On the way to find the lions I found this young elephant bull drinking at Banyini. No doubt the rest of the herds would soon be following him but I needed to get to the lions.
On finding them not far from where I’d left them at dawn, there was a huge buffalo bull standing only meters from them but hardly concerned with their presence. At first I thought he was injured, as why wasn’t he running away especially with my vehicle now also in the area. Eventually he did bolt when Manyari launched her attack but it really wasn’t much of an event and the bull easily got away. Of course her boys weren’t of any use in that situation.
The lions hardly fed last night and were off hunting soon after dark.
Manyari took them back to the area she was in 2 nights ago where she encountered so much game.
This time with the males as a decoy she was successful in pulling down a young impala, but then had to fight for her rights as they males tried to dominate the carcass.
In this Kings palace there’s no sharing as there just wasn’t enough for the 3 huge cats and each had to fight for their share, Manyari pulling the short string.
After all that hard work, well hardly (the hardest work being fighting for their food), they rested for a good 5 hours. YES! A good 5hr sleep for me too.
Soon after midnight we headed east and in the long grass the front of my car suddenly disappeared. I hadn’t seen the deep gully obscured by the tall grass and very nearly ended up rolling my car.
Back on the road again the lions were now in the hills and soon had reached HQ. What is it about this place that draws them here? They lay around the area a few hours then called repeatedly. Another lion responded way to the east.
They all then stopped their roaring and Manyari took her males and headed south across the airstrip and onto Banyini where at dawn they were hunting wildebeest.
That didn’t work and they kept moving west into the mopanie before calling it a night.
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