Caron and I had spent our first night in the desert<\/p>\n
Our tent had been positioned at the base of a bare hill<\/p>\n
We had been warned about the lions<\/p>\n
Which had dictated our reasoning<\/p>\n
As Caron slept I sat outside with a rifle<\/p>\n
Aware that a lion could attack without warning<\/p>\n
But I saw no lions and watched the sunrise with a curiosity<\/p>\n
How beautiful the desert was but it was often so deadly<\/p>\n
I had planned our trip with little care<\/p>\n
After reading that a group of Dutch explorers<\/p>\n
Had taken a grand piano into an African desert<\/p>\n
Over two hundred years previously<\/p>\n
After a light breakfast we began our trek<\/p>\n
Caron was carrying a sports bag<\/p>\n
Containing her clothes and a book of prayers<\/p>\n
I was carrying a much larger bag which contained a tent<\/p>\n
And our provisions which I was hoping would last a week<\/p>\n
We were dressed simply in chinos and a white tee shirt<\/p>\n
Caron was wearing leather sandals and for agility I was wearing trainers<\/p>\n
The first day passed with little incident although I was aware<\/p>\n
That some of the many antelope were behaving in an alarmed manner<\/p>\n
Which may have been down to us but might have been an indicator<\/p>\n
That a pride of lions were nearby and waiting to attack<\/p>\n
On our second night we set up just before dusk<\/p>\n
Our tent had been positioned at the base of a bare hill<\/p>\n
We had been warned about the lions<\/p>\n
Which had dictated our reasoning<\/p>\n
As Caron slept I sat outside with a rifle<\/p>\n
Aware that a lion could attack without warning<\/p>\n
There was no sunrise the following morning<\/p>\n
The whole desert was bathed in a very pale half light<\/p>\n
As Caron made coffee on the camp fire<\/p>\n
I remarked that although we could see the sun<\/p>\n
It seemed that it was trapped on the horizon unable to move<\/p>\n
This was an accepted part of life in the desert and indicated that water was nearby<\/p>\n
I had paddled for while and was washing my wretched tee shirt when I heard voices<\/p>\n
In the distance I could see Caron chatting with three people<\/p>\n
Two guys and a girl who I supposed to be their sister<\/p>\n
To their right there was an older man sitting on a rock with a rifle between his knees<\/p>\n
Like me he was aware of the cunning behaviours of desert lions<\/p>\n
After I had put on a fresh tee shirt I walked into the main room<\/p>\n
Which was simply furnished in a faintly colonial style<\/p>\n
Caron was sitting on settee with the two brothers<\/p>\n
Whilst their sister was preparing coffee nearby<\/p>\n
I could not hear their conversation clearly<\/p>\n
But it appeared to be about vacationing in the deserts of Africa<\/p>\n
As I sat on a small wooden chair I noticed that my chinos were still damp<\/p>\n
But nobody else noticed so I ignored the inconvenience<\/p>\n
The older man handed me his handsome rifle and began chatting<\/p>\n
He explained that he and his children visited the deserts of Africa every year<\/p>\n
In memory of his late father who had vanished in 1955 whilst searching for lions<\/p>\n
He asked of our purpose and I explained that it was in memory of the Dutch explorers<\/p>\n
And so that we could meet people such as himself whose fathers had vanished in 1955<\/p>\n
Caron and I spent out third night in the desert under the stars<\/p>\n
Our tent had been positioned at the base of a bare hill<\/p>\n
We had been warned about the lions<\/p>\n
Which had dictated our reasoning<\/p>\n
As Caron slept I sat outside with a rifle<\/p>\n
Aware that a lion could attack without warning<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Caron and I had spent our first night in the desert Our tent had been positioned at the base of a bare hill We had been warned about the lions Which had dictated our reasoning As Caron slept I sat outside with a rifle Aware that a lion could attack without warning But I saw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6539"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6539\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}