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Bush first-timer

  • March 29, 2014 | Marisa Silva

I’m a city person. Born in Buenos Aires, I grew up in an apartment block and never played on the street because it was dangerous. I feel at ease in a library and I work in an office. Every time I get a bad mosquito bite, I think I will die. I don’t know how this happened but my husband convinced me to buy a safari lodge.

Without much thinking, I find myself in the middle of Madikwe game reserve, between the bushveld and the Kalahari dessert. At the lodge, the staff is extremely welcoming. They sing a song for us and have prepared a high tea with hot cheese puffs, banoffee pie and other delicacies. I’m offered a mimosa. Easy, I thought.

The next minute we are asked to board a safari vehicle, a totally open land cruiser, no deck, no doors, no windows, no separation between me and the animals. I try to calm myself down thinking that there are no known statistics about tourists being eaten by lions. I turn to my husband, who is a mathematician. He is exhilarating, already seated next to our field guide. Considering that we have already signed all the paperwork and invested our savings in this lodge, I just take a deep breath and jump into the vehicle. The engine starts and, apart from the bumps as in Madikwe you are allowed to drive off road, I feel an unexpected calmness, probably due to the silence and the bush smells around me. I feel optimistic until we discover a family of lions, a pride as I learnt later.

Oh my God! How close are we going to get? Our field guide was trying to impress us by getting a real close sighting. The lions, adults and cubs, were cute, a breath-taking view, but just a jump away from us. I shyly mumble that we’ve seen enough, but I’m completely ignored by the field guide, the other guests and my husband. I just close my eyes and start praying. I will never forget the powerful feeling of my first lions.

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