Katavi NP - Tanzania

Next day we awoke to a lovely sunny morning, as is her won't Sue's first job was to wander a short way into the bush for her morning ablution where she was watched intently by a very curious Vervet monkey, can't blame it, probably not something it sees every day of the week!

As we took the roof tent down a lone Hippo walked slowly past us. He was on his way back to the safety of the pool after his night time wanderings, without the ability to cool down even in the small amount of water that was left he would soon die.

Sure enough as we drove past the pool we could see how badly the Hippo's were struggling, it was the height of the dry season, no rain for over six months and day time temperatures in the high 30's. The pool was little more than a mud bath and good spots were at a premium so all day and night we could hear the Hippo's fighting, it was heartbreaking to see, some had already lost the battle and died, but we had to accept this was just natures way of re-dressing the balance.

We went in search of the Lions from last night, pretty soon we came across a big herd of Buffalo crossing the Donga with five of the Lions some way behind. The Lions didn't look as if they were about to hunt so we wondered where the rest of the pride was? As we crossed the Donga and swung around on the other bank we came across three of the youngsters keeping cool under a bush and a little way away two more adult Lionesses, only the males were missing - or so we thought.

We settled down to watch, up the valley close to our camp there was a lot of game on the move, Hippos, Ele's, Giraffe, Buffalo, Impala and a large herd of Zebra. A game viewer from one of the three exclusive tented camps in Katavi arrived on the opposite bank and stopped also waiting to see if the Lions did anything.

Suddenly Sue shouted, she had by chance looked up the valley at the herd of Zebra just in time to see a Lion running towards them! Iit was some way away so by the time I turned to look all you could see was clouds of dust as the Zebra's stampeded.

We raced off to see what was happening, the Zebra's had disappeared around a bend so we had to drive about a mile or so to catch them up. The people in the game viewer on the opposite bank clearly hadn't seen anything as they stayed put but as we drove off we knew the local driver would have noted our sudden departure and before long would follow to investigate what all the excitement was about so time was of the essence.

We drove back past our camp now on the other side of the valley, it was ironic that we had left there less than an hour before to look for Lions little knowing some must have been hiding in the bush close by.

A little further on we found them, two Lionesses had brought down a young Zebra, one Lion was still holding it by the throat while the other was licking the Zebra's hind quarters. Lions lick the skin off their prey in order to get rid of the hair but also in the dry season, like now, it maximises the fluid (blood) which they rely on to survive when water is scarce.

As we said we had in all our years never seen a Lion kill from start to finish, till now all the kills we had seen had happened before we arrived and the prey was dead. This was by far the earliest we had arrived at a kill, so early in fact that to our horror the Zebra was still alive, kicking out as the Lion at it's haunches started to eat it from the backside in!

Big Cat Diary and other TV shows always give the impression that the prey is dead before the Lions start to feast, not at all, this poor young Zebra was literally being eaten alive. The Lioness at the back started to pull out it's intestine while the Zebra still thrashed about, very gory, very horrific, but nature in the raw, how it really is.

It took five minutes for the Zebra to die, by now the game viewer from the exclusive camp had turned up on the opposite bank, the clients snapping away like mad. The Lionesses were in the middle of the Donga where neither of us could get close to them so all photo's had to be taken with Super Telephoto lens.    

All the other game had scattered when the Lions chased the Zebra but now it was over they started to drift back, its amazing how they knew the danger was over, soon the Lions were surrounded by a mixture of Buffalo, Zebra, Ele's and even a Hippo or two. 

A common misconception is that the other animals steer clear of Lions at all times, not so, quite often while Lions are resting up prey animals such as Antelope, Giraffe and Zebra will saunter by just a few yards away, instinctively knowing the Lions either cannot move quickly enough or not interested. 

Buffalo take it even further and when the opportunity presents itself i.e. when the outnumber them will actually harass and attack Lion.  Sure enough as the two Lioness ate the Zebra more and more Buffalo started to surround them, one Lioness bottled it and fled into the bush but the other wasn't going to give up without a fight.

Time after time the Buffalo took turns in charging her, each time she faced them down but in the end sheer numbers forced her to give in and walk away.  The other Lioness who had fled to the edge of the bush fared no better as another group of Buffalo attacked her forcing her even deeper into the bush.

As it was by now it was hot outside so the Lions wanted the shade anyway, for the other animals life returned to normal as the rest of the Zebra grazed peacefully next to their half eaten comrade who was by now a feast for the Vultures and Fish Eagles.

We left the scene to go back to camp, it was probable the Lions would re-visit the kill later when it got cooler. Sure enough when we revisited at 5pm on our afternoon game drive the Zebra had been pulled into the bush and three Lionesses were on it munching away, we looked at the odometer, we had driven just 475 metres from our campsite.

As these wouldn't be budging for a while we decided to head off in search of the rest of the pride before it got dark, we didn't have to go far before we came across five more Lions on the other side of the donga sleeping in the shade, a little way further up lay two big males with three more Lionesses, that meant we had 13 Lions in total within two kilometres of our camp and it was now dusk - happy dreams! 

Back at camp as it got dark we lit the kerosene lamps, candles and the fire, thankful that we had had our showers early. Hyena started calling very close to camp which in turn kicked off the Lions who in turn kicked off the Hippo who being closer drowned out everything.  The three Lionesses on the Zebra kill were closest of all the Lions to us but not a peep from them, they obviously didn't want to share their supper with the others.

Throughout the night Hyena, Lions and Hippo took it in turns to sound off, outside the light from the lamps it was pitch dark so we regularly shone the spot lights out to make sure nothing was creeping up on us. Loads of Hippo were out grazing around us, some even in the bushes just behind our camp and at one point we saw a Civet cat mooching about close by. Nocturnal and not a cat at all, they look more like a tabby racoon,  the Civet is a beautiful animal which is sadly badly persecuted, especially in the Far East, for its meat and the musk which it secretes.

We were pretty tired and so afraid of falling asleep next to the fire we went to bed at 10.30pm. Next morning we awoke to a sunny, hot and breezy day, as we were climbing out of the roof tent Sue jokingly said "keep an eye out for the girls" when I looked I was surprised to see the three Lionesses who had killed the Zebra were now less than 50 yards away to our right.

Two were playing together then they all slowly wandered off into the bush and we lost sight of them, for all we knew they could be right behind us. However nothing keeps a woman from her morning ablutions so clutching the loo Sue trotted off keeping a watchful eye out, yesterday a monkey, today Lions!

There was so much game moving about all around us that we didn't really need to go on game drives but we decided to go check where the other Lions were. There was no sign of the ones we saw yesterday so we carried on across the grasslands towards Lake Chada, which at this time of year is totally dry.

On the way we came across a load of big Crocodiles in the dry river bed, taking shelter inside caves they had excavated in the  banks. There was no where with water for these prehistoric monsters to go and it seemed inconceivable that they could survive without water but Crocs are amazing, trapped like this they are capable of entering into a state of suspended animation for months, even years.

The further we travelled the less game we saw, it was the height of the dry season so everything was congregated around the Hippo pool and the few other patches of water near to our camp, it was no wonder we had so much action. 

The scenery was lovely though, the only problem was the Tsetse flies which once we got into the forested areas were really bad. Before shipping Rupert we had air con fitted which we hardly if ever use as we prefer to keep the windows open, however, at times like this it becomes invaluable as there is no way you can leave windows open in bad Tsetse belts and survive for long. 

It was very quiet out at Chada so we headed back to camp, as we reached the donga leading up to our camp we suddenly came across a male Lion and a Lioness. The male was not the best looking specimen we had ever seen, he was a bit of a fat knacker whose mane was a bit moth eaten so he looked like a punk, he reminded us strongly of someone we know so we nicknamed him Heron, sorry Si!

Suddenly ahead another Lioness came out of the bush and trotted off down into the Donga. She was moving with some urgency so we wondered if she had seen some prey but when we caught up with her she was drinking from a small puddle of water obviously very thirsty. she drank for awhile then she wandered off into the palms and out of sight.

By now it was hot, very hot so we decided to drive back to camp have some lunch and chill out for the afternoon,  stopping on the way at the Hippo pool to fill up our Jerry cans with water from the borehole pump, so we could shower. 

Even though we could no longer see her we knew the Lioness wasn't far and we could still see Heron in the distance so whilst filling the Jerry's we were ever watchful. As we finished we turned to check the direction were we had last seen the Lioness and were gobsmacked to find she was close, very very close, probably less than 100 feet away.

She was in good condition, quite stocky in fact, so she didn't look hungry but even so as we looked she stopped and took a good long look at us clearly trying to decide what to do next.

The water pump overlooks the Hippo pool a few feet below and both are right next to the ranger camp and the main campsite. Up to now every time we had driven through or even walked here from our campsite it had been busy with either some of the Russians (who were camped on the main campsite) or at least one of the rangers getting water and watching the Hippos - but not today, the place was deserted, quiet as a grave, even the Hippos were keeping stum, had this made the Lioness more bold?

The golden rule when faced by Lion on foot is never never run, if you do they will surely see you as prey and charge and a human will never out run a Lion. No the thing to do is to face them, stand as tall as you can and make as much noise as you can in the hope they will be scared off, all the while walking slowly backwards in a zig zag motion, why zig zag? Well on top of it all you don't want to step in your own shit do you!

As it was Rupert was just a few yards away but up a steep sandy slope, if she did charge then we would have to move blooming fast. The three of us stared at each other for what seemed like ages, neither of us moving or flinching, for a second I seriously considered if the worse came to the worse jumping over the wall into the Hippo pool but that would have to be a very last resort.

As chance would have it just then a young ranger came out of one of the huts and at that the Lioness moved off back into the bush, what would have happened otherwise we will never know.

We planned to leave Katavi in two days time but we still needed to pay our bill, however the only one who was able to accept payment was Phillip, the head ranger who had shown us to our site on the first day, but he was away so it would have to wait.

Back at our camp we had brunch whilst a host of game wandered by right in front of us, Elephant, Giraffe, Zebra, Topi, Impala, Hippo, all trying to get some liquid from the scant amount left in the Donga. The day time temperatures were very hot, about 36C so our solar shower heated up very quickly once you laid it out in the Sun. We showered before going out on the evening game drive as we normally get back to camp just after Sunset and in Africa once the Sun goes down it gets totally dark very quickly.

Out on the drive we very soon came across another of the male Lions with three Lioness chilling out in the Donga next to a small pool of water. It showed how important it was for all the game now to stick close to what ever water was left and we were camped less than 1km away. This male was a new one for us which meant we now had three big males and at least eight females in the vicinity.

We drove on for a way but found as before the game thinned out as we left the water behind till all we had was Tsetse flies so we went back and had sundowners with the Lions. Back at camp once again we had the Lions and Hyena calling throughout the night and various Hippo mooching about in the bushes around the camp, they were really just wanting to get past but we had to stay alert.  Then we caught a Lioness in the spotlight just slowly ambling past about 50 yards away, she was seemingly ignoring us, still it was probably time to get into the tent.