When you come on safari the guides always say to you not to stand upon vehicles as this breaks the silhouette of the vehicle, that is, the animals will no longer see a 'single' shape but will be able to see individuals. This comes from the view that the animals cannot make out an individual on a vehicle under normal conditions......well that is absolute bollox (excuse my French). Lions at least can certainly pick out individuals on vehicles and we see this all the time, but my close encounter proved this without a shadow of a doubt.
We were heading back to camp one evening and the sun was setting fast and the light was fading even faster. I was on the bait seat (tracker) and another student was driving (or tutor was on the back row next to Rach). As we came onto the plains outside camp we saw the 2 adult females ane the young sub-adult female. Nice sighting :) We followed them for a bit, they on the plains and us driving parallel on the road. They stopped and we pulled forward to the next junction and (with hind-sight, very foolishly) turned across the road junction and effectively across their natural straight line route.
2 of the females (an adult and the younger cat) were play fighting, whilst the second adult was sitting looking at the wildebeast on the other side of the plains. They were about 30 metres or so to our left.
The lone female then got up and started on her path again - as she neared us she took a detour then sent her 5 metres or so around me on the bait seat. She never really took much notice of me which frankly is how I like my lions to be when I'm playing bait!
The other 2 lions were still being frisky and as they got closer the large female (and trust me, this is one huge female lion) suddenly looked up at me and instead of walking past she actually walk towards me, closely followed by the young female. She then stopped right by my feet (don't forget, I'm on bait so am effectively sitting on the bonnet of the car). She just sat down and then stared at me, right into my eyes. Being a tad on the nervous side (!) I just stared straight back at her (I didn't notice but apparently the young female was also staring at me).
The cats eyes were wide, her ears were flat against her head, and her eyebrows were raised - a sign, apparently of defensive aggression. It appears that she wasn't quite sure what I was and whether I was a threat and so came over to investigate. She was ready to strike if I attacked first (hee hee, not likely) but was also currious.
We sat there for a minute or two. The whole car was deathly silence, no one willing to breath or move in case this spooked the lion. I remember the tutor whispering at one point for everyone to stay silent and not move, and telling me not to worry (too late). One of the students was about to take a phot at one point, and i could see the flash pointer on the lion's back, but as he realised how close she was to me he froze too (thankfully he never took the shot as we don't know what this would have resulted in).
When she finally moved off, she went 2 yards, stopped and stared again to make sure I was still safe. Then she followed the other female. Only when she was about 20 metres away did the whole vehicle suddenly start breathing again.
For me, my mind was racing through the whole experience. I was trying to work out what I should do and not do. One thing to do is to stare the lion down, and show her you are not scared. Well, I did this by keeping eye contact (and apparently I did this well) but I can tell you now I was scared and no shame in that either. I was also trying to work out what I should do if she went for me - this is not being dramatic as I (and everyone else in the car) really did think she was going to take a swipe at me.
Rach, in the back was bricking it for me. She really did think I was in big doodoo. The tutor kept whispering to her to stay calm and I would be OK but all she could see was a lion being very interested in her husband.
The tutor, well she'd never seen this behaviour before and so even for her this was new ground. She did think though that the lion was more curious than aggressive and was not on the attack but more on the defence. She did however think the lion was going to take a 'playful' (as she called it) swipe at me, which thankfully she didn't actually do.
The student driving the car went into a bit of shock - he genuinly thought he had put me in the lions mouth. Lets just say he will be thinking about vehicle positioning in future :)
This was the most amazing experience and whilst I can look back on it and say 'wow' I would rather hope it never happens again. I still ove going out to see the lions, and can't wait to walk them, but now I am 100% convinced they know we are individuals and not just a 'single' steal animal on wheels.
And yes, I did need a change of pants afterwards ;)
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