It is International Jazz Day. Okay, that’s irrelevant.
But actually, that moment at dawn, when the birds start their songs, when the breeze softly rattles the reed tops and distant baboons respond to a passing leopard—all while the base notes of frogs plop in the bubbling Okavango waters—creates a free style of music, unscripted and unplanned but perfect in its harmony.
I listened to a robin duet recently, and immediately in response, a dozen cisticolas went off on their own riff. When it got my attention, and I focused, it was because a Pel’s fishing owl was eyeing the channel for opportunities, and the smaller birds were warning me.
Once that ‘musical section’ was complete, I heard the softest rustle of grass and waited for whatever it was to emerge; scales rubbed against a twig, and a small, almost rodent-like nose poked out, looked around, shuffled off, and passed: pangolin. There’s been a flurry of pangolin sightings this month, and if April was defined by anything at all, it was big cats left, right, and centre, as well as up in trees and swimming across rivers. Cheetahs have flown, big male lions waded, and many were seen by our Great Plains guests, photographed or caught on video by our guides.
This month’s collection from them is exciting and special.
In celebration of big cats, Beverly’s fine art Big Cat Collection offer, which was due to end its fundraising effort today, has been extended because of increasing demand, until June. Proceeds are being donated to our Big Cats Initiative for projects that advance the conservation of these iconic animals.
Jazz is a very individualistic expression of music, but played in collaboration as a series of improvisations. In many ways, our Great Plains camps are like a collection of musicians playing to our best strengths, one with pangolins or singing chefs, another with horse riding and sunken hides, but each harmonising for the perfect safari under our banner. It is evident in the images and experiences our guests take home with them
Let the music wash over you.
Dereck Joubert
