The ladies from Kwang

When you see lions on the move it is invariably a great thrill, but mostly when you come across them they are taking time out. It's almost like watching the grass grow. They stretch out and sleep and generally take it easy and you can sit and watch them for hours and nothing happens other than changing positions and getting more comfortable.

But even so, if you choose your moment you can get some gems, because they are after all still cats.

Like domestic cats they do have a need to press up against another living being.

Taking a break - or just lion about

These two lionesses, at Kwang in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park are doing what lions are so adept at doing....taking a break. It does not matter where you find them, or how big or small they are, a cat will remain a cat. They know how to make themselves comfortable and ignore the world around them.

Most people who see the lions in the wild go completely moggy and entrench themselves alongside these felines for the day. As magnificent as they are I find that there is a limit to how long I can sit and watch lions sleep. These two were part of a much larger pride that we came across early in the morning and after watching them for a while left. When we returned in the late afternoon, they were still taking it easy.

Meet Roy...the undisputed king

Roy was born in the Park in 2007 and at the moment he is definitely the dominant male at Addo. His father was one of the Kalahari dark maned lions introduced to the Park many years ago, but he has since been relocated.

Roy was on the move when I took this shot and was walking directly towards the car. He passed so close by that I could have reached out and touched him, but there are some things you do not do where lions are concerned.

Meet Gina

Gina has become one of the iconic lionesses of the Addo Elephant National Park. Everyone loves to see her. I was hoping to get a glimpse of her cubs when I took this photo, but no luck there I am afraid, maybe next time.

Skywatch Friday - Harvey's Tree

I don't know who Harvey was, or why one of the roads at the Addo Elephant National Park was named Harvey's Loop, but I do know that near the Southern entrance to the loop is a ficus tree that has its own Facebook page and followers.

Harvey's tree as it has come to be know was systematically demolished by the elephants that moved into the Southern part of the Park, soon after it was opened. There was a lot of debate over the future of the tree and we all believed that the elephants would eventually destroy it completely, so we started a Facebook page to appreciate its resilience and monitor its demise or survival.

So far Harvey's tree has survived.

The tree has been photographed with a wide range of animal species grazing there, or just appreciating the shade. To name a few, these include lions, elephants, zebras, warthogs, hartbees and ostriches. When I took this shot there was just one humble Hadeda Ibis scavenging through the grass.

This view is looking south towards Algoa Bay which has disappeared in the horizon.

Gina, one of the lionesses from the park was enjoying the shade here some month's back, She has three delightful cubs now and does not show them off too often and I am hoping to see them soon.

Looking northwards towards Harvey's tree from Vukani Loop on a gloomy day, with the Winterhoek Mountains in the background. Click on the photo for a better view.

Go to the Skywatch site to link to many more great photos from around the world.

Felis leo - the king

Coming across lions in the wild is always a thrill. I don't know what it is. Maybe its their size or their raw power, or the fact that they are just plain dangerous. But whatever it is these big cats do have a certain aura about them.

There are nine of them in the Addo Elephant National Park and if you know more or less where they hang out, you may just see them. But they spend about sixteen hours of the day sleeping or just lying about and if they are in the thick bush you will never find them.

This is one of two young males that lives in the Southern part of the Park that happened to be walking along the road we were driving along. On this occassion he was on a mission. The sighting was a fleeting before he and his brother disappeared into the thick bush.

Addo Trip #3 - Getting back to the lions

This is the young male who waited at the water hole the day before, for the hartebeest to arrive. This morning he was enjoying basking in the early morning sun.

After looking for the lions for four years, it was nice to get up close and personal - well not too close and personal.

Addo Trip - Time for the lions #1

I don’t enter many competitions and generally don’t win anything, but, last year I was delighted to win a weekend away for two at the Addo Elephant National Park.  All I had to do was post a picture of me that was taken at the Park, and the rest is history.

This weekend Suzi and I claimed our prize, which was a two night stay at the Matyholweni Camp. The camp is set on the side of a hill in a valley, where the only sounds to be heard were the songs of the birds and frogs and crickets around us. What a pleasant change from the sounds of the city.

This turned out to be one of our most memorable trips to the Park ever. It was almost as though a special show had been put on for us.

For the past four years we have been on the lookout for lions and were beginning to believe they were a myth, but on our last trip we did get to see two rather large males, which gave us hope. This time we had four sightings of six lions during our two day stay.

The highlight was coming across these three young lions. Well it did not seem like it at first.

After spending so much time looking for them I casually remarked to Sue, “Lions are such boring animals; all they do is lie around doing nothing.”
But Mother Nature must have heard me, for it was not a minute later that an unsuspecting hartebeest came strolling down the hill for a drink of water. When he was still a long way off the seemingly comatose large male suddenly came alive and all the sat up fully alert. The three seemed to have a quick confab.

The large male then he ran off into the bush to the left of the waterhole and the female ran off to the right. The third fellow just made himself comfortable and remained where he was. “Lazy bugger,” I thought.

It was only when the unsuspecting hartebeest arrived that I realised I was witnessing the lions hunting strategy first hand. By this stage the young male was crouching low ready to launch himself, at what he must have believed was his dinner.

The hartebeest quickly realised his blunder and only had one option open to him and that was to make good his escape through the field in front of him – not realising there were two more lions lying in wait, for that exact move.
When the lion launched himself, the hartebeest took off, as only a hartebeest with a lion in pursuit can take off. In a matter of seconds there was nothing to be seen as hey disappeared over the ridge and we were left wondering whether the poor creature had been caught or not.

A few minutes later we had the answer, as the three unsuccessful and disconsolate hunters returned to the waterhole quite breathless.

They were soon stretched outagain, as only cats can, as though nothing had ever happened. Anyone who arrived after the hunt could be excused for thinking that butter would not melt in this fellow’s mouth.

Tales of snow and lions

This week has been marked with high winds, driving rain and snow in the mountains of the Eastern and Western Cape. It has also been very cold and we have heard that we are experiencing the coldest winter in 50 years.

With today being a public holiday the family jumped into the car and set off to see if we could find someof that snow. The first decision was which direction to take. We decided on Grahamstown, because there had been a heavy snowfall there, but of course the likelihood of any snow still being around was very remote. If not, we would still enjoy the drive we reasoned.

On the way granny announced that she would give R5 to the person who sees the snow first. Ethan immediately saw snow, but of course that was an effort to extort R5 from granny.

Grampa immediately raised the odds. "I will give R100 to the first person who sees a panda bear!"

This prompts a family debate about the likelihood of seeing a panda alongside the road, so grampa reluctantly decides to change the odds. "Ok, make that a lion." As an after thought he adds, "Make that a growly lion and not a smiley one."

So, what are the odds of seeing a lion alongside the road to Grahamstown? Not totally impossible, if the cat proof fencing, bounding the many private game parks on the way, is any indication. We have often seen eland, wildebees, zebras, blesbuck and impala in the area. And lions? Never.

As expected the snow had melted long before we arrived in Grahamstown, but we had a good lunch and then drove to a viewpoint outside the city and behold there in the distance was snow. If you look carefully (very carefully) at this photo you will see snow. Those white specs on the mountains in the distance...........you may want to try a magnifying glass.

We decided to go home via Alicedale and had not travelled very far when Jason, my son-in-law, said, "There's a lion!"

"Not possible," I think to myself. The car came to a sudden stop and we all baled out and sure enough, there was a lion.

"It's a smiley lion, not a growly lion," said grampa. 

 "It's a lion," granny replied not agreeing with him, "pay up."

After a brief debate on the nature of the lion, grampa reluctantly brought out his wallet and paid up. There are some arguments he reasoned with himself that cannot be won.

I still think it was a smiley lion. What do you think?

The king is resting

Isn't he a picture of contentment - it looks like butter would not melt in his mouth? The only reason I was this close was because he was on the other side of the fence, at the Seaview Lion Park.

The only lion I have ever seen in the wild was at the Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. It was a big male, crouching in the scrub at the side of the road, looking like he would like to make us his next meal.

During my days in the army, during the bush war in Zimbabwe, I spent a lot of time in the Zambezi Valley. It is a vast wilderness, teaming with wildlife of every kind and is still one of my favourite places on the planet. Although we never saw the lions we often heard them at night.

It was a very sobering experience, knowing that they were out there, but not knowing what their intentions were. We also knew of a guy who had recently been taken by a lion, while sitting around a camp fire at night, it simply leapt into the circle, grabbed him and disappeared into the darkness, before anyone could react.

We we young and without a sense of our own mortality and took solace in the fact that if it happened in our camp, it would be one of the other guys. Fortunately the lions left us alone.

The Lion King

This magnificent fellow was photographed at the Seaview Lion Park this afternoon. Its been many years since I last visited the park and it was ineresting to see their lion breeding project.