My first game drive

I am still writing to catch up to where I am today.  I anticipate that once I get to today my posts will be a little more accurate and raw in it's content.  

After a day off on sunday to get settled in and make myself at home, monday we head out to find the lions.  For those who are not sure what I am doing here exactly, Graham and I are working on the Lions of Moremi project. There are two outlets through which to view our work and follow this pride's lives through still images and film. Brad does the film aspect of it. And it is posted on www.earth-touch.com. So we quite literally wake early every day to track the lions, (prints) and we report back in and upload from camp via satellite. It's truly amazing that I am sitting here in the middle of the bush, 4 hours to the nearest town able to send notes, upload to a live website and be connected to the outside world.  

I've always said I wanted to see more sunrises, as we are driving the sun starts to peep its warm eyes over the horizon, the sight is spectacular. It silences me, calms me and awakens me.

Monday morning's 5am wake up call came early, but I feel awake, I've always woken in a tent feeling well rested, no matter how many hours of sleep I'd had.   It is still dark out so of course what lurks outside my tent is on my mind as I dress.  We pack a modest cooler of Rusks, water, juice and coffee and head out into the early morning to look for lion tracks.  The topic of conversation is who heard the lions roaring in the night and from what direction, the acute sense that Graham and Brad have to the distance of where the sound came from and from what direction amazes me.  I listen intently to their conversation to try to see if I may be able to learn these skills myself, that and I do find the accent difficult to translate at times.  Graham assures me that my senses will improve immensely from constantly listening and looking.


We spend some time looking for tracks, eventually we find and follow them. I am somewhat anxious to see the lions. And when we find them and stop the vehicle they are literally right beside us. My heart races as we approach them, however they don't seem to matter much at all, in fact they barley stir from their slumber. 5 females, 2 males and 5 cubs in this pride. The Xakanaka (Ka-Kanaka) pride. I can't take my eyes off the males, they are the most masculine looking animal I've ever seen. Extremely proud and clearly the King of the bush, the top of the chain. The man of the house so to speak. I am assured that as long as we remain in our vehicle we are safe. Once again I am trusting my life in to the hands of complete strangers.



We sit and watch them sleep, some stir and roll over on their backs, legs in the air, it reminds me of how Marketa's dog Luna sleeps and it makes me laugh.