“Remain in your seats! Speak slowly! In no case leave the car!’ - our ranger whispered the instructions that all of us already knew by heart. "We are extremely lucky! You see - all the pride is resting on the road!" - Leo couldn’t help expressing his emotions. He deserved his fame as one of the best big cat finders - people tell that it is because of his name.
Lions were enjoying a sunbath and didn’t pay any attention at us. “It is only until you are keeping
seated and aren’t leaving the car” - reminded Leo, again. “Lions perceive a car as a large and smelly animal and are not interested in it. But as soon as you are moving independently, they may consider you as a threat”. Actually, nobody wanted to check that: we didn’t have a doubt that the kings of savanna won’t accept any kind of disrespect. Inside of our brains, unlimited admiration went head to head with the sense of mortal danger and has blown up like a firework of inexpressible emotions.
seated and aren’t leaving the car” - reminded Leo, again. “Lions perceive a car as a large and smelly animal and are not interested in it. But as soon as you are moving independently, they may consider you as a threat”. Actually, nobody wanted to check that: we didn’t have a doubt that the kings of savanna won’t accept any kind of disrespect. Inside of our brains, unlimited admiration went head to head with the sense of mortal danger and has blown up like a firework of inexpressible emotions.
This picture is always alive and bright in my consciousness. The big pride that is resting on the road. Humans and lions in a couple of steps from each other observing sunset in the bush. Life is worth living because of such moments.
While I was looking at those powerful, self-confident creatures, I felt a tingly sense of frailness of their power. There was a time when lions used to live almost everywhere on the planet, even in Europe. Now, in all over the world, there are just about 30,000 lions, and the efforts of the best people in the world are aimed for avoiding the replacement of the word “endangered” with the word “extinct”. Because the lion’s roar is an integral part of the bush, and without it, the bushes will be dumb and lifeless. Because my grand-children must, just must experience a sunset in a company of pride.
Suddenly we all shuddered: all the pride, on cue, rose up and proudly marched by us vanishing in the vast frontiers of the bush.