Our last night in Africa. We've seen some gorgeous sights, heard some amazing sounds, traveled to some humble places, caught up with some much-missed lions and friends, and have met and made some new ones along the way. At the same time we leave feeling conflicted, worn out, let down, and haunted by that nagging question: To what end?
In ALERT founder Andrew Conolly is a dogged determination to overcome whatever obstacle is in front of him; a drive that can easily be mistaken for stubborn foolishness at first glance. At the same time, there can also be a frustrating amount of contradiction.
The same day we went to make some field recordings of the lions roaring, we were invited at the last minute to return to BPG for a midday lion feed. It's intense being on the other side of the fence and having a half-dozen or so 400-pound hungry male cats running full speed directly at you. An E-ticket ride if ever there was one.
What can't be accurately described with words or photos are the lush bush sounds at Antelope Park. Each night there was a cacophony of croaking frogs loud enough to drown out most everything else. Except, that is, the sounds of lions roaring up at BPG. This time I was determined to capture both, and brought recording equipment to do just that.
While we only had one walk with Penya and Paza, and saw Lewa and Laili all but too briefly, we were able to spend both an afternoon and a morning session inside the Ngamo release site, and it certainly had to be the highlight of our working visit to Antelope Park.
I took a grand total of three pictures of Lewa and Laili, all of them of the former's butt. It wasn't my intention, but considering we spent only about five minutes with the pair and weren't allowed any closer than ten meters to them, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
While we were visiting Antelope Park we had the unexpected privilege to spend time with Disa, Dala, and Dingane - three chubby little bundles of fluff that were still wobbly on their feet and could barely squeak out their little eowwws.
A few photos (panoramic and otherwise) of some non-lion sights at Antelope Park.
Some video of our morning walk with Paza + Penya.
5:15am my watch keeps telling me. I throw back the covers and tiptoe out onto the cold deck of our river tent. We're slated for an early morning walk with Paza and Penya. It's been a year and we're both anxious and excited to see how these two lovely ladies have grown in our absence.
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