Around noon on Monday we finally arrive to our hotel—we left around 6 a.m. Our hotel is nestled in the middle of the park, and me and the other volunteers have been dreaming about the swimming pool. We enter our room, with a fan, two twin beds, with nice high wooden frames and mosquito nets. After my bags hit the floor with a mild thud, I search for my bathing suit. After everyone has emptied their bladders I enter the bathroom to change.
“Jamie, hurry get out here,” shouts Clay. I throw on my pants over my bathing suit and shuffle out the door, not quickly, but not slowly. I know sometimes with Clay, the hurry is not always necessary.
After throwing the spare mattress on top of our safari van, I learn that there has been a lion sighting, and sometimes you can go days without seeing a lion. We drive along at a fast pace. I sit near the front, with Clay, and we dodge tree branches that hang in our way. Dust flies up around our car and we are all excited like children at the zoo for the first time.
I heard it before I saw it. We pulled up behind two other cars, and the lion did not roar but rather was growling. It sounded very far away. A few hundred yards away from us is a short tree, its branches hang low, reminding me of a bonsai tree. Under the tree there isn’t the same tall grass that surrounds the area. This, we find, is where the lion is, with his femme. He continues to make noises, or warnings, and our guide tells us that if he gets in the car to make sure we hold on, because we will be moving out of there fast. The lion is forced to stand-up, as us we continue to look-on unafraid. He roars and runs a little ways off. We stay for a few more minutes and then on our own terms depart.
They say it is rare to see lions in the park. I saw two the first day, the second day, and the third day.
In the evening of the second day we headed toward the Niger River, which borders Benin and Burkina Faso in the park. As we round a corner in the road, like immigrant police trying to meet a quota, two lions lie in the road, in a posture that could only be interpreted as, this is my road mother-fu*****. Our response; stop, pause, register what is happening, and immediately gas it in reverse.
We turn to go back the way we came and as we leave we run into another group. Our guide explains the lions ahead, but the group decides to continue anyways. This of course makes us want to go back. Our guide reluctantly agrees, but tells us to get into the vehicle and clothes up all the windows.
Literally driving back into the lions den a second time, we don’t see the other car, where the lions were, and at first we don’t see the lions either. But then they emerge again from the bush and head towards us. Our response; stop, pause, register what is happening, and immediately gas it in reverse.
We turn to go back the way we came and as we leave we run into another group. Our guide explains the lions ahead, but the group decides to continue anyways. (I am aware this is the same paragraph as before.) Like Groundhog’s Day, trying to get things right, this of course makes us want to go back.
This time we follow the vehicle relatively closely and it almost passes the lions, before the lions see them. We linger a safe distance away, watching flashes going off in the car ahead of us. Clay keeps repeating all the great photos he is missing. We can barely see the lions ahead. Then, all of sudden, the male lion comes running out of the bush and attacks the car in front of us. We don’t think they are going to move, but then they gas it, with the girl in the back getting in some last shots in on her camera. Our guide does not turn back, at our insistence we decide to go past the lions.
We drive slowly. It is like in a scary movie when the damsel-in-distress knows the villain lurks behind the closet door, but has to look to make sure. She opens the door slowly and at first sees nothing, only to realize the villain is right behind her. While the lion wasn’t behind us, he was right after the bush on the right side of the road, which happened to be the side of the car I was sitting on. I was the first to see him.
He was just lying there, so majestic. I was staring into his eyes and him into mine. We stared at each other for a long time, and then he jumped up quickly. Screams followed from inside the car, as if to signal to our guide to hurry, get out of here.
No comments:
Post a Comment