KALAHARI

It's remarkable, y'know, the kind of TV one watches when not offered the chance of "light entertainment". Which was my diet often before what has now become know as "The collapse".

One legacy (amongst many) of the collapse, is the absence of satellite TV - you'll remember the bastards at Austar - on which I watched said light entertainment. With 40 channels I still found myself bored with the offerings on occasion and resorted to sit-coms etc.

Well now I don't have satellite and let me tell ye - there is very little on the commercial channels worth a look in the wee hours of the morning (which is when I get home from work). Christian TV, infomercials and this desperate grab for cash, The Mint - a truly woeful show where these speedtalkers (who also happen to be rather attractive) just, much like radio, abhor dead air and do everything but get naked to convince thew viewer to ring the 1900 number.

So I've been watching ABC; which is...educational at least. Am currently watching a show on the Kalahari. Seems like paradise.
The eagles have arrived due to the abundance of fish in the panhandle. Majestic they are - and powerful. Lifting themselves out of the water after losing a fight with a competitor for the air takes a great amount of effort and the bird's whole body shakes in unison as the great wings hoist it into the air.

Crocodiles, elephants, antelope. Insects, mice, fish that can breath air and walk with the aid of specially formed gills.
And herds of buffalo; meaning the carnivores won't be far behind. As if on cue, the lions have arrived, swaggering into town with the self assurance that comes with the king of beasts.

And they make a kill; they do it by suffocation so the buffalo just waits to die with the jaws of a lioness clamped round its throat. I always find that sad but hey, the lions have to eat too (and they don't have Burger King in the Kalahari!).

And one only has to see the lioness licking clean her clubs, to forget any feelings of abhorrence at the brutality of the kill.

The giraffes are next in the sights of the cameraman, along with baboons.

Now fire arrives; and consumes the delta. Thousands of slow, young and infirm animals die in the ensuing inferno. The lioness who earlier showed brutality in the kill, then tenderness with her cubs is now searching for them. They're hiding place was torched in the blaze.

Often this would end in disaster but whether fact, or by the hands of the film maker, we see the little cubs rediscover their mother.

The Garden of Eden.

The cycle of life.