November 17, 2008 – Our First Game Drive

We rode in 2 Toyota Land Cruisers each with 4 guests, driver Eugene and spotter Richard. The vehicles are open sided with a canvas top and the spotter sits in a front mounted chair, similar to a chair on a bass boat. We went out into the bush where we easily spotted the ever present Impala. We didn’t stop for them since we had hundreds of photos of them from Kenya. It wasn’t long before we came upon a pride of lions with 2 males which were brothers, some females and young. When we arrived they were all sleeping in an open area so we had no bushes interfering with the view. Suddenly they started yawning and stretching and got up to walk around. One male walked right past the rear of the vehicle, about 3 feet from us, and didn’t pay any attention to the humans in their midst. Their diet doesn’t include Homo Sapiens so we were safe. We followed them for awhile hoping they might be looking for a kill but, no luck there. We kept driving around spotting Wildebeest, many birds and other wildlife. Suddenly a brisk wind came up and blasted us with dust so fiercely we had to stop for a few minutes. As we drove on the rain started and we had to don ponchos that are carried in the cars. The rain & wind didn’t let up and it was nearly dark so we returned to the lodge.