GUESS WHO IS COMING TO BREAKFAST, LUNCH AND DINNER?!!

You know the relatives that show up and are fun for a while but end up eating all you food and liquor and are just annoying? This is a bit like that.

So, I’m having an early morning coffee and rusk outside. Just enjoying the new day. I had heard a low rumble in the distance earlier and asked Lisa to listen and we couldn’t tell if it was a car or the noise a lion makes. Back to finishing the coffee when 25 feet away I see the body of a female lion coming from the bush. My first thought was WTF you shouldn’t be in our campsite and then thought perhaps formulating a plan would be a better approach. She turned towards me and those amber eyes and black slits pierced through me. It’s hard to believe but I wasn’t nervous or scared. Perhaps from my previous emergency experience, I don’t know. Two choices; sit still or slowly get up and move to the safety of the vehicle. Lisa was on the other side by the kitchen door. I stood up and said “Lisa, get in the cab now”. I moved to the back of the vehicle and entered all the time making eye contact with the lion. Now, both safely in the vehicle we watched the pride of 7 lions emerge into our camp.

We had made friends the previous night and they had followed the lions knowing they were heading toward our camp. After strategically placing their vehicle, Lisa was able to make it from the cab to the back where we’d spend the next four hours (It would have been 14 hours but our friends rescued us a bit sooner).

About an hour after laying about the bush they moved into the A-frame for the shade. Slowly, one at a time. We about 8 feet above them and 5 feet away. The kitchen/coffee table was folded out from the rig so it would have be a short hop into the back with us. Being ever resourceful, I got the can of doom insect repellant and my walking stick ready to become Richard the lion tamer if needed. We spent hours literally looking into their eyes as they stared at us from a second away. It’s pretty cool for about 30 minutes until you need to take a dump and just want them to go the fuck away. After all, we paid for the campsite.

Eventually, we were able to move to the next campsite. About 45 minutes after being there a leopard came in to drink and was about 50 feet away. I’ll take a pride of 7 lions any day over a solitary leopard that close. He came back a few hours later to entertain us again.

In all this Lisa did exceptionally well and was calm. She might have changed underwear soon after but I was extremely proud of her.

More adventures to follow.