Lionesses 2, Sean 0. That was the situation by the end of our second attempt to find the Kambula Females, and I am not too proud to admit that the bush had thoroughly handed me my lunch.
The first morning was lost to mist so thick we could barely see past the bonnet. The second attempt ended with us soaked to the bone, our beach umbrella having abandoned its waterproofing somewhere in the first ten minutes of a downpour we definitely did not see coming.
But the Kambula Lionesses had been seen about a week earlier looking heavily pregnant, and we knew it was only a matter of time before they tucked themselves away to give birth. The plan was simple: find them, determine where they were denning, and try to piece together the next chapter of their story. The bush, of course, had other ideas.
The first attempt gave us a herd of elephants that loomed out of the grey mist like ghosts and then disappeared again, and not much else. A few days later, we tried again, this time running straight into the Gijima Males flat on their backs in the middle of the road, doing what lions do best — absolutely nothing. We left them to it and pushed on, only to get caught in the rain that finished off the umbrella and very nearly finished off us.
Then Megan called it in. She had found the cubs of one of the lionesses that morning, and we set off that afternoon with renewed hope and only slightly damaged pride. What followed is one of those drives that reminds you why patience is the most underrated skill in this job, and why sometimes the best sightings start with you switching the engine off and watching a fly fight a spider on the bonnet of your Land Rover.
Enjoy this Virtual Safari…
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on A Spider, a Sneeze, and Hidden Cubs | Virtual Safari #320