On our first afternoon at Sabi Sabi we had seen two white rhinos and almost ran over a lion lounging in the road. We had been promised a surprise by our guide and it was getting into the late afternoon hours. How could it get much better?

From the place where we saw the two rhinos and the lion, we traveled the dirt track another fifteen minutes when we came upon a dry stream. The stream bed was about four or five feet below the track. The guide eased the Land Rover over the embankment down onto the stream bed and shut off the engine. There, along the edge of the dry stream bed, not more than 20 feet from the vehicle, lay a mother lion nursing four of the most cuddly looking cubs, no larger than a common house cat. There were also two male lions sleeping on the sand about twenty-five yards down stream. None of the lions paid us any attention. We watched in quiet fascination as the cubs nursed.

   Four Lion Cubs having evening meal.            Meal's over. Oh, look! We have company.
 

After about five minutes the cubs had apparently gotten their fill and began to look around. They spotted the vehicle and seemed quite curious. One got up and started to come toward the open truck.  The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I thought, "What would happen if the cub tried to climb on the vehicle or went underneath it? Would the mother lion come to the rescue and feel that her cubs were threatened by our presence?" The male lions were also stirring from their nap. The guide had his rifle, but shooting the mother lion would be a death sentence for the four cubs too. It would have been a tragedy. Peggy and I had the same thoughts simultaneously. She expressed her concern to the guide. He asked if we would like to leave. We replied that we would and he started the engine. He gunned the engine, and, in four wheel drive, started backing up the embankment which we had just come down.  The wheels spun uselessly in the sand and gravel of the stream bed. We seemed to be stuck.

(Read more in "Stuck in the Sand", posted 09/08/2007)