March 20. We’ve heard lions during the night, so tonight we went for a “game drive” to see if we could spot them. We waited until it was dark and then all piled into the Land Cruiser. We took turns shining a powerful spotlight into the bush on both sides of the road. What we were looking for was the glow of an animal’s eyes in the light. A lion’s eyes would appear yellow, but unfortunately we didn’t see any. We didn’t see the leopard we were hoping to see, either. We did see a mongoose, some African hares, and trees full of the little red eyes of Bush Babies.

At one point, we surprised an elephant and her baby with our bright light. She let out a terrifying bellow. We switched off the light, which Joseph later said was the wrong thing to do because then he couldn’t see if she was charging our vehicle or running away. Fortunately, she was running away. I thought we’d made her angry, but she was just scared.

We do have to be careful driving around Lewa. These are wild animals, and they’re unpredictable. Yesterday we made a fast dash past a White Rhino who’s been known to “horn” cars—spearing them with his horn, or even lifting them up from behind. Luckily, he must not have been feeling particularly ornery when we met him.