A partially true story about a Safari encounter I had

The Lion in Summer
It's 5 AM, and I'm lying on the Kalahari Desert, face to face with a male lion. He's 20 feet or so away, and I know, deep down inside, that he could cover that distance in less than 2 seconds. Nothing happens for a long time. Then, he moves.
It's two weeks earlier, and I'm gathering a backpack with a mix of very warm and very cool clothes, and stepping onto the Outback X3, the truck that we would drive across the desert. The Outback X3 is no normal truck. Imagine an enormous SUV. Then, slice off the roof. Add an extra 5 or 10 feet on the back with extra seats, a modifi…