Sanza, being the excellent tracker that he is, followed the lions footprints and spotted two big lioness and two cubs!! He told us that we were very lucky since people sometimes are out in the bush for 5, 7, 10 days at a time and never see a lion and we had only been in the park for a few hours!!
Here is momma and one of her cubs!
The other baby decided we weren't a threat so came out to check us out and the first little guy wanted to play :)
Here is the second lion cub, really studying our truck...
Mom and sister have picked up the scent from a heard of buffalo close by so they are on the move!! We were beside ourselves that we were watching a hunt!!! Such a rare experience!!
Mom is looking back telling her babies to hide in the bush until she comes back! Sanza said that cubs will wait for their mothers until they come back from a hunt to get them. They could stay in there all night if that is how long it takes, and they wont even move!
The babies are listening to what momma is telling them...
Off they go into the bush!!
They are checking out their prey and starting to stalk!
They are on the move! I wanted to show a photo with the truck in the view so you can see how close they actually are to us! They don't mind the trucks and they don't even pay attention to the people in them because they think we are part of the truck - as long as you stay sitting down and don't make any sudden movements then they aren't bothered or threatened by you.
They are communicating with each other - at levels we can't hear - so one of the girls went first and the other watched the buffalo behind.
The one that stayed behind the road...
Stretching before the hunt!
Now she is on the move...
Checking out the buffalo from the front and waiting for her sister...
She's on the move again! Ahh so exciting!!
Crouched down, ears down, focused and moving in on the buffalo!
Momma lion is following close behind!
Momma lion is going around the front and sister is taking the rear! Such smart hunters!!
Momma is stalking her prey and crouching down close to the sandy road, trying to blend in and take the buffalo by surprise!
Crouching down and peaking over the small hill by the road...
A lot of dust and commotion going on! They went in for a kill!
Spotted her! She's trying to catch a baby buffalo!
The male buffalo all gather at the rear to scare off the 2 lions! They'll have to find dinner somewhere else...and the cubs will have to wait in the bush!
Exhausted from the chase but they are on the move to find a new target for din din!
They took off deeper into the bush and tour trucks were starting to show up so Sanza decided we should keep moving and find something else see! They could hunt all night so we may not see another hunt for a while! Such a thrill tho!! Sanza said that videographers and photographers that follow lions and catch a kill on video usually follow them around for about a month because they actually only make a kill 60% of the time!
We headed back to the water to watch the sunset and have a glass of wine!
Such a beautiful sunset!
Giraffe taking another stroll by the water during sunset...
Even the hippos are getting ready for bed ;)
2 hippos in the water
We headed back to the camp since we are not allowed to be driving around at night! Don't want to get the anti-poaching unit going ;) We had a delicious meal under the stars with just a little candle light and a small fire beside us to shine a little light! Met some new Aussie friends, Brendan and Becca. We were swapping stories about our travel experiences - and our dog loving stories - and now we want to go to the Kalahari desert and the Delta!
I woke up in the middle of the night because there was an elephant in our camp causing a ruckus - tearing down limbs and eating the trees! I could hear the low rumbling vibrations they make that we can't normally hear! It was just so quiet that it was so clear and unmistakable! It was interrupted by either a hyena or a honey badger's growl! Whatever it was hurried out of camp, running around our tent and out into the bush!
We didn't hear the male lions talking to each other like Brendan and Becca had heard the night before. Sanza thinks it was because they had finally met up with each other and no longer needed to yell back and forth through the park! On our morning safari ride, he spotted some male lion prints in the sand so they were in the area, but we couldn't find them. Maybe they got a kill late in the night and they were having an early breakfast?!
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