Another long long night in the saddle.
It was another long session for us, and somewhat for the lions.
We were in our vehicles from 16h00 till 10h00 the next day. Some 18 hours! And that’s been the case for the last few days. Usually it’s about 16 hours, but that extra 2 hours really puts the pressure on. Such are the joys of wildlife filmmaking. Thankfully it’s not 18 hours behind a computer.
The lions were on the move early heading south to the Chiloveka River where they drank.
Already they are well south of their original territory but with no pressure from other lions over the last year or so, they just keep pushing their boundaries and now basically ‘own’ the whole of Malilangwe.
The Nduna pride’s hunting escapades last night were not what one would expect from such a successful pride. Their first attempt at hunting impala was a disaster and then they seemed to lose each other. The 5 lions we were with took the time out waiting for the others to pitch. They all called which was surely the cue for them to get together but again something went wrong and they didn’t. Then Manyari went searching for the rest of her team members. She headed back along the track they had come on and into the Chiloveka river. While she stood around listening the reed-bed suddenly erupted with lions as they piled out to greet her.
All together again they headed east into the Goto triangle and just kept moving till dawn. At this stage the young lions all gave up and passed out while Manyari and another lioness carried on hunting for another hour before calling it a night.
I think it’s now the 4th day that the lions haven’t eaten, but there’s no cause for concern as they can easily go a couple of weeks without eating.
We sure do hope the lions kill early tonight and we hope it’s BIG. Then we’ll catch up on some rest.
On the way home Snorkel confronted me in the road but was being chilled out. And the good news is his breathing problem seems to have disappeared.
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