On our first afternoon at Sabi Sabi we were treated to a surprise by our guide. We had the good fortune to see a lion with four nursing cubs. It was a wonderful experience but we had a dilemma. We got stuck in the sand of the dry river bed.

My apologies to the reader for not having any photos of all of this, but my mind was on getting out of there and away from those lions. If we were truly stuck in the sand, what would our options be? Ideas raced around in or minds.

We were cautioned to never get out of the vehicle, and with three grown lions nearby, including a nursing mother, we would not dream of doing so. That precluded attaching a cable from the winch on the front of the vehicle to a tree to pull us out. We could radio to the base camp and have another vehicle come get us. Could they get close enough for us to transfer to the other vehicle without getting out or causing so much fuss that the lions would become more than curious? Would the rescue vehicle get stuck too?

After several tries to back up the stream bank, the guide decided to take a different tack. The tracker, still sitting in his seat on the front bumper, not ten feet from the lions, directed the guide to move back and forth as much as he could without threatening the mother lion and her cubs. The guide managed to turn the vehicle up-stream. We were then able to move, even though the wheels still spun some in the sand in four wheel drive. After moving about 100 yards up-stream we found a low embankment and were able to drive out of the stream bed, much to our collective relief. 

As we started back toward the camp we all agreed that it was a unique experience that we would never forget. For our first day at Sabi Sabi we felt that we had already gotten our money's worth. It was a wonderful and memorable start to our vacation at Sabi Sabi.

(Read more in "The Sundowner" published 09/10/2007)