it seemed to laugh like this, but the human onomatopoeia could not really describe that sound. It would have been a shock to hear such a strange sound in the darkest hours of the night, but we were both familiar with it, so we couldn't enjoy the horror.
- Spotted hyena. It is portrayed in the film as an insidious dark villain. Of course, the creatures themselves do not have such attributes, but now that it is in the dark night, why not add a little sense of substitution given by the movie? The wildness that breeds in this vast and pristine land is full of charm in an inexplicable way, it is endlessly changeable, mysterious, you can always feel its presence, and you will tremble at the same time when you are deeply attracted to it. The night has put on a materialized cloak for this unknown wildness, and in the darkness of the five fingers out of sight, the shape of this wildness is highlighted, and driven by curiosity, you even want to lift this black coat to see what is hidden inside. We didn't see the hyenas, we only smelled them, maybe it was drowsiness, I heard other footsteps in my sleep...
The mystery is revealed that it is already lunch time after the end of Safari in the morning, and I am bragging about the early morning experience with my guide and travel companions. Matthew called up the surveillance video: "Oh! A leopard, five lionesses, a spotted hyena, four elephants, and two honey badgers (from surveillance footage below).
"It's not bad here, sleepwalking is all adventure!" He laughed.