Face to face with a lion

We went on a game drive this morning in an open sided four by four. As soon as we got out into the bush we saw a group of 4 elephants bathing, and it was much better than our previous safaris as we were able to get right in close.

About half an hour in we saw a female lion sitting under a tree. We stopped just three or four metres away from her, and she slowly turned to face us. I held eye contact with her for a good twenty seconds or so, and then turned away. There was a frisson of excitement from knowing that she could have bounded into the truck and eaten us if she had chosen to. It was the only game drive I've ever been on where we were so exposed to the animals.

The park we were in, Chobe National Park, has the highest concentration of elephants in the world. At one point we were waiting by the side of a small lake, and a number of elephants started walking towards us from a hill on our left. The small group bacame a larger one, then a few dozen, until there was over fifty elephants walking all around us towards the lake. They were bathing and drinking and making noises and some were even fighting. The view was incredible.