Seeing the big cats at ChaZen Nature Reserve

I'm sitting here in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, looking out the window at the onset of what we are told is going to be a major snow event for the eastern seaboard of the United States.

I am thinking about summer and sun and vacation and the ability to be out and about doing the things I love.

I am thinking about Africa, in other words.

I thought it might be fun to pull out the travel diary and share some thoughts with you.  Not the corny ones that will embarrass me, but the ones that captured how I was feeling at that time, as best as mere words could do.   I did fairly well documenting the trip initially but then I got so caught up in just BEING that I actually stopped DOING a little.  Which is, I think, a sign that you are having a perfect time in a perfect place.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015.

"...today was the day I saw the big cats!  A moment I've longed for and which moved me to tears of gratitude.  A male lion, not quite mature (a sub adult, I know now) and his two female mates, nearly in heat, pranced and preened for my camera.

There were two rare white lions and a cheetah, who evidenced his disdain for us with a low, throaty, trill.

The lions were as intrigued with us as we were of them, and they trailed our vehicle for a number of yards, watched our every move - and knew they were the highlight of this girl's day."