I am so in love with animals that I connect with them through my heart and am fully engaged and present when in their presence. I do not experience fear most of the time. Instead I experience what I would call communion.
Something seems to be being transmitted or I am attuned to some other way of knowing that takes over my entire being. I love when that happens.
One night in Sabi Sands, South Africa - one of the few places you are allowed to be out at night - we encountered two lionesses roaming around and hunting. They were very serious and walking great distances.
At one point one of the lionesses turned around and walked right beside our vehicle, I mean right there, about 5 inches from my fingers. I could smell her. I could feel the heat radiating off of her body. I could feel the power every time she walked, impacting the earth with her paws. I could sense just how quickly she can turn on and off her killer instinct. There was no question about her place in the food chain and the ferocity that keeps her there.
For me these kinds of moments are everything. Yep, they are also dangerous. I have a unusual sense of belonging with animals and like I said do not feel very much fear around them. It might be crazy, stupid and risky. It might also be that there is some kind of connection that is unexplainable.
All I can say is please don’t do what I do. And, if I do get taken out by some apex predator please don’t kill them just tell everyone a really great story. Because for me, it isn’t tragic, it is nature doing what it does and I chose to be in their habitat. So…it’s on me. After all, some places are THEIR habitat. The bush is one of them.