It is safe to say when I first stepped off the plane in Maun I was more than a little nervous. I had been in email communication with David and Robyn and we had skyped once, but other than that I was stepping into a sea of strangers. I knew that I was guaranteed to love the riding and that as far as horses were concerned, (I at least like to think,) I have a vague idea of what I’m talking about. The people, on the other hand, were a different matter. I am not a shy person, but equally you never know how things are going to pan out (excuse the pun) with people. However incredible the place – people can at times be make or break. Luckily in my case they were a big fat break.
I have been so lucky with all the people I’ve met and my time here would not have been nearly as special if I hadn’t clicked so well with the guys at the stables. Their cheerful greetings and appreciative laughs at my attempted Setswana would start the day off with a smile. As we got to know each other more their sense of humours shone through and I often left the stables with a big grin; their fun mood infectious. I’d like to think we earned each others respect and as a result got our daily routines down to a ‘T’ and I was able to maximise riding time.
I first got to know Liveus on my trip to the Makgadikgadi. We were both riding at the back and he couldn’t stop laughing as I tried to control how ridiculously excited I was and still remain professional in front of our guests as we approached an elephant!
Liveus came to Ride Botswana with practically zero horse experience. He had his first ever ride on Showgirl only three years ago but you’d think he’d been riding a lot longer than that! When he first arrived Liveus worked under two other guides and tried to learn all he could from them; often quizzing them on the wildlife around Royal Tree Lodge. However, (and he laughs as he’s telling me) “Ohhh they did not like that though” – they thought he was testing them and so Liveus changed tack going straight to Robyn and David to borrow wildlife books. After some serious study sessions of ‘The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals’, Liveus was out riding with David and some guests when David gave him the floor to see if he’d learnt enough to start guiding.
Liveus passed the test and soon advanced to David’s right-hand man in the Pans. One of his key roles within Ride Botswana is to act as back-up rider on any Makgadikgadi safaris. This leads to many exciting adventures such as when he was left out at camp Kalahari to look after the eight horses in between two safaris. Whilst sleeping in their tents Liveus and colleague Pontsho were woken to the snorts of restless, scared horses. They listened for a while and heard the quiet call of a lioness summoning her cubs – a low quiet noise designed to go undetected so Liveus knew that they must be close. As he tried to figure out from which direction the grunts were coming he saw the lioness through the netting of the tent. She padded into the clearing, stopped 2m from the tent and lay down. The waiting game commenced. Soon another lioness and her cubs approached prompting Liveus to open the tent a crack and shout at them. The lions didn’t react, clearly a shouting tent was no threat to them! Right this was getting ridiculous now! These lions are far too brave. Liveus pulled out the bear banger, unzipped the tent and fired. A small firework, accompanied by a far louder bang shot out in a blur of sparks. This seemed to have the desired effect,. Lions and cubs scattered, running off into the bushes. Liveus stepped out to continue chasing them off (can’t say I would have been as bold!) and as he was about to return to the tent one of the lioness that had been hiding behind a tarpaulin emerged, gave “a sound I’d never heard before, it shook your bones” and charged towards him. Fully alert he then fired a second bear banger, halting the charge and sending the second lioness scampering away. It took a good few minutes before he could move again and his heart rate returned to a pace that didn’t feel like it was going to explode!
Liveus lights up when he talks of the pans, expressing a love of the feeling of freedom you experience when you ride out into the vast open space. His favourite day of the pans trip is the morning with the meerkats before heading out onto the pans for a good gallop. As he says “where else in the world can you go for as long and fast as you want on a surface as safe as the pans?”
So that’s Liveus in a nut shell. You’ll have to come out and ride with Ride Botswana to properly get to know him. It will certainly be sad to say goodbye as I’ve laughed a lot in his, and the guys, company. His grin and laughter is contagious – come and catch it.