This morning while on drive we had a very interesting encounter. We were experiencing some very nice cool and overcast weather with a slight drizzle. We hadn’t expected to see much game due to this. However, as luck would have it, we did manage to find a beautiful lioness and her two boisterous cubs on a fresh impala kill. But, this was not the normal sighting. This was coffee with a bang. We had planned to stop for morning coffee and tea at one of the dams where we could sit in the bird hide out of the rain. Diving down the road towards the dam myself and my tracker were focused on finding hippo tracks and hadn’t paid much attention to the bush around us. Pulling up next to the bird hide we planned on getting off the vehicle and setting up our usual coffee display. Luckily for us my tracker has eyes like an eagle. Before my guests could get off the vehicle something had caught his eye and he warned me to stop the guests. He asked me to pull slightly forward and low and behold there just a few meters off from where we had parked was a lioness and her two cubs, with the kill a short way off. We had the most incredible sighting watching her and her cubs devour their prize. She was very unaffected by our presence and continued her morning duty of sleeping as much as she could. It was a treat to experience the ‘king of the jungle’ at such close range.

Janco

2011/12/16