Balule - Kruger National Park Continued

Early next morning we headed out again in search of the Lions, they had been calling throughout most of the night and at daybreak we also heard Hyena and Baboon alarm calls so we were hoping to see some action if we were lucky.

We came across a Jackal where we had seen one the day before, we suspected there maybe a den close by. Suddenly we glimpsed two Hyena close to where we had seen the Lions the night before on the way back to camp, before we could get closer they ran off into the bush, had the Lions made a kill? 

However, there was no sign of any this morning, maybe they had met up with the courting couple and wandered off to pastures new, either way it was a disappointment.  

As it was a lovely morning and we were now up and about we decided to head out towards the West of the park, it would be a good days drive but we had all the time in the world.

The decision certainly paid off as by 9am we came across a new Lion pride and this one was 10 strong with three large adult males, three Lioness, three sub adult males and just one yearling female cub. The poor cub was clearly at a disadvantage when it came to getting her share of food and had obviously been badly injured in the past as she had a nasty looking scar across one eye where she had been cuffed and appeared to have lost  the eye.

Like the courting couple they were mostly hunkered down in the grass trying to get as much shade as possible so photography was difficult, soon we were joined by a couple of other vehicles so we stayed for just an hour then decided to continue westwards and see how things were on the return journey.

We stopped for lunch at a picnic spot called Timbavati close to the river but with all the rain it was very overgrown and nothing could be seen. After lunch we turned back towards the Lion pride but when we got there we found they had moved, we knew it was unlikely they would be far and we eventually found them about 500 metres away, still hunkered down in the grass so unless you knew they were around it was unlikely you would spot them.

We decided to sit it out and hope they became more active, a few cars came along slowing as they went past but we made out we were engrossed looking at birds and avoided any eye contact, after all this effort we didn't want to share our Lions if we could avoid it!

Eventually a few cars did notice what was going on and stopped behind us, everyone sat waiting for any opportunity to grab their cameras whenever a head popped out of the grass. By now it was mid afternoon and getting very hot and sticky so I settled down for a doze while Sue worked on her journal, people just don't realise how tiring game viewing can be!

By 5.30pm the Lions were still showing no signs of moving, its very frustrating when this happens as you know that in a hour or so they will be up and about providing some good photo opportunities but we were still over a hours drive from Balule and having been late back the night before we didn't want to push our luck.

The good thing was it was the end of February and the weather was getting drier plus we had seen more Lions in the last two days than we had seen in the last two months. Hopefully March would continue to bring some good sightings and this time we would get some decent photo's.

                                                                           back