Nsefu All Day Drive PT II, Lunch then Baby Lions

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Geo: -12.8546, 31.311

Still no eland and we stopped and had our nice lunch and then headed out again. Some of the usual repartee between Dora and James about finding some lions and so on. We went by the hot springs. Evidently they used to discharge much more water than is coming out at present but still pretty amazing in the middle of no where there is hot water bubbling up out of a pipe. Robert and James got out and washed their faces and let us take some pictures.

Then we found some buffalo and then a larger herd and James is on high alert! Drives to the edge of a riverbank and there are two female lions resting on the sand. One of them has a collar and appears to have been nursing cubs. This is putting it mildly, she looked like she had been really nursing because her teats were very swollen. So on we go in search of the cubs now.

Actually we are riding and waiting to see what we can see and James is doing more of his skillful searching for the lions. He had worked for another camp in this area and was very familar with the terrain and where to go for the best chances and we were not disappointed. Came up to an area and there were four adult lions resting and seven cubs! Couldn't help but exclaim but had to calm down and enjoy them.

The adults walked away but the cubs put on quite a display. One of them walked over to the group with a buffalo "pie" in his mouth and they proceeded to tear it apart. They also began to chase each other's tails, mock fight and other cub behavior. Quite a nice treat for the end of the day.

On the way out we saw a juvenile martial eagle catch some sort of small mammal and two giant eagle owls for a brief period of time. Late leaving the park but all the bridges were still there as we passed through on our way back to camp.

Cleaned up and ate dinner in the restaurant. While we were there we visited with Walter who was trying to get funding to set up a defensive perimeter around Lengwe National Park where he works to cut down on the poaching. He had actually seen a leopard as he had driven over to the restaurant area. Still waiting for our lucky day!

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