With a full group of new guests, two of which are close friends coming to visit for the weekend, we had a great few days ahead of us and the game viewing started before we even left for game drive. The lions had set up camp for the day right next to the access road leading to Little Bush Camp and the guests were all ‘wowed’ by the sight of 17 lions lying next to the road. I took my friends out for a sneak peak in the Land Rover before lunch and we watched as one of the females stalked closer to one of the other females that was lying in the shade of a tree watching a herd of waterbuck in the distance.

I knew for sure that they were hungry and that it would be worth waiting until dark before we went to see and follow the lions, which would surely be hunting.

The day was filled with great sightings including a massive elephant herd, rhino and we enjoyed our sundowners with a big herd of zebra and wildebeest.

After sundowners we went and joined up with 2 other vehicles that were following the lions. When I got to the sighting they were right outside my house inside the staff village and moving along to a dam close by. We watched as they all quenched their thirst from the long hot day and then started moving towards where we had see the zebra and wildebeest. We followed them for about 45 minutes before we saw what they had been looking for. As they were walking they kept lifting their noses to the sky and smelling the air. We soon found out that it had been buffalo that they had smelt.

A herd of about 50 buffalo lay on an open area huddled together having a sleep and the lions were heading straight towards them. We immediately switched off our lights and set up position about 50 metres away from the buffalo and were ready to wait it out and see what happened. The full moon lit the entire bushveld and it was possible to see the silhouettes of both the buffalo and the stalking lions. We watched as the lions fanned out into position and slowly stalked closer but we were not overly optimistic that anything would come of the hunt because if we could see the lions how could the buffalo not?

Over the next 20 minutes all you could hear were the sounds of the night and the occasional grunt of the buffalo, no one dared say a word for fear that the buffalo might then somehow see the lions... we watched as the 9 cubs all started approaching but without the stealth of the females and I was sure the gig was up and that the buffalo would spot the young inexperienced cats and get away. The first animal to spot the cubs though was a side striped jackal that let out a piercing yelp to warn all the other animals that there was danger in the area.

At that moment the females knew that it was now or never to put in their chase and launched into attack! We could hear the stampeding buffalo and got the Land Rovers started and moving. All lights went on to see what was happening as it would no longer affect the hunt and we immediately saw 2 females on top of a male buffalo. As we approached closer 2 other females pulled down a calf in the background.

The buffalo put out a tear jerking moan as the one lioness bit down hard and muzzled the buffalo, another female bit down on the windpipe to help the suffocation. The buffalo kept fighting trying to pull away from the lionesses and flee back but to no avail. More and more lions came in to help bring it down, even the cubs thought they could help. At one stage there was a cub sitting on the back of the fighting buffalo as if he were a rodeo rider.

For 15 minutes the buffalo struggled, trying to get free but with every passing minute the suffocating bites of the females took vital strength away from the desperate buffalo. Some of the guests were in tears, feeling for the plight of the buffalo but understanding that this was raw nature in action. Eventually the buffalo went down and stopped moving as the lionesses squeezed the last bit of life from their dinner.

We then went to see what was happening with the other buffalo that had been pulled down. The one female had already killed it and some of the cubs were beginning to feed. The majority of the pride came to join the feeding and the more lions that joined the fray, the less table manners applied. We watched as they growled and snarled at one another, sometimes erupting into claws being swung at one another. We sat watching them devour the buffalo for another 20 minutes before heading off to get some dinner of our own. For the next 2 hours the adrenalin pumped through my veins as I tried to grasp the amazing sighting that we had just witnessed. That was without a doubt the best sighting of my life...

The next morning we went to see what had come of the carcass and found that the Kruger males had come in and joined the females in the feeding. This left me counting the cubs as the last time this happened one of the cubs had been killed by these exact males. Fortunately they were all there and all looking swollen from all the food that they had stuffed into their little bodies. They all lay up near the carcass before moving off to a Tamboti thicket to rest in the shade. Hyenas circled the carcass waiting for an opportunity to get in and feed but there was next to nothing left after the 19 lions had fed all through the night. Two buffalo finished within a matter of hours!