Mabuasehube NP - Day 3

A great lion sighting

The jackals had been howling all night so we packed up and headed to the water on the pan in case something had been around. No cats, so we turned around and went back via our campsite to head to Mpayathutlwa. And there, just outside our campsite we spotted lion tracks. They’d walked straight past our camp sometime in the night with us none the wiser. The tracks were headed in the same direction we were - towards Mpayathutlwa. 

A welcome roadblock

And so we just kept following tracks wondering if we’d have any luck and catch them on the road or if they’d have turned off into the bush before we found them. Luck was on our side - sort of. The lions were on the road but unfortunately there was another car in front of us, the other campers from Mabua who had left earlier. 

Lions on the road

Which meant that although we had found lions - 3 altogether - we couldn’t really see them as the car was blocking our way and it was too narrow a track to drive alongside another car. So we had to contend with catching a few shots now and then when the other car was able to move to one side. There was a young male and 2 young females and they were on a mission, hardly stopping in their walking. Finally they turned off onto the scout camp, so we both followed them. 

Drinking from a leaking pipe

They carried on walking but then turned off the road and carried on walking into the bush. We followed the other cars lead and went around the fenced scout camp and managed to catch the lions coming head on along another road. A bit of mayhem where there was cars turning and lions scattering but eventually we got the lions under the raised water tank. 

Getting every last drop

Here they found a tiny leak in the water pipe and were drinking what little moisture they could, including each other’s faces if there was any water on them. After drinking what they could the lions continued down and the road and luckily we got in front so could follow the lions. And they kept walking all the way down the hill to the Mpayathutlwa waterhole. 

Mpaya pan in the background with waiting cars

But a surprise was waiting. Because we could see ahead that there were already lions at the waterhole. It turns out there were 5 lions - 1 male and 4 females already there. We assumed that the lions we were with were part of this pride although we didn’t understand why they had been at Mabuasehube pan while these were here. We managed to get ahead of the 3 walking lions on a small byroad so headed to the waterhole and the other waiting cars and positioned ourselves to catch head on shots of the lions in the hopes of catching some greetings. 

Thirsty lions

But instead the young lions ignored the rest and headed straight for the water to drink. Fortunately we’d positioned ourselves perfectly for that accidentally although Dru had to do some maneuvers to get into the back seat but the perfect light and lions drinking made it well worth it. They drank for ages but none of the other lions approached them, rather just kept watching them. 

Burchell's sandgrouse

And we think we figured it out. The young male had probably recently been kicked out the pride and had gone off with his 2 sisters. So this was probably their pride but since he was supposed to be out already they weren’t happy he was back but neither were they attacking the youngsters like they would if this was a totally different pride. 

Lion's paw is big up close 

And it seemed to bear out as at one stage one of the older females made to attack although she didn’t. The young male had his ears down and a bit of growling but didn’t attack either. And the pride male didn’t do anything other than watch. It was like the message was being given - “we’re tolerating you but you aren’t welcome here anymore” 

Forced to sit in the sun

This Mexican standoff went on for quite a while until it got a bit hot and then the older lions went looking for shade. And in a place that is not known for shade, they found some in the form of the car parked next to us. The shade from the car and the rooftop tent gave just the right amount for a couple of the lions. Unfortunately not enough for everyone because one of the lions looked around, spotted our car and decided that was also decent shade. 

Using cars for shade

And so for the next hour or so there was a musical chairs game wi the lions trying to work out which shade was better and as the sun moved so did the lions. At one stage Cheryl had the pride male and 2 females lying right next to her door - a bit unnerving especially when they look up into the window! The young lions were still in the sun looking longingly at some cars shade too but each time they made a move, one of the lionesses would growl and make a move towards them, putting them in their place reminding them who’s boss at this waterhole. 

The pride male was pretty chilled during all the drama

The shade of the cars was getting shorter as the sun got higher and eventually 3 of the lionesses decided that the shade of a nearby tree was a better option. The male meanwhile had found a strap off the back of the original shade car and was happily pulling on it in between bouts of napping. The young lions finally decided that a car further away was a good shade option and headed there. The pride females didn’t seem to like this however, and had another go at them. 

Pride male using the car shade

Eventually though, every thing seemed to settle down, probably because it just got too hot to bother and the pride headed to the tree (with the exception of one using us as shade) to sleep off the heat of the day while the youngsters stayed in the shade of the car. We decided that this was the time to leave and so had to wake up the lioness at our car by switching the engine on. Finally getting her up we made our way to the nearest campsite, while was also our campsite for the night. 

Too close for comfort

We set up camp and then took a drive around the pan. There wasn’t much to report and we ended back at the waterhole. By now the remaining car has disappeared and the young lions that had used it for shade were nowhere to be seen. The pride was still under the tree so we left them there and headed to our camp where we sorted out lunch while making tomorrow’s lunch at the same time. 

Sorting out lunch

The plan was to relax until it got cooler and then head to the waterhole for the evening session but thunderclouds started rolling in and we needed to decide if we were going to change plans. We ended up starting our game drive a bit early to drive around the pan after checking the waterhole. Annoyingly the lions weren’t under the tree that we had left them so resigning ourselves to not seeing them again we headed round the pan. 

Nice sighting of an eagle owl

The highlight was a tortoise that crossed the road but other than that there wasn’t much to shoot. There was a herd of about 50 springbok on the pan and a lone gemsbok, but just too far away from the road to get any good shots. So it was back to the waterhole only to find that the lions were actually still there, they had just moved further away in the long grass making them difficult to see. Still, we moved away from the waterhole and instead went to the road and that gave us a much better sighting - it was the 5 lions from the morning and they were being quite playful with each other which was amusing to watch.

Playful lions

As the afternoon started cooling down and the clouds started gathering the lions got up and started moving into the pan, ending up at a nice open area albeit a bit far away for our liking as it made taking shots a bit difficult. By now the clouds were looking ominous - they had gathered into one big grey sheet and we could see the rain in the distance.

Enjoying the cool afternoon

 Four of the lions were lying in the open area with one of the females still laying in the tall grass. They seemed to want to communicate with each other and so, with lightning striking across the sky and thunder cracking overhead, the lions all began to roar. And it was awesome to watch and listen. Eventually the roaring dies down but this was just a sign for the storm to become the highlight of the show. We could see the storm coming towards us and suddenly the heavens opened and it bucketed down on us. 

A big storm brewing

It was one of the most ferocious storms we’ve ever been in the open. The wind was was buffering the car it was so strong and the rain was so heavy we could hardly see out the windows. All we could see was lions running for cover. They bolted to some trees further in the bush presumably to at least not take the brunt of the storm out in the open. 

Beautiful colours after the storm

The storm only lasted about 10 minutes while it passed over us but it was a hectic 10 min. Finally it moved on and we could start moving again. Amazingly, except where’re we had ridden out the storm, the roads didn’t have any water on them, a testament to how thirsty the Kalahari desert is. The pan however was full of water and the natural waterhole had filled up nicely. 

Nighttime setup

There was no sign of the lions though and we resigned ourselves to that being the end of our cat sightings for the day. By now if was close to 7pm, also the parks closing time, and we were keen to get back to camp and set up before it was dark. The beauty of this campsite is that it as running water. So showering was a quick affair and were done in time to catch a spectacular sunset.  The storm has resulted in sheets of light sky that caught all colours of the rainbow giving us stunning sky. Braai lit and camp chores done, we settled down to recount our extraordinary day and plan for the next one.