One in a million
Yesterday was just one of those unbelievable, unforgettable, once in a blue moon, game viewing days!
It all started at lunch time. I was having lunch with some of our guests up on the main deck overlooking the water hole. All of a sudden a herd of impala that had been grazing around the water hole, bust into flight and broke the afternoon silence with their alarm calls. One of the impalas was not running away with the rest of the herd and when I fixed the spotting scope on it I saw that there was a leopard hanging on to it! Makwela’s youngster had done it again! Right in front of camp, at lunch time with all the guests present!
After tea time we went on game drive and went down to have a closer look. She had caught a fully grown female impala! All the previous kills had been young animals so we were all very proud of her. It also proves that, even though she only became independent a few weeks ago, she will have no problem taking care of herself.
We continued with our afternoon game drive and were about to respond to a big herd of about four hundred buffalo when June spotted a young male lion lying down on one of the side roads we passed. As we drove closer we got the stench of rotting flesh and found that the Xhimungwe pride had killed a zebra! And while enjoying this special sighting June also spotted a big elepant bull and a rhino bull in the distance.
Eventually we got to the herd of buffalo and saw great interaction between the young bulls fighting over the females in oestrus. There was also another two rhinos in the middle of the herd of buffalo!
After our sundowner we went to look for a couple of lions that had been mating for about 4 days. We found their tracks and followed for about 600m before finding them! The mating ritual was clearly over as the male left the female and continued on his way entering a thick non-vehicle-friendly block of bush. And then he roared! Driving around the block to the other side we found him again on the road, rolling in a pile of old, dry elephant dung. After mating for about 4 days, not eating anything, he was quite thin and was trying to get rid of his lion scent. And then, ten metres away from us, he roared again! The best thing to close off an unforgettable afternoon.
Luckily the guests did not mind that we were about one hour late for dinner…