Grey versus Stripes: Video

Those elusive lions.

We picked up a young lioness south of Nyamsaan pan. She was calling and calling, obviously looking for the rest of the pride. (In the same predicament as me.)
Where is the rest of the pride? If only I knew I’d feel a sense of accomplishment today. But it was another night of no filming and full on frustrations.

Eventually the young lioness headed north.
And then, her BIG lion moment! As she moved past a thicket of palms she froze. We switched off our vehicles and sat watching in silence. I could hear movement in the palms. What could it be?
The lioness went into stalk mode. She’s getting serious! Big potential kill coming up and it’s going to happen right in front of us.
Waiting. Lioness still in her full frozen stalk position. A few more minutes go by.
She can’t contain herself any more and pounces. The palms erupt!
Hundreds of Quelea take to the skies. Yes, just Quelea.
How brave was that to take on so many? Lions rule.
With bravery stamped all over her smile she continued north. Close to the Nyamsaan picket she rested in an open area. Good plan as she’ll be able to hear better in the open.
Not 20 minutes later another young lioness came trotting in to meet her. They were both happy to have company.
But now they were 2 lost lionesses instead of one. Did this improve their chances of finding the pride? Well not if they just lay around quietly.
Unfortunately the boredom got to us and in our sleepy state the lions disappeared in the dark. Hmmmm…..I think we deserve about as much credit as the lions. Which is verging on close to zero.
Dawn didn’t bring much hope. I had tracks of a single lion near Makeche and another lion near Hwata.
What is it with all these single lions running around?
This lone white rhino bull at Hwata got my scent before I was able to get up close and personal. Maybe a good thing as he might just have got too personal.

Still looking for my daily dose of action I ventured down to the Chiredzi river. I always love it down there but don’t often get there. Today it was pretty quiet except for this dude who thought trashing the dead bush next to me would scare me. Luckily not. We ended up watching each other for a good half an hour before I moved on.

Chekwa pan was the place to be. When I got there a big herd of buffalo were just leaving. Elephant bulls kept appearing out the woodlands to drink at the muddy clean water. With them around the herds of zebra had assembled trying to drink but weren’t even allowed a taste of the really muddy water.

The elephants weren’t sharing today. Not even with each other.
But what a great experience! To be surrounded by so many wild animals and all in some sort of synchrony with each other. Some amicable, some not.
Africa’s the best!