We found a pride of lion toward the end of our first night drive at South Luangwa. And the lion had found a herd of Cape buffalo. It was too dark to take many photos, and this was the only one I got that came out at all. But the lion and buffalo were doing a dance–the lion circling and the buffalo guarding their young. After several minutes, our driver said that we would have to leave. The gate to the park closes at 8PM and if he doesn’t get out by then he will lose his license. And the dance could go on all night. Another truck had just left, and we followed close behind.

Just after returning to camp, we learned that the lions had charged into the herd within two minutes of the time we left! They managed to grab an older buffalo, but then the whole herd charged the lions, driving them off of the buffalo, and charging into the place where the trucks were as well. The trucks had to quickly reverse to avoid the herd. Then the lions brought a young buffalo down. Our driver said that this is something that he only sees maybe twice per year. And we had just missed it!

But we did have a bit of lion-related excitement the next morning. The lions finished off the young buffalo during the night and were still hungry, so they brought down a second buffalo near a stream. We (and several other vehicles) found the lions and were able to see them enjoying their breakfast.

LionKill

Jolie hates this picture. “Dad, zoom out! Zoom out! The lion has his head INSIDE the buffalo! Zoom out!”

Some of those other vehicles blocked our way out, and everything got quite exciting when our vehicle slipped off the edge of the embankment, leaning into the ravine where the lions were feasting. It felt like we were dangerously close to rolling over into the stream, and the driver had us all get out (!) and stand with the vehicle between us and the lions. So we ended up on a walking safari about 20 yards from a pride of lions. When we got out, I saw that the vehicle was tipped far enough that one of the front tires was about a foot off of the ground, but dad’s picture of the vehicle makes the situation look much less exciting than it felt.

Truck Off Road

The gold-colored lumps on the opposite bank are two of the lions. There were seven all together.

I took a photo of dad & Taz with the lions in the background, but the lions are so blurry that they just look like rocks. Didn’t think it wise to stand there fiddling with the camera settings until I got it right!