In 2005, I safaried in southern Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Namibia.  In Botswana, at our first lodge, I was suffering some from Jet-Lag and got up well before dawn.  I like getting up early – you never know what you will discover.  The lodge had a boardwalk from my tent down to the dining area.  The dining area was in the open and on a bluff overlooking a man-made pond.  The pond provided reliable drinking water for animals and excellent viewing for people.  So I took my camera and headed down to the dining area. It was so early, none of the cooks were there yet. 

As I walked along, I had two thoughts.  First, I could hear a hyena in the distance.  It was still sufficiently dark, you could bump into anything, so I moved carefully.  Second, I remember being told that this lodge was apparently build on an elephant trail.  When the elephants first discovered the boardwalk, they smashed it to pieces.  But, I made it down to the dining area without running into anything dangerous.  The dining area was quiet, so I sat down to await dawn and see if anything interesting happened. 

I wasn’t there long before I head a noise on the other side of the kitchen.  From the sound, it was clearly a large animal, and I moved cautiously around the corner of the kitchen.  The sun was almost up, and the world was turning from Black into Gray.  What I discovered was a herd of elephants moving slowing from down hill below the kitchen around towards the watering hole.  Eventually, it was clear this was a herd of females and young.  As the sun came up they arrived at the pool, got a drink, and wandered up the next hill.  I got a few shots with my camera, and by the time the cooks and other tourists arrived at the dining area, the elephants were long gone.  I love having this kind of experience, even if it is all mine, and I cannot share it. 

From Botswana we flew a bush plane to Zimbabwe, and found the most interesting guide I have ever seen.  At one point, he picked up a fresh ball of elephant droppings, put his finger in it and tasted it.  He claimed he could tell the sex of the elephant by the taste – sweet for a female and salty for a male.  He offered everyone a taste, and got no takers.  But the point of this story is about a lion and this guide. 

We stopped to watch an older female, a young male, and a young female lion.  They weren’t doing much, until the young female got up and strolled over to the young male with the clear intent of attracting his attention.  No luck.  The male wanted nothing to do with her.  After that, she wandered over towards our vehicle.  It was an open Land Rover, and she looked for all the world like she’d like to get in and go for a ride.  When she was within five or six feet of the door, the guide leaned out and quietly shook his finger at the young lioness and said something to the effect of “NO, NO, BAD KITTY.”

The lioness stopped in her tracks and looked about sheepishly for a moment, and then when back to lay down beside the older lioness.  For a second there, I thought sure we were going to pick up an additional passenger.