Holy Sh*t to Nth Degree

I've never really been the type of person to take my life for granted. I've always considered that my life could end at any time on any day and that a long life is never completely guaranteed. Although, like any person, I do think of death sometimes but today I thought I smelled it right under my nose. I hate being over dramatic but I thought I was cat food today. Serious cat food.

Today was a great day of relaxing and catching up on e-mails. Marc and Margrit went off to the workshop with Philip and Katy stayed in the office working on the business so I stayed in the kitchen area keeping a watch on Duiker. By the time it was 6pm I felt like I needed to go out and get some fresh air and walk around so I told Katy that I was going to take a quick walk down to the river by the bottom of the hill. I told her I'd be back in about an hour. So I grabbed my ipod and gracefully glided down the mountain toward the river listening to my music and happy as a clam. I passed a thicket of trees to the side of me on the way down and I thought I heard a snarl type roar but I didn't think twice because I assumed that predatory cats don't travel this far up the mountain. I thought they stayed closer to the bottom, so I didn't think twice about the noise and I automatically assumed that the noise must have been caused by something else. I made it to the river and enjoyed the green ferns and fresh, cool water for a couple of minutes before turning around to head back home. The sun was setting and I didn't want to get stuck in the wild in the dark. It is easy to stay on the trail that takes you up the mountain and back to camp but at times it gets a bit faint and since the light was quickly disintegrating I decided to take my headphones off to really pay attention. While passing the same thicket of trees I definitely heard a roar. It was loud and it was from some kind of large cat. Dead in my tracks I stopped. I am positive that my skin turned the whitest of white and I was immediately light headed. It was a cat but I couldn't see it, I didn't know what kind exactly but it didn't matter. I stood there, petrified, thinking if I should turn around and go back to the workshop where the Maasai live or if I should keep going up the mountain toward home. I only had about 15 minutes to go before I reached camp again but that would have been plenty of time for a lion or wildcat to gracefully murder me and have me for dinner. I don't know why I decided to continue on my path past the trees but I did. I just started walking toward the top of the hill. I think this exact moment takes the cake for being the best 'Holy Sh*t to Nth Degree' moment of my life. The cat snarled at me a couple more times while I walked past it on my trail. I kept looking around to make sure it wasn't coming toward me. And the fact that I wasn't able to see it actually made me feel better. I felt like I was actually getting away from it. After a minute or so I couldn't help myself and I gunned it full force up the hill, the fastest I've ever run. I could've won a medal. I ran so hard that my mouth began to taste like metal. I know that’s really strange but the taste was overwhelming. I was absolutely petrified. After 15 minutes of sheer terror I finally reached the road where the entrance to camp was and I soon after ran into Katy. I hate being overly dramatic and I thought perhaps I was too paranoid; the sounds were in my head. I didn't want to come off as a schizo so once I walked up to Kate I tried to pull myself together and I asked, "Are you sure there aren't any wild cats or lions around here?" She asked why and I explained my story.

So I made it to camp alive. Right after getting back I took a shower and then sat on my bed and started laughing. The whole thing seemed ridiculous to me and still surreal. After changing and getting clean I went out to the fire pit area where everyone was sitting. The fire was lit, the moon was out and there was plenty of red wine for us. I grabbed a seat and Katy told me that there is one well-known leopard that lives close by. The Maasai say that it is one of the largest leopards they have ever really seen and Kate assured me that it probably lives in the area that I described. Kate and Philip both told me that the leopard was probably warning me not to get too close. The leopard does eat very well living in this area so he probably was not interested in eating me tonight, although I walked through his home exactly at dinnertime.

I couldn’t be happier saying that I'm thankful for having such a delicious dinner tonight instead of being a delicious dinner.

GOODNIGHT!