On a recent NB21 Desert & Delta tour, Stephanie had the sighting of her dreams..

As guides we are privileged to spend many hours in the bush throughout the year. Different seasons, different areas, different sightings … One could think that as an experienced guide we have seen it all, but there is a first time for everything. For me specifically I still haven’t seen the birth of an animal in the wild (I was late by minutes for springbok and buffalo), I have yet to see leopards mating (had them mating next to our car completely hidden in a bush) or a crocodile make a kill! Well there are many more things but these just came on top of my head thinking about sightings that I hope to see one day …

This recent tour though gave me the number one on my list! A successful kill by lions. Yes, I just gave it away but how it happened and how much patience it took to see it go through, only the clients, Lloyd my colleague and I know!

Etosha was the place to deliver, Okondeka waterhole to be precise! We were told there were lions by another Sunway group and made our way there. Upon arrival we saw one female clearly, the others were just partly visible (a tummy and a couple of legs in the air) so we weren’t sure exactly how many cats we were looking at. One of the females got up, and to our surprise started calling which gave us quite the thrill as this was very unexpected and amazing to hear! After all it wasn’t dusk or dawn, nor were her pride mates far from her. But here she was calling, giving us a great audio treat. Two cubs got up and ran towards her, jumping on her and demanding some play time. However she had none of it and the two soon busied themselves with stalking a drinking giraffe. I am sure the giraffe was uber scared of these two small felines approaching!

The female was roaming the grass patches and we couldn’t quite make sense of her behaviour, she looked as if she wanted to go on a mission but was lacking the back-up to do so. Soon after she went and flopped herself back down. We moved our vehicle to a different spot just to see the playful cubs a bit better and took in the amazing scenery that is so typical for Etosha; oryx, ostriches, giraffes all in the distance and the geat white pan in the back. Two jackals chasing each other while the lions started to get more and more awake.

 

 Just when our clients were ready for us to move on, the female on a mission and her sister got up and within minutes were in hunting mode. They had to jump across a small water stretch and this gave us a great display of just how powerful these cats are and also just how incredibly weary they are of water!! Not much different to our house cats. Lloyd and I were both excited and ready for the action to unfold. The clients didn’t yet fully believe what they were seeing and after the females disappeared behind a hill, they were convinced this game was over already. We disagreed, as we saw the beautiful appearance of the two male lions that got up and approached the evil of all waters that needed to be crossed. The oryx in the far distance just had no idea but we did and so we waited … and waited … and waited some more.

 All of a sudden the two magnificent males felt the urgency and one after the other jumped across the water (after testing it multiple times and not having it!). Soon after, they were stalking behind the long grass and within a couple of seconds the action unfolded in such an incredible manner, I cannot exactly remember the words that came out of our mouths!! The oryx came running around the hill, no females in sight but the males in the perfect spot to come from the side. One oryx took a wrong turn and within a split second the one male lion was on its back … Clients took videos and photos, but not me. I was too mesmerised and watched the whole scene with my binoculars. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Secretly hoping to see a successful hunt, I never expected it to really happen but there it was, the sound of an animal dying. The cubs that were told to not interrupt the hunt were soon joining the dinner scene. It happened to far away for us to really see much but the hunt itself we saw. And then time was also not on our side and we had to get back to camp. To breathe and to get to grips what just happened. Amazing. Incredible. Unbelievable … You never know what to expect in the bush! 90 minutes of patience turned out to be 90 minutes of the best lion behaviour one could wish for: cubs playing, female calling, yawning and stretching, jumping across waters and a successful hunt!