We have discovered a problem. A GOOD problem, but one we hadn’t thought of. Both Micki ( somuchadventuring.com ) and I have realized that there are too many pictures, etc. to write daily entries. So we may be breaking things down a bit more.

We arrived at Ol Pejeta Concervancy and Sweetwaters Serena Camp, our home for three nights. The tents are situated next to a watering hole, and it was nonstop animals coming to get water – impala, warthogs, Cape buffalo, zebra, tons of birds, and our first rhino, both black and souther white. And that was just looking out from our tents.

After settling in for a bit we took an afternoon game drive, and while we saw a lot of animals, including a zebra closeup…

and a giraffe…

…for me the highlight was watching a lioness munch on a warthog. It was amazing, and while seeing something like that in a documentary, narrated by David Attenborough of course, is pretty cool… it is something different when it is RIGHT THERE. Without getting too graphic, you could see and hear everything – the snap of bones, the growls as another lioness got a bit too close, and when it paused to raise its blood streaked head and stare at you? Even being totally safe (?) standing in the vehicle I admit my fight, flight, or freeze impulse kicked in a tiny bit… and it was NOT one of the first two. If I had dropped my phone I decided that it would be staying right there until she and her friend went far, far away.

Silly commentary aside, it was a breathtaking experience. Even standing in the vehicle, or perhaps because of it, I had a tangible feeling, a clear understanding of our place in this world. Outside of our human-created environments – our houses, our cars, our communities – and without our tools – I admit guns come quickly to mind in this instance – we are so very clearly not the apex animal. Given different circumstances, take away our tools, and we are quite vulnerable and weak. All it takes is for a lioness with blood on its chin to calmly stare at you without fear or concern to make you feel incredibly small and vulnerable.

Woke twice in the night, to what turned out to be jackals and hyenas. Unreal, to say the least.