After the assassination of Manie in the kitchen at the hands of Ana with a wooden spoon we set out on a Blade focus. We pooled together the cars and the telemetry equipment and had much more success. We had a brief spotting of the cheetahs in dense scrub and then came across a group of rather curious giraffes:
We found the lion pride with Blade and Marmite both with them. They had made a kill and the males were eating as one of the lionesses sat panting from the exertion of the hunt and then licking her paws:
They allowed us to drive very close to them. At one point a lioness approached us from behind to join the others to eat:
We also got good views of Blade resting with a full belly:
A slightly daunting but fascinating and awesome sight.
There is another side plot to this pride. A female left to have a cub several weeks ago and is yet to return. It is hoped that a reunion will occur while we are here so that we can see them both and find out how the cub is accepted. It is unclear what Thika's status and location is, although she is radio tagged. The staff believe that Thika is being patient and will introduce the cub to the pride when she feels ready to. We shall wait and see.
After a relaxing break in the afternoon we went on a night time Blade focus after dinner and found the lions in the same place as this morning, presumably with the same kill. It was an experience I will never forget.
On our way to them we caught site of a rarity, a white rhino. I felt extremely lucky to see one and certainly didn't expect to. In the darkness it was very difficult to get pictures, as we intermittently aimed the floodlight at it. My best picture is this one showing the rhino's outline:
John was driving our vehicle and when we got to the pride (without guns) he was happy to bumble right in amongst the lionesses who were bold and comfortable with our presence. We were literally metres away and at first things were going well.
Then the other vehicle, which had been unreliable all day, failed to start up. We positioned our vehicle between the lions and the stopped car when Manie proceeded to get out of his car and get under the bonnet to spin the cam belt while the key was being turned. It fired up and Manie crept back in and drove home. My intuition told me that we should have done the same...but we didn't. You get the idea about the lax attitude to health and safety here!
We continued to bumble around and twice a lioness walked a few metres to my left, one time stopping to look at me while I held my breath and heard her breathing before she walked on. One lioness also walked behind the car as we were moving away. Imagine the scene, pitch darkness with the sound of the males who were contentedly roaring and the sound of bones being crunched as the males fed on the carcass out of site while the lionesses sit next to us:
Here is a bad picture of Blade. This doesn't do justice to his size. He is a massive cat:
When two lionesses lied down in front and to the side of our vehicle I was ready to go home:
When we finally left, we drove away but instead of leaving by the easiest route, we appeared to be driving into the area of bush where the carcass was. As we drove through a gap in the vegetation a lioness began to follow us at a distance of only feet. Although she wasn't aggressive she sped up and slowed down as we did. As we picked up pace she quite purposefully started to run after us, eventually becoming lazy and losing interest. It was the most unnerving experience with a wild animal I have ever had.
When we got back to base John, who stayed calm throughout, assured us of the normality of the lionesses' behaviour. At night they become more confident and are very used to these vehicles and they curiously chase them at times. I continued to think that we were too close, parked quite literally within the pride and I was relieved to get to bed!
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