The importance of keeping an eye out! There are many reasons why it’s important to disconnect from tech in Africa. Here’s one, recounted by regular contributor Mark Eveleigh
I’d already spent my fair share of time in the African bush when, in 2008, I volunteered for a mapping project in Uganda. It was an intense period of dawn-to-dusk off-roading, punctuated by even more exhausting (and less enjoyable) bouts of data uploading.
One late-afternoon in an unfenced camp in Kidepo National Park, I looked up from my laptop to see seven lionesses ranged lazily along a rocky outcrop, eyeing me curiously from a distance of about ten metres. I had been so absorbed in my work, for all I knew they might have been watching me for an hour or more.
It seemed a little ridiculous to become melodramatic about it at this late stage, so I sidled cautiously out of my camp chair and eased myself into the Land Rover. I sat there for a good while, shaking a little, reminding myself that there were more important things at risk than inaccurately-uploaded computer data.
I tried to convince myself that the danger was minimal and that the cats were presumably not hungry. Later that evening, now under the protection of an AK47-toting ranger, as we barbecued sausages for dinner, our headlamps clearly picked out 14 feline eyes gleaming from the shadows. Even so, we ate our sausages in peace. During the night, we heard the bellow of a buffalo being dragged down by the pride.
Needless to say, these days I try to keep screen time to a minimum on safari.
Picture credit © MilaUg, Shutterstock
