IN SEARCH OF LIONS!!!!!!!!! Evening Day #2.

"Hakuna Matata!


What a wonderful phrase




Hakuna Matata!

Ain't no passing craze

It means no worries

For the rest of your days

It's our problem-free philosophy

Hakuna Matata!" 

Music by Elton John & Lyrics by Tim Rice

We certainly were living in a problem free
philosophy state of mind..and this guy just reminded us as we started our evening drive.

He was large in every sense!

And as the song says....
"He could clear the Savannah after every meal!"
I guess they leave a bit of an odor! 

Even more rhinos!  Bruce was so happy!

 A little family here.

 Mama, Papa and Baby!!

We came to this beautiful ancient tree...
It is the Wedding Tree because
many folks have gotten married under it.

And you can see why.  There is a small clearing
under it right next to a small stream.....

                                         and look who we found there.

 We drove for a long time through deep grasses and rutty roads.... and the the guys stopped the truck...
and said, " Ok..  we are getting out here and you guys are
going to stay in the truck.  We are going to go do some
tracking"  ..and off they went with their guns... 

 Of course that left us without a gun!
We started planning our strategy if something would jump
out suddenly.  But nothing did and in about 15-20 minutes the guys returned...
having made a huge circle back behind us. 

                                AND THEY HAD GOOD NEWS!!!

No, this wasn't the good news... although it did tell
us that there was big game around.

So then Andrew drove to a place he seemed to
know and announced that we would soon
be seeing just want we had been looking for.

And then he pulled up to this little "circle of
life" friends....From the first spot there were
4 young lions... but then he drove back more into the 
bush so we could be a little closer.

The camouflage is unbelievable.

And we got Real Close to this little one year old lion.
He was about 8 feet from Bruce on his side of the truck. 

Then the others.... some young..

...some older

Some oldest...

Some sleepy...

Some curious...

But one great pride! 

Wonder what he is thinking? Or is it a she?
Some of these lions were young and you couldn't
tell if they were lions or lionesses. 

Fun to watch... They could have cared less
that we were there.

We were parked right here among the lions... right before sunset and before they really woke
up for their evening prowl. 

Five little lions sleeping in the bush..
one laid down and said "just hush"!

 The sun is starting to set and they are waking up.... but the lighting is getting to dark to take good pictures...

So, I enhanced this picture to show you what
they really looked like!  Their color was this rich.

Another young one whose head is too big for his body. 

AND THEN THE YOUNG ONE CLOSEST TO THE VAN.... YAWNED!  YES, THIS IS A REAL PICTURE!  HE DOESN'T NEED A DENTIST, THAT'S FOR SURE! 

The oldest one of the pride is looking alert all of a sudden.

The sun is dropping fast!

They are starting to wake.....

Noise a far distance away was making the lions stir..

These 2 must be related.

1 little lion sleeping with the bunch...
he laid down and missed his lunch.

The buzzards are getting the lions attention.
They had been flying in for some time..Andrew said that the buzzards would lead them to food.

I think this lion had a thorn in his foot or something.
He's checking it out. 

Can you see the pain in his face?

                       I wonder if he is thinking how 

            he will get dinner if he can't walk on his paw.

Still not quite ready to get up!  We had been 

with these guys for about 45 minutes and 

Andrew decided it was time to move out....

 When he pulled the truck up just a few more feet,
 we saw this sight on
the other side of the scrub bush.  
Seriously, we are now in the presence of 11 lions! 

So regal!

 And yet like giant kittens...

These guys must have been older because they had a lot more meat on their bones

Andrew had been trying to guide one of the other trucks to find us and they finally did.  Just before it got too dark to see.  We have now driven totally around this pride in a big circle!  They pay us no mind.

This is actually how far away we are...

But this is a closeup of this guy eyeing us
as the truck was moving.

Something is starting to happen.

They are all beginning to start the evening prowl.

This is the 2nd bunch and they are watching the large group start to walk RIGHT ahead of the other truck towards where the buzzards are in the tree.

There they go!!

Our friends in the other truck had a great spot to view them
all pass right along side of them...
much like our elephant did!
These shots aren't very good at the end because
it was just getting too dark.

So on the eve our 2nd day... we have now seen
all of the Big 5.  Our only hope for tomorrow would
be to get a glimpse of the King of the Jungle.

Some of the lions above are males,
but they are not mature yet.

After being so close to these great cats it
is easy to see why they call their families a pride!

They are so proud to be together and
it seems they do everything together.. at relatively
the same time.  

We feel like we are dreaming being here.
God had been so gracious to allow us to see
these fantastic creatures that He created up close
and personal.  It has been a real gift!

 Since being here we are coming to realize just how long
those National Geo shows must take to shoot!
They must camp out in the bush for months to get
just the scenes they want.

I don't know what I was expecting... I think just hoping
we would get to see some animals in their natural habitat.
but here in the Lukimbi area of Kruger National Park...
we have been blessed.

There is nothing more to say!
Except... what will tomorrow hold!
love,
margie