We spent the next two days exploring The Pans. The remoteness and absolute quietness, particularly in the morning was awe inspiring.
The second night it was our (Terri's ) turn to make dinner and she made Pasta Putanesca, a very aromatic and tasty dish. Nicolas joked (I thought) that .."the lions will come tonight". Well about 4:00 in the morning while we were all sleeping in our RTT's we were awoken by a deep and persistently loud growling that was about 50 to 100 feet behind us (we are the middle truck in the picture below). Terri grabbed my arm and asked me if that was what she thought it was...my response..a very quiet "sisshhh"! The lion circled our site for a while and about 5 am Nicolas said to remain in the tent until he gave the OK...no problem Nico! He finally gave the all clear about 7 am but I waited until everyone else got out of their tent first!
Here's a lion footprint we found the next morning as well..