So we woke early and dressed in our new indian attire to present to the children their school achievement awards. It was such a lovely day, and so sweet to shake all of the childrens hands and posing for all the photos infront of the huge audience of parents.
The kids are so proud of their achievements and they should be - there were so many international awards!!! - so many children gettign prizes for scores of 97 - 98 and 99% in the subject exams. But we have a soft spot for the awards of best fancy dress and best handwriting too!
So we thought we were done for the day, and came back to the office as always - its got A/C :D
- and Kirit suddenly presented us with an opportunity...if we were up for sleeping rough, we could leave that afternoon in the hope to see Asian lions at Gir National Park!!! - This is originally where i wanted to go for my birthday weekend! But as the lions had been spotted the night before, figured it wasn't worth waiting three weeks.
So we swapped indian tops for army combat trousers and boots...we also packed FAR too much for one night, as you probably would have guessed if you have ever been away with me before.
We were taken into this little village to meet 'the lionman!' (no not the one on t.v.) and he accompanied us into the wild along with his son, Kirit and Mallay in the army jeep...with no windows... and no guns...no protection at all from the wild lions...except for Mallay...so basically no protection at all!!! It didnt take long - 10 minutes in and we had spotted our first male lion! which wasn't difficult as it was about 3 meters away from the jeep! - remember the NO PROTECTION!
He stopped and stared but after a minute of human-watching he was back to being completely oblivious of our presence. It was really exciting doing our best safari style filming, but you had to strike the balance between using headlights or flashlight, cause you do not want to anger the lion... When you're filming it, and we tailed this first one for a good ten minutes, you have to remind yourself you're seeing the real Asian lion, in the wild... it doesn't sink in at first how lucky that makes us - aha, but luck is my middle name!
In total, i think we saw 5 males and 2 sleepy females, was it just me or did the females look bigger? - actually i think she was smaller but she was further away, that might have had somethign to do with it - lol. After watching them fall asleep, we decided to leave them to it and try and find our way out of the wilderness (we'd been off roading for a good hour). As we left, we just so hapened to drive past the amputated foot that the lions hadn't eaten from their kill the night before.
Everyone we've spoken to since has reminded us how lucky we were, most people go to Gir and come back with nothing except alot of dust. We'll get the Videos up on Facebook ASAP!
So once we got back to the Lionmans house, and after alot of spitting (on his part - gross! like, seriously disgusting, can't-get-over-it-nasty!) the family set us up with beds on the rooftop. I was almost as excited about this part as I was about safari-ing - i'd never had the whole sleeping under the stars experience so it was a first for me. And it was so cool waking up in the morning as the sky was lightening and the nearby temple was playing out it's music for morning prayers. The sunrise that day has been the most picture-perfect moment so far...
Although i foudn it a little cold, it was quite a pretty view, especially when Kirit decided to point out the places (that were only about 10 meters from where we were sleeping) where leopards, lions and panthers have been spotted harrassing the villagers... unfortunately we didnt see anything, other than a whole lot of chipmunks climbing the trees and some reallt pretty birds. We headed out pretty soon after sunrise to go back to Gir to find some spotted deer...in fact pretty soon after we past the entrance point we spotted bambi and its family :) it was really nice to see deer so close up! We reached the top of a hill...and needed to use washroom facilities..that were obviously unavailable...i wont say no more...i will especially not mention the 20 odd guys that decided to walk up the hill when vikki was peeing elsewhere... good times... oh yeah, that was a reeeal treat... hmph.
But i had some good laughs the rest of the day. There was one point when Kirit, Mallay, Bry and the Lion Man had gone for naps in the shade, so I was in the Lion Mans house with a family of about 8, only two of which spoke very basic English. One was 18, the other, who we nicknamed Danny Zuko based on his suave 70's style outfit (all the rage in India right now!) was 20. And it was this guy that made my day twice over! Firstly, because when the conversation fell quiet, he came out with "I am very handsome." Uhhh...... "In India, I am very handsome." Well.... *Completely seriously expression on his face* how nice for you.... lol. "Please, take my picture...." Ha ha. And after that, a classic moment when he expressed (and i somehow understood) that he didnt understand the lyrics of this really cool song he'd downloaded on his phone, and could i tell him what it meant... Ahem. Cue music..... "SMACK THAT - GET ON THE FLOOR, SMACK THAT - GIVE ME SOME MORE"
To quote the real Danny Zuko - Oh you make me laugh, Ha... Ha.. Ha.
I wish i was there to have witnessed that once in a lifetime experience... So after my VERY sweaty nap! lol we had some "chop" :) and made our way back home. Which was quite fun in itself...chatting about movies, spotting blue buck, chasing blue buck...(Asias largest breed of antelope) and pouring water down vikki... childish but equally as funny... :) Twas a good couple of days but i dont think i've ever appreciated a shower more in my life, or ever will.
