Lions and elephants

ROAR
“What was that?”
ROAR
“That!”
Scream from the girl’s tent on our right
“Girls did you hear that?”
“YES IT WAS LIONS!”
“COOL!”
“NO ITS NOOOT!”

Yes that night was a fun one. As mentioned we saw lions just outside of our camp that evening, and continued to joke about the possibility of lions and other things coming into the camp while eating dinner. Dinner was served in a little hut, but, that little hut was surrounded on all sides by a strong metal cage (slightly thought provoking to be sure) especially when the guide calmly replied that it has been 10 years since a lion BROKE INTO a tent – but that we were not to worry as the canvas was lion proof (now thoroughly reassured – wibble!)

So after a communal trip to the toilets, we all settled down for the night, ok we all tried to sleep. Ok we all went into out tents to listen intently to the noises of the night. Yes the first noise was roaring. It sounded like there we several animals roaring together, I have no idea how far away they were, but never the less, it was an amazing experience. I really expected to wake up in the morning and find that Virginia MacKenna was in the camp for breakfast the sounds outside of our camp were so Born Free.

Unfortunately the roaring didn’t last long, but the smiles on Mayhem’s and my own face were enough to make our heads fall in half. Then we heard a crack!

Fear, terror, abject sense of self perseveration, whatever, we both frozen. The cracking and rustling continued, this time not from some far flung corner of the Serengetti with the noise coming into camp on the wind, but very much from the edge of camp, in fact I was sure that I could see the offending tree through our mesh window. We both looked at one another and whispered excitedly together “ELEPHANTS”
Yes that night we had elephants walking through our camp! We could not see any of the offending pachyderms, but we sure could hear them!

There was no suggestion that lions actually entered our camp that night, but it was certainly the most exhilarating night of my life under canvas!