Yesterday morning there was cold bite to the air as we left Little Bush Camp. Our big group spanning over 3 lodges had been with us for 4 nights already and this was their last safari. The group had been a blast and we had had some amazing sightings already, played soccer in the community against the guests (which the staff won...hehe) and had enjoyed some fabulous dinners both at the lodge and out in the bush.

Our plan for the morning was to head down to the southern section of the reserve to find the lions that had been seen there the previous night. The guests were still trying to wake up after their early morning wake up but Scott had woken up sufficiently to chirp me about how much he wanted to see a kill. This had been the theme throughout the groups stay and they had been explained the odds of seeing one. It became the joke of the morning as I searched high and low for a bird killing an insect or something of the sort to please my audience. On the other vehicle from Little Bush Camp, Neil was being battered with the same request as Klemens was chewing his ear off.

We started tracking the lions from where they had last been seen and Solly and I took a walk through the area to see if they were still in the area because we hadn’t found any tracks. Eventually we picked up their tracks and started to follow. Solly, with his eagle eyes, sat on his famous seat on the bonnet carefully examining the roads to make sure we still had the tracks. After an hour and a half of tracking we eventually found the pride lying in the long grass.

They had not been sleeping for long and started moving along from shade to shade with no real purpose. They popped out into an open area allowing the guests to take photos of the whole pride as they nuzzled and rubbed heads to strengthen their social bonds before moving along again. The whole group was dumbstruck; all I could hear through the cameras clicking away were the “ooooo’s” and “aaahhhhh’s” as the lions passed right next to the vehicle.

It looked as if they were going to settle for the day when one of the females carried on walking. With the visual not great on the rest of the pride I decided to follow the other female. As I turned the Land Rover the female flushed a baby reedbuck out of the long grass and the chase began...my guests on the vehicle were shouting with excitement as I moved to follow the chase to see what the outcome would be...the reedbuck doubled back again towards us hoping that her sharp turns would throw the 130kg lioness off her trail...the lioness kept inching closer and closer as my guests had now fallen silent waiting to see if the lioness was going to get a snack...finally with an extended paw the lioness ankle tapped the reedbuck lamb sending it careering off its feet and was quickly dispatched with a bite to the throat. The lioness knew that there would never be enough meat for all 14 of the lions that were with the pride at the time and went hurtling through the bush to try and hide and eat in peace.

This was a fruitless attempt as she eventually came hurtling back into the mass of lions waiting and a huge fight ensued as each lion tried to get as much meat as possible. The females and the cubs all gripped onto what they could and tore the little thing into pieces before running off in opposite directions to get a chance to feast on the morsels they had won in the tug of war. The growls and fights still went on as the cubs tried to get their fair share but in no more than 2 minutes all the meat was gone. The guests were speechless and I was spilling over with excitement and adrenalin...all the jokes about the kill had actually manifested. What a crazy morning!!