It started out innocently enough; we just wanted a nice safe place to eat lunch!
We had spent the morning on the short-grass plains of the Serengeti during the calving season. Zebra, wildebeast and gazells were spotted all over the plains. They had gathered here every year since who-knows-when to give birth while the plains were covered with short, lawn-like fresh grass that was very nutritious, impossible for a predator to hide in and easy for young calves to make escape runs without tripping.
But it was time for lunch and a chance to stretch our legs so we looked for a Kopje (Co-pea). Kopjes are remnants of an ancient mountain range that stick up through the serengeti plains. They are very picturesque because the are formed of hard granite and are the only place where you find trees and bushes sticking up above the plains….a good place to get some shade. And, oh yes, a good place for a leopard or a pride of lions to laze about and survey the surrounding plains. Caution is definitely needed!
In short order we found a nice small kopje with some shade trees and drove around it several times looking carefully for cats or blind spots. Finally our guide decided it was safe although there was one small spot that we could not see into.
We disembarked, ate our lunches, and about half the group slumped down into the knee-high grass for a nap while the rest joined me for a photo lecture under a shade tree. It was a drowsey scene and I was talking in a very low voice.
Peggy, is one of those people with rosey cheeks and a perpetual smile! I’ve know her for years and never seen her in anything but the best of humor. But she is not a lightweight and racing lions would not be something you would expect her to consider in her wildest dreams. Anyway, at this point in time Peggy felt the call of nature and decided to trudge up toward the top of the kopje to find a little privacy.
Was there a lion there? Or did a lion enter from the plains from the other (blind) side of the kopje while we ate? We will never know.
The first thing I heard was Peggy’s voice screaming, “Simba, Simba, Simba”, and looking up, saw Peggy running faster than I ever imagined possible, straight down the hill and coming in at an intersecting angle was a huge male lion that it was obvious was going to get to Peggy before she even had a remote chance of reaching the vehicles!
So what saved Peggy? Well, suddenly, about twelve hidden people jumped up out of the grass screaming and hollaring at the lion who damn near had a heart attack. He thought he had an easy kill and all of a sudden all hell broke loose with people everywhere. He skidded to a halt and couldn’t get out of there fast enough! But it was close: I figure he was not more that ten or twelve feet from Peggy when he aborted. If he had leaped, she would at least have been badly injured.
That night in camp, I asked her how she felt about the experience: she replied, “How many people can say they survived an attack by a lion?” Pretty nifty answer, huh? Me? When I got home I added another two million bucks to my liability policy!
Most exciting blog I’ve ever read. Keep up the good work.