First Published in the Tri-Town Transcript Jul 7, 2016
By Esther C. Baird
Dear Regular Reader,
I’m writing this flying above Africa – – certainly, one of the more unusual places I’ve written this column. We are on our way home from a two week trip to South Africa and I’m pleased to say, that after a week on safari, and a week hiking in Cape Town on what they call “moderate to easy” trails, our family still has all their toes and fingers attached (i.e. not chewed off on safari) and sanity [mostly] in place after multiple death defying cliff-side saunters.
I’d like to tell you one story – – only one, lest I bore you like the uncle who went to Africa and never stopped talking about it for the next twenty years.
It’s just, Regular Readers know that I feel someday, something, will eat me. So you can imagine how tooling about in open air jeeps, six hours a day, in the wild bush of South Africa, with my husband, our two daughters, my parents, my mother in law and an aunt, made me feel. We were like a traveling smorgasbord for carnivorous creatures.
We became fairly good at spotting elephants, giraffes, buffalo and even hyenas. And our talented guides were able to frequently find lions, cheetahs and leopards in all states of activity.
We saw them sleeping, hunting, eating and attempting to kill a hippo (a story for another time, but the hippo won!). We even saw lion cubs at a respectful distance but never in a way that made me nervous . . . until the last day.
Our guide had brought us to two giant females and eight (eight!!) little lion cubs, about four months old, playing in a river bed. They were tumbling balls of golden fur wrestling and pouncing in the bushes. It was spectacular. But it was also dusk, and the park rules mandated that we could not shine the jeep lights on the cubs to protect their night vision.
As the sun set, we backed out. Only to find Papa Lion. He was a gigantic, tawny, amazing creature, resting just up the road from where the lionesses and cubs were. He lay regally, front paws crossed, clearly in the mood to be admired.
Our guide was as thrilled as we were. “Well this is great. Just so long as the mom and babies don’t come back. We wouldn’t want to get between them.”
True dat. We wouldn’t. Which is why, when suddenly, one of the female lions emerged from the bushes about six inches from my husband’s elbow and skirted along just past our aunt’s hand, we felt a pause of . . . concern.
The lioness sauntered by, but where were the cubs? Our guide chuckled in an understated way.
“Well, that’s our sign to go then. We don’t need to be here when the rest come up from the river.”
No, we didn’t need that. Except it was happening.
The second lioness, followed by the eight cubs came parading up from the river, and just like that, we found ourselves surrounded by lions.
Regular Readers, I’ve been surrounded by deer flies and one time I felt a bit threatened by some Canada Geese. But in this instance, my entire family was in the jeep, and in case you missed it the first time, we were surrounded by LIONS, and it was dark.
Then, to ensure my heart flew out of my mouth and exploded in little cardiac pieces, the male and first female had a short parenting spat, perhaps about who, exactly, had let the jeep full of people into the cubs bedroom. The male let out a roar that actually rattled my bones before they disintegrated into particles of pure fear.
Our guide slowly backed up. No one breathed as the babies began to arrange themselves around their parents who, in turn, stared at us. Hungrily?? I couldn’t tell. Then the male got up and began to follow us down the road. Menacingly?? Still couldn’t tell.
We remained frozen in our seats until we were finally clear of all things golden and toothy. Then we exhaled and I checked that our girl’s limbs and heads were all in place. When we returned to the lodge I was shaky and unable to talk until both of our girls were safely tucked in bed, and I was given a drink. Like vodka.
And then I realized, I was thrilled. Truly and deeply thrilled and amazed by all I’d seen that night.
So we are returning now to live and be eaten another day here in the States. But I think we all left a piece of our hearts in South Africa – – no doubt a tasty snack for a little lion cub.