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Published: June 17th 2017
01 First Visit
The male lion's first visit to the waterhole at 2:30am.Geo: -23.4683, 24.2358
During the night once again we heard lions contact calling to each other. Yesterday afternoon before leaving the waterhole we set up our camera trap to see which animals would come past during the night. On the camera trap we saw that at 2:30am a male lion walked past to have a drink and then he returned at 5:30am to drink.
At first light we got up and drove to the waterhole. Then we saw him, a male lion sitting in the grass, he got up, stretched and sat down again. Close by on the other side of the track was the lioness. The sun was rising, so luckily there was enough light to take photos. We then noticed that he was collared for research purposes. The male got up and walked towards her. She didn't seem interested in him and bared her teeth. Then the action began – he chased her and she ran! He then gave her some space. Now they had moved into an area where there were lots of little purple flowers, which added some nice colour to our photos. He was still trying to mate with her and she still wasn't in the mood.
02 Drinking
Drinking water on his first visit at 2:30am. He then climbed up on a fallen down tree and looked around. He seemed to be frustrated and restless. Once again he walked after her. They were starting to walk away from the track and soon we would not be able to follow them. We followed them and then stopped and watched them as they walked off into the bush. It had been over an hour that we were watching them for. The exciting thing was that we could have had the chance to see them mate. In the end they choose to mate in private, far from the track in an area out of bounds for us.
We drove around the waterhole and saw just a few birds. I imagine that any other animals would be scared away from this area after hearing the lions.
Then we drove back to our camp site and had breakfast. We had a delicious breakfast of toasted jaffles with cheese, tomato, onion, mushroom and bacon for Paul. Then we chilled at the camp site for a few hours. Later in the morning we drove back to the waterhole. I was hoping that the lions would have returned. No such luck. There were only birds
03 Finished
He has finished drinking. to be seen.
Patiently we sat in the car, reading, chatting, enjoying a few cold drinks, and regularly looking into the distance with the binoculars for approaching animals.
Every now and again we went for a little drive in the area. There wasn't too much point in doing a lot of driving as the animals would come to us here at the waterhole. Nearby we saw a small herd of gemsbok that were running and then they stopped and became comfortable with our presence. They waved their tails and shook their ears to stop the flies from landing on them. One even used its long horns to scratch its back. Not long after a herd of springbok also came into the area. Then we spotted the large Secretary Bird walking around and slowly coming closer to us.
On the way back to the camp site we stopped to watch one of my favourites – a Ground Squirrel. It was nibbling away at its lunch. Back at camp Paul and I had our lunch. We had only been back for about half an hour and I was already restless. So I went for a short game drive back to the waterhole.
I
04 Second Visit
The lion's second visit to the waterhole at 5:30am. saw a journey of six giraffe that were slowly making their way down to the waterhole. This was exciting as I was hoping that I would see them drink. They were very cautious and quite skittish. They did get closer to the waterhole and then were scared off and ran away. I gave up and drove back to camp.
Once I stretched my legs, we both went on a game drive. Instead of sitting at the waterhole, we drove towards Moreswe Pan. This afternoon we saw ostriches, giraffes, a couple of male kudus and various bird species. Now it was getting late and we had to find a place suitable to turn around and then we headed back. On the way back we drove past the other 3 camp sites in the area and they were all vacant. There was no-one else around for miles! It was about 25kms to the nearest camp site where there might be other campers tonight.
Again we made a fire, sat around it, had a drink and chatted. When the coals were ready we barbecued corn, eggplant, mushrooms stuffed with feta & olives, veggie schnitzel for me and meat for Paul. We found camping
05 Rubbing
The lion rubbing his head on the ground. to be quite tiring and had an early night.
Probably the same time as we were having our dinner at around 8pm, our camera trap showed that a large pride of lions went to drink at the waterhole. Once again, during the evening at half past nine a few more lions, this time adult ones were photographed drinking at the waterhole.
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