{"id":1322,"date":"2015-09-18T11:56:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-18T11:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mywalkabout.net\/2015\/09\/18\/walking-with-lions"},"modified":"2021-09-18T04:41:13","modified_gmt":"2021-09-18T11:41:13","slug":"walking-with-lions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mywalkabout.net\/?p=1322","title":{"rendered":"Walking with Lions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: center;\">Our small group starts walking quietly down the dirt path with our Zambian guides, in nervous apprehension. The King of the jungle, several kings to be exact, are lying in wait for our arrival.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">Curious heads rise as we approach, and I look into the eyes of the great lions, and the stark realization of my place in the animal kingdom is known.<\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\" href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mywalkabout.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/5ed2b-dsc00422.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mywalkabout.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/5ed2b-dsc00422.jpg?resize=640%2C426&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" border=\"0\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">We are taught the proper way to approach them so we don&#8217;t startle or spook the lions. Our hands slowly touch their soft fur, feel their strong muscles, their lungs breathing, the purring of contentment as we scratch their underbellies.<\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\" href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mywalkabout.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/c235f-dsc00427.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mywalkabout.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/c235f-dsc00427.jpg?resize=640%2C426&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" border=\"0\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">It then becomes time to go for a walk. These lions need no leash, and most likely wouldn&#8217;t tolerate one anyway. We are in their land, guests in their environment, and we walk beside and behind them as we venture into the Zambian bush.<a style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;\" href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mywalkabout.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/c76ef-dsc00471.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mywalkabout.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/c76ef-dsc00471.jpg?resize=640%2C426&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" border=\"0\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">Probably my highlight of this experience was holding the lions tail as we walked, and brushing it up against my cheek.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">Even as I am typing I still can barely fathom what I did&#8230;.<\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\" href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mywalkabout.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/54bc4-dsc00482.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mywalkabout.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/54bc4-dsc00482.jpg?resize=640%2C454&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"640\" height=\"454\" border=\"0\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">as I went walking with the lions of Africa.<\/div>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/E_6vw9PTPNc?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our small group starts walking quietly down the dirt path with our Zambian guides, in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAowqprcCw:productID":"","_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7315],"tags":[589476282,2214,119792410,114014,72909904,200,20796],"class_list":["post-1322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-day-in-the-life","tag-a-day-in-the-life","tag-africa","tag-build-create-kenya","tag-lions","tag-mukuni-big-five","tag-travel","tag-zambia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mywalkabout.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/c76ef-dsc00471.jpg?fit=1600%2C1067&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99I7P-lk","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mywalkabout.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mywalkabout.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mywalkabout.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mywalkabout.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mywalkabout.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1322"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mywalkabout.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15004,"href":"https:\/\/mywalkabout.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1322\/revisions\/15004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mywalkabout.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mywalkabout.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mywalkabout.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mywalkabout.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}