DAY #14

We left the community campsite at 7am and traveled to our next campsite destination within the Moremi Game Reserve.









We saw impala, giraffes, a hippo and various colorful birds. It was a long four hour drive and I was exhausted from not getting much sleep because my roommate Martha snores up a storm!!
We arrived at the campsite, ate lunch and everyone left to drive around the game site. I stayed behind to catch up on my sleep. Just lying in my tent with the screens open and listening to the chirping of the birds and the scurrying of the little squirrel-like animals was heaven!





I was woken up by Tommy and Duraid at about 9pm - they wanted me to eat so I grabbed desert (baked apples) and walked back to my tent where everyone was standing and looking into the forest. The people at the next campsite over was shining their flashlight. Our guides identified the animals as a lioness and her cubs. About two minutes later we hear the most unbelievable roar I've ever heard. A flashlight shines into the dark focusing on the tall grass at the opposite side of the campsite. The grass started to move and suddenly a huge lion walked through and into our campsite. We all just gasped and stared open mouthed at this lion as it walked closer roaring as he came over. It was just the most unbelievable experience and it was (and still is) so hard to justify that this was actually happening. Knowing that this lion was not in a cage, that there was nothing to stop him from making contact with us. Then our guides started screaming, "Get in the truck, get in the truck!!" and we all knew that for the guides to be firghtened, the situation was serious. We all sprinted to the trucks but unfortunately there is only one ladder. I remember placing my desert carefully on the table by the truck, turned to Sally's (our truck) ladder and saw Carolyn frantically trying to climb it. Knowing the lion was getting closer I started to yell, "Hurry up Carolyn!! Hurry up Carolyn!!" and poor Carolyn panicked more and fumbled climbing the ladder. So instead I somehow climbed up the side of Sally and up to safety. Sally was closer to the lion than the other truck so we had a front seat. We all sat in awe trying to be quiet even though we couldn't catch our breath and just instinctively whispering "Oh my god, oh my god!" The lion continued walking past our site and a baby empala hiding in a bush and over to where the lioness and cubs were and then out of sight. The roaring continued for about 20 minutes as he tried to meet up with the rest of the pride. They call back and forth to each other and we could hear our lion getting farther and farther away.

I was really reluctant to get down from Sally and jokingly vowed to sleep there for the night. We then spent the rest of the evening huddled together by the fire and spoke about the experience. We found out that Mike and Darla couldn't figure out how they got into their truck as they had not let go of both their desert or water so both of their hands were full. So we all had a good laugh at that as well as at Martha who was spotted shoveling her desert in her mouth as the lion went by...nervous reactions are so funny!


The lion's view of our campsite


The lion's paw print in the sand

After putting off going to bed for as long as we could we all pulled our tents a bit closer together and attempted to sleep. Our guides insisted that animals wouldn't attack us because they see the tents as large animals...we hoped it was true.