Shadow of the Sun - Audioslave

Serengeti Vulture

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Day 2 of the Safari was very different than the rest.  We mostly drove all day on seeing the crater from above and animals here and there as we drove through the Ngorogoro Conservation area headed toward the Serengeti.  I was starting to really feel the sun without the roof shade that every other truck seemed to have and the picture of the vehicle I saw had and a dispute started amongst the passengers and guide about us seeing the full on wildebeest migration.  The guide was now telling us something different than what we were sold.  Imagine that.  Even Akuna Matata wasn't cutting it when tempers flared late that night at the campsite.  Yeah, I lost my patience but it turned out to be really a language issue with the guide and I.  Another guest was the real culprit and troublemaker.  I know, for once I wasn't the biggest pain in the butt of the group.

Serengeti

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Well all that restlessness about day 2 disappeared about 5 minutes after I closed my eyes for the night.  We  had seen our first lions earlier that day.  2 females resting in the plains a couple of hundred yards away.  Not a great sighting but at least I wasn't going to get shut out.  So when the guide says there are lions near the campsite and not to leave the tent late at night.  I figure he's getting payback after the argument.  Nope.  I'm lying in the dark with only a thin nylon tent between nature and I when I hear the deepest, fiercest sound I've ever experienced.  It was a primal, guttural roar that sounded both extremely close and distant at the same time.  It was definitely a lion.  After a second or two the roar's echo faded away and silence filled the camp again, until nervous giggling filled nearby tents.  There's nothing like being thrilled and scared to death right before bedtime.  I finally doze off but it turns out I was wrong.  There's actually nothing like being woken up in the middle of the night with a louder, deeper roar that sounds like its' right outside your tent.  Then to hear heavy panting right outside.  Yeah, it makes getting back to sleep a little interesting.  So I survive just fine and the guide says I imagined the panting.  No animals in the camp.  Maybe so, but I'm sticking with my memory and the better story.