Safari Lions #1 (From Paul Binder)

So, we were still at the bush camp, but we hadn’t seen any lions yet. Our guide, Kanga, was scheduled to drive us to the next camp the following morning. He suggested that we wake up very early (a suggestion that was never my favorite) and, instead of driving directly to camp, we would see if we could track some lions. Now, get the picture: there are four of us in the Range Rover—Kanga (our guide), Stuart (our tracker), Shelley, and me. We would drive a bit, then stop and look around. Every twenty minutes or so Stuart would say about four syllables in his tribal tongue. Kanga would translate, “Stuart says to look out there, he sees an encouraging sign.” He gestured toward some circling vultures. We drove in that direction and they looked around (as always for footprints and droppings) and Stuart got excited when he thought there might be lions nearby. Again, the pukus sounded the alarm (Stuart, with ears that could hear the sound of a gnat’s wings at 50 yards) told us that we were close, and sure enough, after crossing a water-filled ravine, he spotted a lioness on the shady side of a bush.