As the sun was rising over the horizon, the still, quiet of the early morning was shattered by the cries and laughs of the pack of hyenas who were trying to distract the pride of lions which had stalked and finally killed a buffalo. As soon as we were able to get out on a vehicle, we went in search of the lion kill. We were following the cries and the tracks of the hyenas, but were unable to catch a glimpse of the lions or the hyenas for that matter…
It was early evening when we received a radio call from Bevan. We all waited in anticipation as Phourie answered the radio. We were convinced that the other vehicle had found the lions. We were wrong, he had not found lions, but instead a pack of wild dogs had made their way down to Horseshoe bend. We raced to the scene and were able to catch a glimpse of a pack of wild dogs just finishing off a meal of impala. They were a little hesitant to come out of hiding at first. We decided to sit tight and see what happened. We were rewarded with a fantastic sighting as all the dogs made their way out of hiding and proceeded to finish off their meal a few meters from the vehicle. We sat watching them for as long as 30 minutes or so. This pack of wild dogs is quite elusive and we were very lucky to have seen them, especially on a kill. They were very relaxed which made for a brilliant sighting.
Wild Dog after impala kill
More wild dog after Impala kill
After seeing the wild dogs we were sure that nothing more would be seen on our drive back to the lodge, but we were very mistaken. The last thing we expected was to see lion as they had been so elusive the past few days. It was dark as we made our way back along the sandy roads and as we turned a bend the spotlight fell on two young lions lying in the road. We were all very excited. The lions moved off the road and walked past us to carry on walking down the road. We turned around and continued to follow them down the road. In the end there were six young lions in the pride all walking single file down the center of the road. We followed them until they again disappeared in the thick bush and were gone.
Lions on night drive
Young male lion on night drive
All six of the lions had full stomachs, so we imagine that they had made their way from their buffalo kill and were patrolling their newly claimed territory. Hopefully they will make the park their new home and we will be able to see them more often than in previous months.
As always there were plenty of elephants around. We encountered a number of breeding herds with plenty of young ones. A few of the mothers were a little grumpy with us being there, so we had a look and moved on so as not to agitate them any further.
A few of the young bulls were trying to show us who’s boss, by kicking up the dust and giving us a few mock charges. But in the end the vehicle ruled the roost.
Male Elephant
Male Elephant kicking up dust
