FUR BALL!

I’ve been guiding for a while now and I’m not trying to sound snobbish or anything like that, but you do have moments where you start looking or hoping for that special moment which you have not seen yet. The other day was one of those moments that I’d been hoping for and it was a complete surprise.

That morning three of the Ximungwe female lions had killed a wildebeest and I thought that this would be a great start for the guests that were arriving that afternoon. I told the guests about these lions and funnily enough they hadn’t seen lions yet. They had already experienced a couple of days in the Kruger National Park, so they were super excited to be able to see lions.

Just before we arrived at where they had killed the wildebeest we saw one of the lionesses walking towards us and I told my guests that the kill was just around the corner and that she was probably going to drink at the water hole closeby. I suggested that we leave her and head to the kill rather because she would likely come back.

When we arrived at the kill there was only one female eating and the third one wasn’t there. After watching this one female eat for a while one of the other rangers which was on his way to also come and have a look at the lions on the kill came across the third female carrying her +/- 4 week old cub in her mouth to where the kill was. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and was soon about to see a lioness carrying a cub in her mouth!

We didn’t have to wait long and out of the bushes she came, strolling with this little fluff ball in her mouth. She carried this little thing for roughly 3 or 4 kilometres from where she had been hiding this cub. We presume she only has one because some of the other guides went there the next morning and there was still only one.

So this is what I’m talking about - those special moments that keep you going each day and remind you how special it is to be able to wake up in such a wonderful environment. I am very privileged indeed!

Posted: Exeter Lodges by Craig Parsons, Date: 24 July 2012