Camping with lions
The night was dark at the Lobo campsite in the Serengeti Park in Tanzania. Although
there were many stars visible in the sky, their light was not enough to see more
than 20 meters in the darkness. It was impossible to see anything of the large valley,
which extended into a low range of mountains. The few buffalo's and zebra's who could
be seen grazing during the day and who had to be there were not recognisable in the
darkness. Probably from their site they were able to see the two groups -
As it was still early -
It was not so quiet however. Every now and then the game was disturbed by the jackals
who were making their way through the bushes to the refuse dump bordering the camp
site. It was a hole in the ground where the cooks dumped the remainders of the food.
As it was the dry season and not many wildebeests were available, the jackals liked
this supplement to their usual diet. When shining with a torch in the bushes, you
could see their small glittering green eyes, as they also stopped running and turned
their heads to the campsite, fascinated by us and the lights. It was even a bit uneasy,
so when they came too close or made too much noise, those of our group who were sitting
with their back to them -
Suddenly, the noise in the bushes became more intense. The jackal cried and ran in
the opposite direction, away from the refuse dump. We all jumped up, but fortunately
they did not come after us. Obviously, something else had attracted their attention.
"I see a monkey", Pauline cried, 'they must be quarrelling. Relieved we returned
to the game. But few seconds later it turned out that 5 days of safari had not been
enough to distinguish a monkey from a lion on 20 meters distance. The guide of the
French group had jumped in his car and turned on the head-
The car started to chase the lion and it appeared that there were three more just next to the campsite. We were in real danger and the French ladies started to panic.
At this point all of us agreed that it made no sense to finish the Scrabble game.
'Hide in the jeep', our guide screamed, 'but don't run otherwise they will think
you are a prey'. Swift-
After a while the jeep returned. Carefully, we got out of our car, because it was still too dark to see whether all four lions had really disappeared. We returned to our tents and quickly closed the zips, while the real heroes, our guides Twahu, Philippe and Amadi, installed some additional lights and parked the cars in front of the most isolated tent on the left.
The French group decided that they had enough adventure for today. Although their
guides begged them to stay and assured them that there was no problem -
And we? Brave as we were we stayed in our tents, dreaming about the fact that although lion in scrabble is only 4 points, if you have four of them it makes already 16. Although brave? The next morning there appeared to be many signs of toilet visits remarkably close to the tents.
The next day we left Lobo campsite. Just after our departure, we noticed at least 8 lions (32 points) laying in the sun. There were zebra's nearby, but they did not start a hunt, as if they were saying 'we were not allowed to look at you last night, so now you stay there in your safe car and have a look at the zebra's.
Serengeti, October 1999.
Music: Spannend ©
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