Merely 5 feet away, a real lioness eye to eye with our lioness (my wife!)

Do not believe me? Read on to see how this happened...

My wife and I were so hooked on 'the wild' that practically every Saturday/ Sunday during the winter of 2014, we were in some wildlife reserve. Trips to Pilanesberg were as frequent as going to the mall. My wife, a pleasant Lioness (after her morning cup of tea!), never failed to attract Lionesses coming out to meet her in any preserve. I do not know if it has anything to do with her being born a Leo but she has crazy luck when it comes to meeting Lions (not calling myself one!! I mean real ones)

It all started with this particular experience which I am about to narrate. Having entered the Pilanesberg wildlife reserve early in the morning, we lazily wandered all around, spotting a rhino here and a giraffe there. By mid afternoon, the sun was blazing hot and most of the animals had retired to some shady spot or other. We, too, were planning to get a bite to eat... Everything was calm and quiet. Suddenly ...

𝓐 𝓵𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓮𝓼𝓼 𝓪𝓹𝓹𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓮𝓭 𝓸𝓷 𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓵𝓮𝓯𝓽...

She was about 15 feet away and walking straight towards us. I braked and we just sat in our car - mesmerized. Sweat beads formed on our brows. The lioness did not break her stride and walked straight towards our car. What was her intention, we wondered. Feeling reasonably safe in our car, we tried to relax and wait.My wife fumbled with her iPhone to unlock it...

I could not fathom if she wanted to take a picture or call someone to scream for help. A lioness that she is at heart, it was probably the former. I just sat there, looking at the two lionesses look at each other and letting my camera shoot the strange encounter.

𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓶𝓪𝓻𝓬𝓱 𝓹𝓪𝓼𝓽...

The lioness looked straight into our eyes for a second and without breaking her stride again, whirled majestically to her left. She passed within 3 feet of our car. I could not even film her without getting the side view mirror of my car in the frame. You can see the side view mirror of the car just as the lioness passes by it towards the right of the frame.

𝓛𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓮𝓼𝓼 𝓲𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓯𝓻𝓸𝓷𝓽...

Skirting our car and continuing in her royal rhythm, she passed the front of our car. Once again, she was so close that the white bonnet of my car filled half of the frame as I filmed her. Hands shaking with excitement, I mumbled something unintelligible, my lips and throat totally dry. My wife just grunted, oblivious to my mumbling - her eyes fixed on the lioness.

𝓐𝓭𝓲𝓮𝓾 𝓵𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓮𝓼𝓼...

Finally, after moments, which seemed to pass so slowly that they felt like hours, the lioness walked away - towards the Mankwe river. Perhaps she was looking for a drink in the blazing heat. Perhaps she had plans to stock impalas who were flocking near the river - who knows? Even my brave-heart lioness could not dare to go ask the real lioness!