So many people ask me if I was scared seeing the wildlife in Africa up close. Never once, I tell them. For the most part, the animals don't even look your way. It's not that they don't notice you, it's that they see the vehicle you're in (they see the vehicle and all of the people in it as just a single "thing") often enough that they don't fear it, don't want to eat it, know it won't eat them, and since this is the wilderness of Africa that's enough for them to leave you alone.
But when one of those lions does look your way, your body wants to freeze and breathe softly. Not because you're fearful (at least I wasn't), but because it's such a surreal experience. I'm not a cat person, but seeing those large cats so close is mesmerizing and gave me an entirely new perspective and admiration for cats...small and big. What are these lionesses thinking? Do they know I'm one person in that vehicle or do I believe the guide that they don't? Of course, if one of us moves suddenly the lion will notice that movement, but we've got to raise our camera to our eye somehow, right? Well, we did it slowly.
This is one of my favorite shots of a lioness from my first safari. Is she studying me? Is she bored at the sight of another set of people from the camp? Is she wondering what I'm holding in front of my face? Is she tired from hunting the night before? Is she trying to read the logo on the front of my hat?
This lioness and her sister were lying in the grass when we came upon them the last day we were at that camp. We watched them rise and stalk an impala far in the distance for a few minutes, but then they gave up...it was too far away. Just when we were about to pull away, the lionesses got up from the grass and walked to a large log, where they proceeded to pose for us for the next 2 1/2 hours. And we never wanted to leave.
It was as if they knew they were putting on a show for us. Maybe they knew we would soon be on our way back to wherever else on this planet we came from, and they didn't want us to forget them or the other animals we saw in Africa.
Maybe that's what she was thinking while staring right at me.
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