The Lions on the day two had given us enough matter to talk about for our lives. We had been up close, watched them from the relative safety of an open jeep, only a few feet away. However, unexpected is often spelt in bold in nature and that is what separates a safari from a Zoo visit. Our ability to handle the unexpected was tested on this day. By the time it finished, it seemed as if the day of the Lions had stretched for far too long. But we were not complaining. We simply had to gather our wits and keep them at bay for sometime, for this day truly was a roller coaster ride.
This morning we witnessed a loud wake up call which was felt deep within. It seemed to be coming from right behind the tent. When we gathered our senses, we realised that the quiet of the previous morning had played truant. There were hyenas shrieking, elephants bellowing and the Lions added a huge seasoning to this loud wild broth, to say nothing of the cacophony of the lesser ones. We sat huddled in the deepest middles of our precious little tents unable to see beyond a few yards. They seemed close, way too close for comfort. There was an inner revolt raging to witness the huge battle as it was being played out just beyond the eye sight and the urge to remain safe in the false cocoon of a cloth tent. Despite the bravest shows we put on, we remained huddled in the tent and looked out through the windows to catch glimpse of a movement in the dark, a flash of an eye. Nothing but the war of the wild greeted our ears. A wondrous Morning greeting indeed!!
A quick and early breakfast and we were off on the fresh scent of the battle of the morning. The noises had died down since. As we searched for the remains of the action, we ran into a dead end every where. It was the most frustrating experience to have heard everything closely but be able to see it not. We had ventured nearly a kilometre from the tents but there was nothing but trees, upturned logs, fallen logs and more trees. It was the time when the joy of being a bird enthusiast was revealed. The birds had existed all around us yet so focussed were we on the tracks of the elusive Hyenas and Elephants that we had missed them. Yet as the glimmer of hope of seeing any animal dimmed, the chatter of the birds broke through and we began enjoying the birds again. They were delightful and absolutely entertaining. It was while enjoying the birds that we heard the noise again.
A series of searches later we emerged amongst the largest congregation of Lions we had seen till then. They were competing for a piece of the kill slapping, growling, fighting their way to the piece. A gruesome picture indeed but a worthy reminder of the wild and its ways. Ace concluded by letting us know that maybe the Hyenas had hunted down a baby elephant, while the elephants had maybe put up a fight but probably the Hyenas had cleverly managed to separate the baby from the herd. The Lions had apparently, reached the site late and were now fighting for leftovers as hyenas had scurried off with most of the kill. It seemed unbelievable to hear of hyenas hunting an elephant. However, I did recall a particularly blood curdling cry in the morning. Maybe it was the baby calling out just when the pack of Hyenas gathered around with their laughs ready to pounce, maybe the mother realised that the baby was going to be killed and called out in utter despair. It was not the only guttural lament we would hear that day. The feast of leftovers for lions and lionesses was far from over but we had had enough of it and decided to move on.
The day continued to be amazing with exceedingly beautiful bird sightings especially on the water bodies, the names of the birds would be too numerous to put down. The crocodiles and logodiles on the banks and the ones in the water, the eagle eating a fish perched on a high branch of a dead tree, the hippos cooling off in the water, the playful cries of the hippos, the impalas on a white sand bank of a shrinking lake, the baby crocodiles cooling off with their mouth open, the search for an elusive Meyer’s parrot which sounded very close, the Ibises, the cranes and the ostrich again. The playful elephants swimming in the large pool dunking each other under, the cautious Elephant who puffed and kicked while we watched him take a mud bath and how Ace talked to him and calmed him down. The list seems endless. But the icing on the cake was the close encounter with a wild elephant while we were walking towards our lunch and the sight of African Wild Dogs, an endangered species. We were still far away from the camp when the sun was close to the horizon and Ace was in a hurry. We had no real time to look at the lone Lion in the distance. So much had changed in a day!
The fire side was thick with individual accounts of the day. Each person described the thing they connected with and maybe for a moment we were lost in our memories of the day. The Dinner was done and yet we talked away in the dead of the night and the fire logs kept us going. Only the truly cautious person could have spotted the lion in the background. In the dark, it was not easy at all. The discovery of a lion in the camp was a shock. It took maybe a few seconds to come to grip with reality by then we realised that there were more than one!
Good for us, we had an experienced guide who got us immediately to safety and over the next crucial hour we slowly chased all of them away! The camp once again was quiet but the Lions were not. Barely minutes out of the camp, they killed. The haunting cries of the prey were a reminder of the cry in mournful cry in the morning and it would linger on in my mind. Having seen it play out in front of the eyes in the morning, the subsequent loud jostling by Lions for the food is best left without description. It was a day to remember with a night that inspired the best and the worst in us and showcased the wildlife at its purest. An immediate sleep took over when we lay down even while the Lions fought for their grub in the background.
