This a story that will send shivers down your spine- Suyash Keshari, founder of Ameliya, recounts a time he nearly became Lion food.
“It goes back to the time in 2019 when I was in Africa, filming for Safari with Suyash Season 2. This was in Manyoni private game reserve, there was a camp that I was working with and staying at for about 15 days
Before this I had gotten a lot of training in wildlife and in Africa’s Big Five- how to track animals on foot, and how to manage different kinds of scenarios, how to ensure the safety of your guests, and also as a filmmaker and presenter, how to make sure that you’re not being threatening to those animals.
The Lion Pride
During this time, I was following this lion pride so it had two males and one of had gone very old and he was actually just going to leave the pride because the pride wasn’t happy with him.
A lot of times this happens with Prides- when one of the members gets old and can no longer contribute, they have to leave the pride and fend for themselves. This is also the time that the pride was experiencing some kind of difficulties- the females weren’t able to hunt more. Somehow they kept missing the hunts and they had a lot of cubs as well so a lot of mouths to feed a lot of Dynamics being changed every single day. Slowly what happened was, the pride started separating the lions started going to different parts of the reserve
My Schedule
Usually I used to leave the camp for just before sunrise and go out on the Safari- I used to be out on the Safari the entire day, trying to record as much as possible, maybe returning to the camp for a quick lunch before heading back out into the bush, then returning in the evening just before dinner, having some dinner and either going back on a safari or going back to my camp to turn in for the night.
This Day was Different –
This time I had a very late dinner because I came to the Camp around 10 and I used to cross a really sandy path to go from the main mess area to my tent. It was about 20 meters long and it used to be completely dark all the time.
So that day I came back to the camp from a safari, took a shower, went for dinner and then I forgot something in my room so I went to get that back. Usually whenever I’m walking around in the night, I’m always wary of my surroundings but because I was hungry I wasn’t thinking too much I just walked-didn’t think of anything at all (big mistake!)
After coming back, I saw that there were lion pug marks and I was like “oh my God these are very fresh” because these pugmarks were just on top of my tracks!
Realizing I was being Hunted By a Lioness
What was even scarier was that there was a sort of a drag along with the Pug marks. And the front pug marks were deeper than the back ones. As I began to decode that I realized oh my God the Lioness was trying to stalk me!
When she was down on the floor and sort of crawling behind me, her chest was rubbing against the sand.
At that instant I think my soul left my body
My body was shaking and I was thinking “oh my God she’s still around”. I waved the torch around and stomped my feet, I screamed a little bit, but I couldn’t see the Lioness.
That was a moment that kind of humbled me.
We work in very dangerous settings and scenarios and for whatever reason the Lioness stalking me didn’t go for it. Maybe she was just there curiously going after me and realized that I wasn’t the meal that she wanted.
But since that day, whenever I’m walking around at night I’m much more cautious.
So just a word of caution:
If you’re ever in an African camp or even an Indian Camp, don’t walk alone at night.
