You’ve all probably done it. You’re on holiday somewhere, chasing down that great photograph of a lion or whatever gets you excited, and finally you see your first one. In my case, this is 1994 on one of my trips to Kenya. I was with my wife on a self organised safari holiday, no zebra striped minibuses – just us and our two wheel drive Datsun which could barely clear the raised grass down the middle of the dirt roads (in fact, I had to get out and push on more than one occasion just so that I could get the car moving again, not a good look when there might be lions watching me). We saw our first lion of the trip. It’s in the next photo – can you see it? We could, just, a long way away. Still, you never know if you’ll see another so you take the photo. Even though it’s the old 35mm days where each picture costs you money you take it, and more, just to record that you saw a lion.
Did you see it? It had our pulses racing despite it being a fleeting glimpse somewhere too far away for my little camera.
Oh well, you’ve seen what you wanted but you are a little disappointed. That may be as good as it gets.
Our next lion……..
and the menaces that pinched his meal. Oh yes, they were lining up!
Then the next lions doing their thing
And relaxing without the usual cigarette
Is there a lesson here? Probably not, other than to keep on going. You never know if that great encounter is just around the corner. I guess this could be a metaphor for life in general – just keep on trying.
Patrick Hedges 