Every great dream begins with a dreamer

Once you haven’t written a blog for a while, it’s really hard to get back into the swing of things; especially when it’s hard at the best of times! As you can tell, I took a long break, doing a lot of sewing and waiting for word on some exciting new prospects of travel, then Christmas kinda got in the way (in a good way though). So am going to try and get back into finishing up some tales from my last adventure, so we can move on to the next stage. Bear with me, it’s been a while, and I seem to have forgot a lot of things, that is of course until I’m watching something; like NatGeo and all of a sudden yell at Tom, “oh, did I tell you about such and such?” Nooooo, oops, sorry Hon. So I guess I left off at the arrival at the Alert Lion Project, and you may like to hear a bit more about it…do you?

Our first morning we were lead down a trail to the Boma, (where the tourist “clients’ are taken when they arrive for their lion walks) for our own private introduction to the project (at least from a clients view). It was a beautiful building, situated in a clearing at the side of the Zambezi River and was also used by the Thorntree Lodge Elephant Ride clients for their introductions.





Monitor Lizard I spotted making a dash across the lawn.

We sat through about a ¾ hour presentation on what the Alert program is trying to accomplish, with video of the lions and how things have, so far, progressed. We then headed back to the volunteer house for breakfast after which we were off on our first lion encounter. As we passed out of our small enclosed area, (fenced [can we call a short chicken wire and 1X2 stakes a fence] to keep out those pesky Hippos at night and the meandering elephants when they are on their feeding breaks) we passed by the home of David Yourdon (presenter of the ITV series Lion Country and Chief Operating Officer of ALERT) and then down a short path to an area they call Bristol, a newer section of buildings and housing for the regular Lion Encounter staff, interns and offices for the handlers (jealous when I heard they had their own private bathrooms, but not when I saw a FB post from Ellie, one of the interns, that when she returned to her room one evening after we had departed, she was faced with a spitting cobra and once the handlers had removed it for her, a scorpion fell on her out of her thatched ceiling!). So on we went along another short path through the African bush, to where the first of the enclosures were (empty at the time, as they are for the young cubs).

 A short way past we came upon the larger enclosures of the 2 Z’s (Zaria & Zamfara, who we later determined were at the stage where the really didn’t want to be bothered with people to much anymore, time for release), the 2 D’s (Dendi & Damara, my favourite girls, but they too were starting to get a little ornery), as well as the 2 M Z’s (Medoda, the lone male and everyone’s favourite mellow guy, plus Munali and Zambezi 2 more girls).

Lion handlers extraordinaire

Although we stilled called them ‘cubs’ they were all reaching maturity and starting to be a little more difficult to handle. Not long after I left lthe project, I understand they were taken to the release site in the Dambwa Forest enclosures and new cubs are now in residence at the project. The handlers gave us instructions on how to act, the do’s and don’t of the walks. Do NOT have things like scarves, water bottles or anything else hanging from your belts/bodies as the lions would perceive these as toys and want to play (yes with their VERY sharp teeth and claws), walk in the front of the pride calling the cubs, to which most of us felt rather silly, imagine, walking along calling “here cubs, come cubs” when you have a 200 lb or so lion or two a few feet behind you; or calling in the local language of Nanja  - 'Bwela kuno Iwee' (come here you!) or 'Tiye' (let’s go).

During our first week we were only allowed to approach the lions from the back end, carrying our insignificant little sticks, with which we should tap them on the nose, if they got a little too snarly. Always walk with assurance, move to the side if one of the handlers called your name (as the lions would be approaching you from behind at a fast pace, perhaps not a good sign) and especially when rising from petting the lions, to not falter or stumble ('hmmmm', they think, 'must be prey'), the thought which gave me pause, as my back was pretty sore at the time, so I found a very nice, stout stick with a kind of bend at the top like a cane handle and which I subsequently hid every night under a log, so it wouldn’t be picked up by some else; that is until someone mentioned about snakes sleeping under logs, Yikes! My sturdy stick went walk-about a few times without me after that, and I had to use something a bit less sturdy. Consequently, I was a little less adventurous in the petting department.
The handlers then released the ‘cubs’ into their groups (as mentioned above) and different volunteers got their first walk. There were 3 - 4 different, but usual routes used everyday, where we would lead them to through low brush areas and on to the areas called First, Second or Third beach, which were actually just a clearings along the Zambezi River, but made for good photo shoots for the tourists.

Lions are very lazy creatures and when released from their enclosures, knew to head to the main clearing (different for each group) where we would await the clients, the wait some more whilst they were given their orientation and have the first photo op. While we waited for the clients, the lions would flop down, like they had already walked for miles and snooze, or perhaps pay a little attention to a bird or noise they heard in the bush.

You did have to be aware at all times of where each one was, as they could be a teeny bit sneaky and one occasionally would circle around behind us and give a little thought to play time with the humans. There were usually 2 -3 other stops along the routes, preferably for the ‘cubs’, in the shade, where they would again flop down and the clients would be told more information about them and the project and have more time for pictures. The beaches were always the last stop, then we would head back toward the enclosures, leaving the clients at the spot we met them, at which time the ‘cubs’ would become more energetic as they knew they were heading home, and perhaps some food or new toys would be waiting. This was pretty much the routine for the 2 weeks, with us going on at least one walk each day, but on occasion we would get to do 2.

One of the handlers giving an introduction into lion etiquette

Every evening our schedules would be posted in the living room area and everyone would gather to see which group they had for the next day and what else awaited us, like enclosure cleaning, feeding etc. More on that to come.



some of the AI Livingstone group (Inge just in front of me) came for a lion walk and I happened to be designated that day.

Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world. - Harriet Tubman