COMING SOON.... a video of the lion fight and more, see our blog at www.malonetravels2.blogspot.com
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BEFORE DAWN THE NEXT MORNING
we got up before 5 am in order to make coffee and leave as soon as the gate was open. It was cold and dark but the cooking/washing area has lights and is a great feature of Kruger National Park Rest Camps.
Even with our best efforts, we were sixth in line to leave the gate which opened at 6 am . Robert was being bad as usual, mumbling for me to pass them, pass them.
THE RACE IS ON
The gate opened at 6:05, and the road race was on.
One car turned left, we turned right, passed two cars on main road and tried not to speed too much. We and the remaining competition then turned on to we onto the gravel road, S 100, where the two remaining two cars in front of us slowed to watch a GIANT hyena cross the road and gallup out onto the scrubby plain.
The sinister, loping hyena may have looked so giant because of the early morning light. It was tempting to stay and watch. But Robert said "gun it" around them so we could get to the waterhole before them,and I did.
WE WIN!
Got to the waterhole with only the camp safari vehicle sitting there. They are able to leave before we self drive safari types are able to, though they got there early and it was tood dark for pics before we arrived. Took up our same place where we had watched yesterday. Swweet!
THE KILL HAS BEEN MOVED OVERNIGHT
Something had pulled the kill out into the open. You could tell they had really been eating on it! At one point, the vultures that were watching and waiting for their turn on the kill dropped down onto the ground and hopped closer.
BIG BAD MALE
The big male lion all of a sudden charged, roaring very loudly at the vultures. We were on the other side of the vultures, so our heartbeats increased accordingly. It was quite a show!
Still very cold outside and you could see the big male lion's breath as he turned and continued roaring back to his meal. Laura thought that the female with the cubs gently answered each time he roared.
THE PLOT SICKENS, MORE LIONS APPEAR
As we looked up across the waterhole and there was a lion sitting there. The morning light had it lit from behind, and it was glowing golden in the morning light. Quite a magical site, it looked unearthly.
Then we saw another lion, and then oh-my-gawd, two more! Four total coming down the hill on the other side of the palms and the water hole, down toward the kill. It soon became apparent that three of the lions coming down were older cubs, reaching maturity but still with mother.
How would the big male react? The female with the young cubs. Down at the kill, the first mother lion was warily watching the incoming lions on the hill. She signaled to her very young cubs they needed to move on with her. They are still (in my opinion) having trouble being lions; they are just like little gangly kittens back home!
As they were following mother up the hill, they kept leaping on her leg or jumping over each other. When they got out into the open pullout, they were fighting with each other, then rough and tumbling across the tar road. She was very patient and when all got across the road settled down and the cubs continued playing using their mother's back as a jumping board. Needless to say, there was action going on at the waterhole but the mother and cubs were also something to watch, so there was a traffic jam out on the road and in the pullouts all morning. What an unusual experience for all, usally witnessed only in documentaries.
THE REST OF THE STORY
Meanwhile, back at the water hole.... The femaile and three mature cubs that had been up on the hill came down the hill and approached the kill. The big male lion let the younger ones pass, sniffed what we assumed was tje female lion, but she snarled and batted at him.
He returned the snarl and bat and but allowed her and the others to settle down to eat. They ate for awhile and then something changed in the dynamics because Mr. Male Lion charged the group eating and got into with the young lions. He bit one of them one the rear area and injured, it staggered off stage, and then the rest all moved off the kill as Mr. Lion roared and settled back down to eat some more.
This mother and her young lions moved out of sight behind and reeds nearer the water hole, went down to the waterhole and then came back and hid in the reeds watching Mr. Lion as he ate.
EAT MY FACE
It was pretty gross watching him tear the skin off the face of the animal and you could actually hear the crunching of the bones as he ate. From the shape of the horns on the kill, we think it was either a young buffalo or wildebeest but sadly we are not sure.
MORE FIGHTING OVER THE KILL
The young lions had moved back closer to the kill and something angered the big male and he charged the group again. This time he and one of the young males fell off into the reeds. What a dustup! When we left there was not much left of the kill and the mother and cubs had moved completely out of sight. What a way to spend a morning in Africa!
MYSTERY REMAINS
One final note. We had seen an excellent documetary on lions a few nights before at Letaba Camp, which had a sequence which showed what happens between mature males and younger lions, and between cubs and older young lions. We are not sure what happened to the young lion that was injured which did not return to the kill as the others did. The documentary had said that said that injuries such as that given by the older mail to the youger one quite often can be fatal out in the wild. Did the injured one survive? We will never know.
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