The hunt

When we arrived at Kapama Game Lodge, the first thing I asked the game warden there is if we will be able to spot a cheetah when we went out. And his answer was "No, because there are no cheetahs on Kapama". I don't know why I thought they have cheetah there (maybe it is something to do with the fact that right next door to Kapama there is a cheetah breeding farm, with a programme for introducing cheetah back into the wild), but having already seen all of the Big Five on this trip I was looking for something more. And I must admit that his answer left me feeling kind of.... cheetahd (sorry, couldn't resist that one, hehehe). But we did see something almost as good.
It was late afternoon, the shadows were already getting long. We were driving through Kapama when we came across a group of two-three wildebeest grazing in the bushes. We hadn't gone more than a hundred metres further when our tracker spotted this lioness crouched in the grass, looking very intently at the wildebeest. From the expression on her face it was obvious that she had a vision of wildbeest kebab in her near future.

The wildebeest, on the other hand, were very nervous, and didn't fancy themselves at all as the main attraction in the lioness's menu. Our guide told us to sit very quietly and not to use flash when taking pictures, and maybe we'd be lucky enough to witness the lioness making a kill. The tension in the air was so thick you could actually feel it. Looking through the lense of my camera I could see the lioness, and the cruel intensity of her gaze made my blood run cold, literally. People talk about a piercing gaze but believe me this was bloodcurdling. Then she began to make her move. Without moving her gaze from her prey she began to slink forward. My heart was beating like a jackhammer, I was literally holding my breath as she crept close and closer to the wildebeest.When she judged she was close enough she charged.But as she started forward the wildebeest turned and ran. She chased them a couple of metres, but the distance was too great, so she turned.... And she went right past our vehicle! She RAN RIGHT NEXT TO OUR VEHICLE! She was only a couple of metres from our vehicle she was so frickin' close and she turned those cruel hungry eyes and looked at our tracker, who was sitting right on the bonnet of the vehicle... He didn't budge a muscle, not so much as a twitch. And then she stopped right next to me and looked off to where the wildebeest had run. And I raised my camera, and I was almost too afraid to take a picture, in case the click of the shutter would draw her attention. Just to keep her from looking at me.You can see how lean and hungry she looks. Then she lay down and rested for a few minutes.
After a couple of minutes rest she got up, and walked off into the bush, and I heard someone saying "I haven't been so excited since the first time touched a girl's tit".
We followed her at a respectable distance, to where she had left her cubs. There was a male and a female, you can see the male here marking his territory. She lead them away and we followed. They were quite big, the male was almost as big as the mother, but they were still pretty playful, like a pair of overgrown kittens.
The mother lead the cubs to a watering hole, where they drank for a bit and then rested.Here's the male cub after drinking his fillMother and daughter:A yawn or a roar? You decideAnother shot of the young male:
Later, when we stopped for a rest everybody was talking about the experience, and I asked the tracker if he had been afraid when the lioness went so close to our vehicle and he said "A little, but I just sat there and didn't move". Then the guide explained that although your first instinct is to run away as fast as you can it is not the correct thing to do. If you stay stock still the lion will probably ignore you. So I said that my first instinct would have been to piss myself, and one of the other guest who heard me laughed and agreed.
Check out more of my pictures of lions
Next: Elephants on parade