Surrounded by Lions!

We arrived in the Phinda (the "h" is silent) game reserve yesterday. This is a much nicer place than Zulu Nyana. I'll post pictures later. We had lunch and went out on a game drive where we saw a mother cheetah and her two children, and 2 lionesses with 8 cubs. By the time we saw the lions it was so dark that it was nearly impossible to get a good picture.

Steph says:

We drove out in completely open vehicles last night. Our first stop was after sighting a cheetah with her cubs who were hunting. They tried to catch a Nyala but failed and then went after a Wildebeest and also failed. I wondered if the presence of several safari vehicles interfered. Our ranger was driving through the brush and we had to duck our heads because we were surrounded by dense bushes with sharp stickers. We were crashing through small trees and bushes. It gave new meaning to cross country safari! It was wild.

After watching the Cheetahs for nearly an hour, we came upon a group of eight lion cubs and their two mothers. They were also hunting. We stalked them for two and one-half hours. There was interesting encounter with a Bull Elephant who was not pleased to be surrounded by them. He bellowed an flapped his ears. We quickly got away.

It finally became dark and according to our ranger, the lions had sighted a wildebeest. In the process they watched us and several times, they surrounded our vehicle. It was unnerving. We had no protection and had to rely on our ranger who did have a gun in front. He said that the woman in Johannesburg who was attacked was in a lion safari park where they feed the animals from vehicles so when she opened the window they thought it was a signal for food.

Nevertheless, we were completely exposed so when a male lion walked very close to my side of the car, I was unnerved. They are huge! Their paws alone are as big as two of my feet side by side.

We skipped the early morning drive but are going out later today again. Hopefully, it won't be for four hours. It gets cold and dark and windy. Also, crashing through bushes gets old quickly.