The Lion Lady® - Photographs of African Wildlife by Sharon van Sinderen Lyon

First I want to apologize for not writing sooner and for a gang e-mail that is not personalized for each one of you. The e-mail has been out since we arrived and my new phone does not work in the serengeti. It has been quiet with out the phone or e-mail to answer. I thank you in advance for those of you who have been writing asking all sorts of questions and wondering just where in the heck we are.

Well we made it, dad and i. everything is wonderful. It was a long 20-hour of flying but dad held up well. What a trooper. Everyone was welcoming us both with open arms. Dad had tears in his eyes many times.

We spent the first two days relaxing and recouping around the Serena Serengeti swimming pool. We played some chicken foot with a couple of young kids who beat us at our own game. We had a bush dinner on our third night, which made dad feel like he was really in the wild. On dad's first day of game drive we were within 10 feet of a leopard 15 minutes after we started. For me this is even a new record. We have now managed to see leopards three out of four days, not too bad. Dad has met allot of my friends and all of my Thomson guides with the exception of Mohammed.

I should probably mention that we have also seen lions, cheetahs, zebra, wildebeest, elephants, giraffe and almost all the animals with the exception of the rhino, which we will need to go to the crater to see.

A friend from Ocean City (Rebecca Galeone) called me here at the Serena lodge to say that she was in the crater and headed to the serengeti. I asked that she call once she arrived and when she did we arranged to meet at the visitors center in Seronera. Today we met and she is so excited to be here, seeing me and loves everything. It is really neat when I see old friends from the serengeti and from Ocean City or where ever they are from and where ever we meet up.

It is now several days later than when I first started this note and we have had some great experiences. And elephant was so close to the car if he had wanted to touch us he could have. We have seen 9 leopard's total and almost 94 lions and 4 cheetahs. Dad is having a great time and I have been reminding myself to be patient and to take it easy on him. Therefore we have been leaving for game drive at 6:30 and returning between 2 and 3. We have actually taken a couple of days off to lounge around the pool and eat a hot breakfast and hot lunch. Just what we need for our expanding waistlines. Oh well.! I do have a big birthday party planned for dad's 79th which is July 26th.

While we have been here the prince karim agga Kahn spent three nights here. He met with leaders from eight countries. That was very important for the employees here and this was his first visit since he opened the serena properties in 1996.They passed his requirements with flying colors. I have been giving my slide show every night and it has been well received.

On July 10th dad and i drove up to kiriwira to have a gourmet lunch and a bottle of wine from a vineyard named Bellingham. I had met a couple from Bellingham at Kirawira when I over heard them say they had to order this wine as they were from there. It was a change of pace for us and a nice way to remember the special day (sue three years and mom one month).

Right now we are at the pool dad is addressing postcards and I am preparing this e-mail for when the e-mail service is up and running. We are eating cashew nuts, banana chips and drinking cold safari beer on ice. My battery is running low so I will continue later. Next time I write I hope to have personalized messages for those of you who have written. Thank you I really do appreciate e-mail when I am in the bush and away from the phone. I miss hearing your voices and look forward to seeing all of you again soon, love to all from dad and I.

It is now Sunday July 21 St and we took today off. The e-mail is now up and working so today I will send this big message.

I have been using my GPS and am still in love with it. It has been fun documenting and checking the leopards and big cats this time in comparison to where we found them in January. It is also fun to record their movements and see that the leopards we have spotted this time have only moved within a 1/2-mile area. It makes it much easier to find them if you start first in close proximity to where we last spotted them and then work methodically for the next mile.

Yesterday we went looking for this group of three female lionesses and their six cubs. They were 1 1/2 mile from where we had seen them two days previously. Dad spotted the tree where I took a photo in January and in checking my GPS I could confirm that he was correct. He has now caught on to what to watch for in tracking the animals. It has been very dry and very warm here so a swim in the afternoon has been a refreshing daily ritual.

Dad and I have been asked to be the honorary parents for a Serena friend at his wedding. This event will take place on august 3rd. It will be a bigger party than for dad's birthday. They expect 200 people.

Dad is doing quite well considering mom has not been gone that long and he really has not had allot of time on his hands to think about things. We have had some very nice talks and sharing of memories and plans for the future but are mainly focusing on the fun here in the serengeti. I am not sure if we will be traveling to the other game parks as the Serena lodges are all over flowing which is great for them. It is fine with us, as it is nice to be situated in one primary location.

Most of the time we have been staying in the assistant manager's house with separate bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and bathroom. This is nice so I do not have to deal too much with dad in his tighty whities. I have mentioned that I do not need to know or discuss bowel movement consistencies on a daily basis. It has been very interesting being with dad 24 / 7 and seeing so many of my personality traits that I get from him. Some are endearing and others are very annoying. This has been an eye opener for me as to areas in my personality that have probably been driving some of you nuts for a long time. Trust me I am working on removing some of them from my life.

So far we have seen 13 leopards, 134 lions and 8 cheetah and many elephants, zebras, blah blah blah.

To tell you the truth, I'd be happy if we returned home tomorrow. But we will be here as planned until Sept 4th and then on to Amsterdam to see cousin Marten. We arrive in Seattle on Sept ninth and then I will head to Ocean City to see my friends there and to take care of business. I plan on picking up the motor home and traveling across the southern part of the USA starting the beginning of October. So those of you who have expressed an interest in joining me for part of the adventure let me know which part and when.