My drive at River Bend Lodge started off on a rather chilly summer morning when my guests and I decided to try and relocate the lions we saw the previous evening. Judging from Jed who visited the same sighting around 7pm the day before, I thought the lions must be more or less in the same spot as all I could hear was hyenas calling and the lions trying to locate each other as they kept roaring.
We came across a clan of hyenas drinking at the waterhole, when the next minute I looked up to see one of the dominant male lions approaching the waterhole. At first I thought the hyenas were going to run away but they stayed put. Slowly approaching the waterhole the lion did not seem to pay attention to the hyenas as they all huddled closely together, probably also waiting to see what the lion was going to do. He got to the waterhole and started drinking for a good quarter of an hour while the clan of hyenas just anxiously watched him.
He then walked off in a northerly direction and I thought it was the last time we were going to see him, when I suddenly heard a loud noise coming from the same direction and all of a sudden there were three more lions just behind the bush chasing each other! Suddenly we were watching two male lions chasing away a young male with some serious action. With the noise of lion fighting, three of the hyenas disappeared and the other two scurried off into another direction.
The one male chased the poor youngster and didn’t stop for a good 3 km while the other one stayed with the lioness.
When we eventually decided to turn back I heard another noise from the bush. A kudu was being killed by the three hyenas! Within a few minutes another hyena came out carrying a hind leg of the kudu covered in blood! We stayed with this scene for a while and en-route back to lodge came across the young male lion who got chased. Before I managed to stop the vehicle he jumped to the side, disappeared and re-emerged with a warthog piglet in his mouth! Obviously, the chase did not affect him as much as it did my guests! Late for breakfast, but another day in paradise.”
We came across a clan of hyenas drinking at the waterhole, when the next minute I looked up to see one of the dominant male lions approaching the waterhole. At first I thought the hyenas were going to run away but they stayed put. Slowly approaching the waterhole the lion did not seem to pay attention to the hyenas as they all huddled closely together, probably also waiting to see what the lion was going to do. He got to the waterhole and started drinking for a good quarter of an hour while the clan of hyenas just anxiously watched him.
He then walked off in a northerly direction and I thought it was the last time we were going to see him, when I suddenly heard a loud noise coming from the same direction and all of a sudden there were three more lions just behind the bush chasing each other! Suddenly we were watching two male lions chasing away a young male with some serious action. With the noise of lion fighting, three of the hyenas disappeared and the other two scurried off into another direction.
The one male chased the poor youngster and didn’t stop for a good 3 km while the other one stayed with the lioness.
When we eventually decided to turn back I heard another noise from the bush. A kudu was being killed by the three hyenas! Within a few minutes another hyena came out carrying a hind leg of the kudu covered in blood! We stayed with this scene for a while and en-route back to lodge came across the young male lion who got chased. Before I managed to stop the vehicle he jumped to the side, disappeared and re-emerged with a warthog piglet in his mouth! Obviously, the chase did not affect him as much as it did my guests! Late for breakfast, but another day in paradise.”
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RiverBend Nominated for an Award!
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to everyone that nominated us for this fantastic award. We have been nominated for three separate categories during this month on The Good Safari Guide site, namely: Best property in SA 2009; Best Lodge Guiding Team 2009 as well as Best Safari Cuisine 2009. Experienced travel specialists such as Tour Operators, travel agents, journalists etc. can nominate their favourite property online until the 10th of March 2009
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to everyone that nominated us for this fantastic award. We have been nominated for three separate categories during this month on The Good Safari Guide site, namely: Best property in SA 2009; Best Lodge Guiding Team 2009 as well as Best Safari Cuisine 2009. Experienced travel specialists such as Tour Operators, travel agents, journalists etc. can nominate their favourite property online until the 10th of March 2009