Well the next morning we were up bright and early to walk with the lions...yes, you read that right - you can actually go on a stroll with 2 young lions, no cages, whips or guns involved !! This group is breeding them, and rehoming them and using the tourist dollars from the walk to help fund it. We had 2 brothers about 18 months old who were quite frisky.
It was amazing to actually sit with them, pat them and not get eaten. They were pretty bloody cocky too - pretty much ignoring us (tasteless?) humans and acting like kings of the jungle. We were hoping one Austrian tourist who simply did not listen to instructions would get eaten - but alas Karma was not such a severe mistress today.
We then headed back to our lodge to go down to the dreaded pre-departure meeting - where we would meet our fellow overlanders - with great fear that it would be like a big brother crowd, or a bunch of 21 yr olds ...
I will try and give you our first impressions of the crew - as after 3 weeks we have a slighty different take...
Lizzie - was the guide. Young, 23 and a bloody Paddy ! She also had the most severe case of mosquito bites ever recorded, was recovering from Malaria, and had a bit of her face rotting off where some bug she squashed released its goo that apparently causes that... so she has some issues to say the least.
Marty - we met Marty as he was staying at the Tokkie lodge with us...fresh from Sth America, Marty was an Aussie, suffering severe flu and with the most disgusting toenails you could picture. Marty was young, and Josie and I quickly realised in need of a mother to travel with - seemingly unable to perform simple functions the rest of us take for granted !
The boys - Dave, Josh, Ben, Andy and Dan - 4 aussies and a pom travelling together. All around 30, except for Andy who is 40ish - typical aussies. Dan was bright red from being over zealous in the UK on a sunbed before travelling - Josh was also neon pink, having underestimated the effects of Doxy (malaria pills) and the African sun. Dave liked his food and Andy didn't really say much - the quiet one of the group. And you could see these lot would be the class clowns.
This will take too long, so the rest quickly: Sarah - a loud Kiwi girl, Chris - a canadian eh, Paul a californian who sounded like the Dude from the Big Lebowski, Steph and Jenny - 2 american sisters, Nat & Laurie : a couple(aussie/kiwi) who have been travelling for 6 months, Kate - a young quiet aussie girl, Mirande - a loud aussie girl, Marine (x2) - two french girls, later named big Frenchy and little Frenchy.
So it was predominantly and aussie crowd with a few foreigners thrown in. We all then went down for a swim and a bite too eat. To be honest, first impressions were good - they seemed like an alright bunch. Several of them had also been travelling on the bus for 5 weeks beforehand - having come down from Nairobi/Uganda...so they were well used to the truck.
So Monday, we all piled down - stuffed our backpacks in the truck and hit the road...
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