Lion at sunset |
Despite our early start, we were the last of the 3 campers to be out the campsite and off on the morning drive. There was no question where anyone was going - straight to the waterhole. And we were not disappointed - the 2 lionesses were still at their kudu kill but they were having it for breakfast. We quickly positioned ourselves and started shooting. The lions gave us plenty to photograph, from gnawing at the carcass to pulling it over to get better access.
Jackal ignoring the buffalo herd |
The strength of a lioness is impressive |
This went on the whole morning until the younger lioness gave up and moved to the shade of a tree about 100 meters away.
But the older lioness refused to give up the kill - I guess she’d worked just too hard to get it. Even when the elephants arrived and were annoyed by her presence she would move more than a few meters away from the kill before moving back.
Morning play time for the elephant |
We figured that eventually she’d give up and the jackals would move in but for now she was definitely staying put so we headed back to the campsite for a quick toilet break and to find out if they could change our campsite.
Our luck was in and we were able to move to Campsite 4 for the next 3 days which would save us from moving around. We also got some intel from the camp attendant that some of the other campers had seen a lioness with 2 cubs on the road that loops the pan.
Breakfast time |
This was more good news and potentially something for us to target at a later stage. In the meantime, it was back to the waterhole for us.
As expected she was still there and remained so despite the climbing heat - by lunch time it was close to 40 degrees but she refused to stray too far away from the carcass, only moving to drink water a few meters away.
But eventually she met her match in the form of a massive bull elephant who was not happy to have her around and charged her. She has to run but instead of joining the other lioness, she looked around for the closest shade and spotted our car.
She walked straight towards us and then walked closely around the whole car before deciding that the best shade was the back of the car where she lay down. We couldn’t see her except for her tail in the side view mirror!
And that’s where she stayed for the next 45 minutes or so.
Plenty of ostriches hanging at the waterhole |
The jackals tried to get a bit closer to the carcass but a flick of her tail against our mud flap was enough to keep them away.
Eventually though it was us, not her that decided it was too hot to stay and we started the car. She was very reluctant to give up her nice shade spot though and it took a bit of reversing before she finally moved back into the sun.
We left her there to take a turn around the pans but with most animals near to the waterhole there wasn’t much away on the pans and so we headed to camp for lunch.
Elephant next to our campsite |
With our temporary shelter up under the trees the heat was bearable and we relaxed after our lunch of chicken rolls before being out again at 2.30 for our evening drive.
Back to the main waterhole and the old lioness was still guarding her kill in the stinking heat. We decided to leave her for a while as we wanted to check out the small waterhole near the campsite to see if it was operational yet as last time we’d been it was just a hole.
Waiting for the lions |
Surprisingly there was water. And elephants. A small group of bulls was drinking and having a sand bath, a good one to know for future as it would work well with the light at sunset.
Back to the main waterhole and we were amazed to find that the lions had swapped in the meantime. The older lioness was nowhere to be seen but the younger one had taken her place to guard against sneaky jackals. Almost like it was coordinated.
And she had plenty to do as each time she moved more than a meter away the jackals would take a chance to grab a piece.
An unhappy elephant at sunset |
But she obviously had strict instructions not to Lear them near the kill and she took those instructions very seriously. Not even the pied crow got a look in.
Eventually though, she’d had enough of going it alone and started contact calling and sure enough from across the pan the old lioness emerged and started towards the young lioness.
But instead of going straight to the kill she went to drink water instead and then relaxed on the bank while watching the younger lion being harassed by an elephant.
He was not happy that a lion was around and made sure she knew it while at the same time giving us some nice sunset silhouette shots - a win-win for us and the elephant, not so much for the poor lioness.
We finally meandered back to camp as the wind started to pick. We’re used to the wind dying down as the sun goes down so it was a big surprise to us when it picked up in intensity and for the next few hours we had a wind storm.
Luckily we were still able to light the fire to braai but we abandoned our plan to cook pasta on the gas cooker as there was just too much wind to ever get that boiled.
We finally got to bed with the wind still howling but at least that kept it cool and we fell asleep to the sound of wind and howling jackals.
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