Boiling

Normal seasonal conditions have resumed. After a late night with the lions, we generally sleep until about 9am, that's when the tent, which has been sealed carefully against the cold, becomes an oven as the Kalahari sun fries the exterior. Outside it’s deliciously warm with a gentle breeze wafting through the camp. Smoke from the mopane (pronounced mopanee) wood that we burn on the camp fire drifts around as breakfast (porridge and coffee) is prepared. Hornbills cluck. All the lions are asleep.

The arduous bit of film making (well, modern film making) is the transfer and logging of all the digital files we recorded the day before onto something more permanent. Here we have a total of six computers, three for recording imagery, one for controlling a camera, and two for copying files from one drive to another. We also have to charge all the car batteries we used in the night – which means that the delicate and varied birdsong all around is wrecked by the sound of one, or even two generators.

The shower is water heated on the camp fire, put in a canvas bucket and then suspended from a tree. It always seems such a good idea, so refreshing. But every day, it’s a disappointment. As the hot water touches skin, the extremely dry air evaporates the water quickly, cooling it to 'cold setting’ in a matter of seconds. It’s a hot and cold shower.