With guests staying for 6 nights it is always a challenge to keep them entertained for the duration of their stay and show them as much as possible without it becoming monotonous. We were already 4 nights in to their stay and with the big 5 already ticked off more than once I decided that we should go find the Southern pride again but this time doing a little more than their normal 21 hours of sleeping. So far during their stay we had seen the pride sleeping on a number of occasion but were also fortunate enough to see one of the Kruger males mating with one of the Southern Pride females.
As we left the lodge we picked up tracks for two of the females and we immediately set out to track them. It wasn’t long before we realised that they were following the buffalo herd. We eventually caught up with the buffalo herd and found the lions taking cover in a small river as the buffalo had been chasing them. In the same location we had a large herd of elephants that ended up chasing the lions south into the next reserve. Engrossed in the action taking place btween the lions and the elephants we were not aware that one of the other lionesses had made her way around the other end of the herd. As I turned I saw the buffalo charging through the bush chasing this female.
We made our way around the other side of the herd to get a better look and were all charged with adrenalin as the buffalo chased the lioness and she then returned the favour. This action went on for about 15 minutes with the to and fro battle heavily favouring the 400 strong buffalo herd. The lioness was trying to get around them to join up with the pride again hoping that the numbers would assist the lions in evening out the odds.
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The lion’s attempts were weak as they were carrying laden bellies from the buffalo that they had pulled down the night before. It is always a great sight to see such eternal enemies fighting it out and also a great sighting for my 6 night guests to see what lions do when they are not sleeping.