WHAT A MORNING.

Got in the vehicle and I said “we want to find the big lion pride quickly and then go on a chase with wild dogs”. Everyone laughed.

Been out about 10 minutes our ranger scanned the river bed and said he found the lions. We did not believe him. We moved closer looking through the binoculars he was telling the truth there were the lions. Unfortunately they were on the neighbors property so we could not get closer. There were two big males, lots of females and 11 cubs still quite small. Visible with the naked eye but better through binoculars or a camera lens. The cubs were jumping and playing. The normal pattern for the lions is to move from that spot onto Lion Sands property so hopes high for this afternoon. During our time watching the lions lots of birds arrived and people had fun taking bird shots.

Then we left the lions and very quickly found wild dogs. It was a fabulous chase. The impala herd in front of us the dogs stalking low to the ground and sprung into action. They move so fast we were racing around trying to keep up with them as everything scattered in different directions. At one point impala running and the dogs chasing right in front of our vehicle. We heard the kill and within seconds we were on the kill. Won’t describe it or show it in a picture but they ate that impala so fast it was amazing. Never been this fast to a kill before. A hyena was in quickly he must have been trailing the dogs. He grabbed a piece of meat and the dogs then chased him off. All this in the clear just a few yards in front of the vehicle. Nice thing is that all of our vehicles got to see this action, although not at the same time but at different stages. But the scene is always changing and always active so everyone is thrilled with what they see.

Stopped for coffee and slowly headed back to camp. Right at the airstrip as two planes landed we saw more wild dogs. This time a totally different pack. This pack is seven dogs and one has a tail that is a stub. The pregnant alpha female has more white patches than any dog I have ever seen. They made a kill and were just resting but alert and walking around not sleeping.




Saddle Bill Stork.


White Egret.