Leopardi, hijene in ostali domači cucki, Namibija

Včasih so na potovanjih dnevi, ko se ti zdi, da se stvari enostavno ne poklopijo. A včasih ravno ti dnevi prinesejo kaj posebnega. Ker so bili kampi v Etoshi glede na zatrjevanje tete ob vhodu v nacionalni park polni, smo naslednji dve noči spet preživeli na rančih, ki kraljujejo v tem delu Namibije. Če smo pri prvem še vedeli kaj nas čaka, pa je bil drugi ranč izbran čisto po naključju. Upraviteljico prvega, gospo v poznih letih, smo presenetili ob učenju spletnega bančništva. Na hitro in precej živčna, ker smo jo zmotili, nam je dodelila prostor ter nas v večernih urah povabila na glavno atrakcijo njenega ranča – srečanje z divjimi ježevci. Kamp bi bil težko bolj Afriški – rdeča zemlja, vse precej zaraščeno, tuši in WC-ji pa kar lepo pod milim nebom. Tudi različnih žuželk, pajkov in ostalih malih živalc je bilo na tem ranču res ogromno Večerno srečanje z ogromnimi in precej smešnimi ježevci je bila nepozabna izkušnja. 9 let je gospa potrebovala, da je ježevce s hrano privabila iz začetnih 500 metrov oddaljenosti od hiše do hranjenja tik ob verandi hiše. Sedaj sediš na klopci in tik pred seboj opazuješ ta zanimiva, skoraj nezemeljska bitja.

“Ja, hijene, geparde, leoparde lahko vidite na našem ranču” pa nam je ob prihodu povedal lastnik drugega ranča, kakšnih 150kg težak orjak. In čez nekaj ur, ob večeru, smo šli. Najprej do leoparda, potem je bila na vrsti hijena, kasneje karakal, gepardi pa so bili tako ali tako non stop pred nami. Od tistega srečanja naprej vem, zakaj se domačini med divjimi živalmi najbolj bojijo ravno leoparda – je res pravi “killing machine”.

Sometimes when you travel, you think that everything is going wrong. But sometimes those days bring something special. According to the woman at the entrance of Etosha NP all campsites in Etosha were full and we had to spend the next two nights on the ranches of that part of Namibia. For the first ranch we knew exactly what to expect, but the other one was a full surprise. We caught the manager of the first ranch, the lady in mid 70, in the middle of learning online banking. She was quite nervous because we disturbed her, so she just allocated the camping spot to us very quickly and invited us to watch the main evening attraction of her ranch – meeting with wild porcupines. The camp could not be more African – red soil, everything was overgrown, showers and toilets were under the open sky. There were also many many insects, spiders and other small creatures at this ranch. The evening meeting with enormous and quite funny porcupines was an unforgettable experience. It took her 9 years to attract the porcupines with food from the initial 500 meters distance from the house to eating right next to the front porch of the house. Now you sit on a bench and watch these interesting creatures just in front of you.
“Yes, hyenas, cheetahs and leopards can be seen on our ranch” the owner told us on arrival at the second ranch. And in the evening we went to see them. First, to the leopard, then it was the hyena turn, later Caracal, cheetahs were anyhow non-stop in front of us. From that day on I know why are the locals so afraid of the leopards – it is really a “killing machine”. 🙂

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