Midweek is sometimes quiet at the lodge but I had a chance this week to take two guests out on two morning drives before they departed the lodge. The guests had requested to see Lion and Elephant and this was what I set out to find, when I successfully managed to track the Western Pride (Lions) in the north west of the reserve.
They were doing what Lions do best, “laying down”, which of course is not very entertaining to watch! After staying with them for ten minutes and hoping that they would be active soon, there still was no action and we left them to search for Elephant. We found a herd of about twenty Elephants on Duikerhoek main road heading south towards Windmill plains. It was a great sighting and after spending some time with them, we called it a day.
The next morning, we decided to drive into the southern plains of the reserve. We had some “unfinished business” and again we searched for the big cats. This time it was only the two of us as the other guest decided to sleep in. We tracked their movements for quite some time but finally found the Lions in an area called Wendy’s Walk. Our search effort was aided by the call of Blue Cranes, the South African national bird, and Blue Wildebeest who were also alarm calling and facing the direction where the lions were busy feeding on a Red Hartebeest that they had killed early in the morning before we got there.
After this great sighting we stopped for a coffee break on the highest peak in the reserve called “Low Range Pass” from where we had a lovely view of the plains where the lions were feeding. We returned to the lodge happily, armed with good pictures of lions to show off to the guest who stayed behind!
