Full tourist day
well, Saturday was the fullest day i have had this side of the Atlantic yet. and despite all my touristy crap misgivings, i had a pretty fun time. i’m still not sure it was worth the small fortune i dropped this side of the border, but it was a good distraction from the day-to-day of Livingstone. and my own overactive brain.
Saturday morning started out a bit rough for those that had been up late drinking the night before. there were only six of us on the horse safari and our guide was meant to pick us up at 9am. at 915am we were still waiting on a few pieces of toast and some tea because there was no power and the lodge staff were cooking everything over a propane grill. the BBQ’d toast was delicious!
by 945am we were saddled and ready to ride a winding 2 1/2 hours through the bush. i was astride the complacent Lady Jane who liked to follow the horse in front just a *bit* too close and had a few warning kicks shot our way. the 6 of us, plus a guide at the front and end, traveled single file at an easy walk. one of the girls had never been on a horse before and was positively terrified at first. but horses are pretty easy to ride when they are just following each other and our morning was mostly uneventful.
safaris usually leave closer to 7am to catch the animals as they are first moving around and before they settle away from the heat of the day. i’m pretty sure the fact that we were traveling much later was the reason we didn’t see any giraffes or elephants. we saw plenty of other animals though: impala, kudu, water buck, guinea fowl, vultures, and the reputedly Most Dangerous of The Big Five, water buffalo. apparently buffalo are so dangerous because their warning before attack is almost non-existent. they are highly unpredictable and we traveled in a tight single file as we clopped past. one of the guides held my horse reins while i took a few photos.
i really enjoyed the horse safari. i found the easy pace and repetitive dry bush meditative. Lady Jane treated me to a relaxing and uneventful ride. my poor yoga sit bones are positively aching today though. youch.
by the time we got back to the lodge, we had to turn around and head out again. the staff here made us a quick lunch of — surprisingly delicious — tomato and onion sandwiches. there still wasn’t any power and no time for something more elaborate anyway. next up, three of us had booked a very accurately titled “lion encounter”. quite literally, we encountered (and interacted with) a couple of lions.
Langa and Lokotula* were the 12-month male cubs on the reserve, born in captivity and being trained for release back into the wild. they were in something called “stage 1″ and when they got a little older, would be the first cubs to enter “stage 2″ at Antelope Park, a larger reserve in Zimbabwe. i still have no idea how human interaction helps them except that the money we pay supports their zebra meat project.
their names mean “peace” and “sun”, and the guide said together they made a Peaceful Day. again, i think we visited at a slightly off time of day. early afternoon is when i’m about ready for a nap and these two seemed in the same frame of mind. still, it was fun to watch them relax and loll about in the shade, yawning and stretching their ginormous paws.
the guides kept asking us if we were enjoying ourselves and i thought it was quite incredible. but i wanted to treat them like regular house cats and toss a ball of string or something. one of the other girls said they made her want to curl up next to them. naturally, it was an extremely controlled visit with thin sticks to discourage any sort of play biting and a rifleman nearby. i thought our visit was especially spectacular because there were only three of us with the two cubs. most “lion encounters” have 15 or 20 people. needless to say, the intimacy of our tiny group means i now have a TON of photos of me petting a lion, scratching a lion under the chin, squatting next to a lion, mildly surprised as a lion gently nipped my knee, smiling while a lion politely yawns, and just plain laughing at the novelty of the situation.
we left Langa and Lokotula a couple of hours later and got to stop by and see the even younger cubs (6 & 8 months) at the main reserve. this was more like visiting animals in a zoo, except we went IN to the huge cage. again, super duper coool.
by this time, all three of us were ready for a nap. we headed back to the lodge and sprawled out on the deck chairs by the pool. i downloaded photos to my laptop, realized my plug adaptor didn’t work here, and tried to conserve the last hour of battery power for writing this today.
i have 23 minutes left. i guess recounting our experience at the Boma traditional dinner will have to wait. it was an extraordinary end to the perfectly touristy day. more on the taste of crocodiles, warthog, and ostrich coming up!
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*i usually whip out my Palm Treo to jot down names of things so i don’t forget. i didn’t have my phone with me that afternoon and kept repeating their names over and over in my head. i think i asked one of the guides no less than half a dozen times.
June 25th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Incredible indeed. I once worked with an older male lion on a music video. Being 10 ft away from a full-maned lion, hearing his roar, staring into his eyes, was quite an experience. I can only imagine how much fun it was to “play” with a couple for a while. Very cool.
June 28th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
I’ve recently returned to writing about the time I worked with cougars. Your experience with the lions being trained for the wild puts a new focus on my recollections. The man who was my first mentor was George Adamson, who pioneered lion rehab in Kenya. He was a great support for me. He gave his life to this work. And it eventually took his life – he was killed by lion poachers in 1989. He was 83. It is so gratifying to realize that his work is continuing and spreading throughout Africa.