9-29 And now we are stuck

After a little break we started out for the afternoon game drive. We saw more giraffes and impalas, found another small herd of elephants and watched them graze. Lemaron drove around to the rivers edge and from out if the bushes, a lioness emerged.

She walked toward us and passed not five feet from the window of the cruiser. What a rush to have this alpha predator so close.

We backed up a bit and watched her plop down to rest. Lemaron said that he could tell by the way she was breathing that she had just eaten. We were in a pretty tight space near the lion and there were other tour cruisers around so Lemaron made his way around some trees. Or tried to. The wheels were spinning but we weren’t moving. He turned off the engine, turned to us and said, “And now we are stuck.”

This is where that cooperative spirit between drivers comes in handy. Another vehicle pulled up near us and the drivers conferred. They concluded there wasn’t enough room in front to pull us out, so they moved behind us and gave us a good push. It sounds simple, but between the conferring and setting up the cruiser, this operation took about 20 minutes. More conferring, this time by cellphone, and we headed across the park where several other cruisers were sitting.

They had found three more lionesses. Lemaron maneuvered into a spot and we got to see them panting and resting after their kill. About a kilometer farther we joined an enormous group of cruisers that had found a lion. He was hiding in the bush with the remains of a kill by his side. Wow!

We started back towards the lodge because it was getting very close to the closing time of the reserve, when suddenly we stopped and Lemaron very calmly said, “cheetah.” She was not 40 feet away and walking towards us. It was such a surreal moment. There’s this elusive animal headed towards our vehicle. She passed not 3 feet from our window. Just incredible!

So now we’re very far from the gate and the sun is starting to set. We flew over these

absurdly bumpy roads getting tossed around like romaine in a Caesar salad.

Lemaron slowed down and stopped so we could capture a shot of the picture postcard sunset. Then off again. Lights on, racing over the bumpy roads, we reached the gates about an hour after closing time. Poor Lemaron had to endure a bit of chastising from the guard. Okay, out of the Samburu and down the road to the Shaba where our lodge was. Remember that filling-dislodging road I described yesterday? Well, tonight we were driving it at breakneck speed in the dark! It’s a testament to Lemaron’s skill that we weren’t at all worried. we just held on for dear life.

Back at the lodge we made our plan for the next day, went back to the room to shake the

dust off, then headed for the bar for a refreshing G&T.

More photos are coming, but wifi is exceedingly slow and I just spent 25 minutes waiting for one photo to load, so I'll cry uncle and share more later.