The lions had only moved about 3kms overnight. That’s unless they’d gone around in circles. The shortest, least strenuous route is more the way of lions.
They spent the day lying up at Chekwa pan and I was lucky that a couple of them obliged me out the car getting those low angles perspectives on them. The one picture turned out all lob sided, but I promise the next few were perfect. (Sorry, I kept those for myself. I really liked them.)
I spent the rest of the day looking for elephants, which from the lack of any pictures means I didn’t find them. There were tracks of a lone bull near Nduna and another near Chivi.
I guessed they must have moved south and so headed down the Mahande. Bad move. The roads down there in the clays have dried up, BUT they’re full of potholes which are actually elephant footprints. They’ve totally ruined the roads by walking on them when wet. It’s a nightmare travelling around there. And if the elephant didn’t do the damage the buffalo sure did, but at least their potholes are relatively small.
So even though the clays are now dried up and accessible, they’re really not driveable.
And of course I found tracks of a small herd of elephant right there in the clays. I had by then already lost my sense of humour from driving in low range first gear on dry but holey roads and couldn’t pluck up the courage to follow.
I moved back north to more accessible areas. There was quite a concentration of game, zebra, wildebeest and impala, in the mopanie forest to the west of Banyini. This area, besides the airstrip, is an area with relatively short grass and that’s what they’re after. Not so much the grass but getting out of those areas where the grass is physically high and uncomfortable for them.
Back with the lions before sunset and they were already on the move, even though it was still pretty hot. They had a bee-in-their-bonnet about something and headed south sniffing at several places where other lions must have marked. There was little concern for other lions in the area, and if anything they were actually following their trail. I wondered if they weren’t possibly on the trail of Nduna, the pride male.
Just trying to see and film the lions in the long grass was a challenge and reminded me why I wasn’t filming them at present with conditions the way they are. And to put a final nail into that coffin, I lost 10 lions in broad daylight!
A potentially great sunset was on the cards as I rushed back to Banyini wanting to film the big baobab against it. I was there in time but it just didn’t materialise and I left the baobab standing idle.
I was half way home when the sunset came alive! At great haste I detoured via the airstrip and to my luck several giraffe were perfectly positioned. It must have been the most stunning sunset with giraffe that I’ve seen AND got on video and photograph. (Look out for the video clip in days to come. Unfortunately the great images I’ve kept in my little book.)
A happy boy I made my way at leisure back to camp.
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