THE LIONS OF KRUGER

My, what big teeth you have

LION...perhaps no other animal on earth puts more fear in the heart of man. Yet, the king of beasts inspires, no demands, awe and respect. There is just something about seeing lions in the wild that makes your heart race with excitement. Our good fortune with the big cats in Kruger Park kept up with the local lion prides. One afternoon we came across a huge black mained male lion relaxing beside the road. You could see his belly was full and his eyes were heavy with sleep. I hoped he had just eaten an impala. Kruger is loaded with them. The Kruger field guide estimates the park has over 26,000 impalas. I swear that we saw every single one.  Traveling through Kruger with a PH who grew up just outside the park was a huge advantage. He knew the park like I know the rolling hills of Jefferson County, PA. Frikkie stopped a park guide one evening. The guide was more than happy to share the location of the pride of lions he had seen earlier. He told us to take the first road to the left and just keeping driving. With our insider information we headed down one of the parks many dirt back roads. About 30 minutes later, we came upon a male lion with a few females resting in a small clearing. They all had bellies full of red meat and were just finishing giving themselves baths. They may act just like my cat Buck back home after a meal, but don't let the cute little kitty appearance fool you. A lion could take you out in one second with one swipe of their paw or one bite from their powerful jaws. Clearly on this evening one of the Kruger park animals had been dinner for this pride. As we watched lions being lions and snapped photo after photo, more females made their way out of the bush into the clearing. As dusk settled the entire pride made their way by us and plopped down on the warm dirt road behind our vehicle. It was humbling to be just feet from creatures with such huge teeth and massive paws each armed with razor-sharp claws. The park has strick rules that states you must be back inside the protective electric fence around your chalet by dark. We needed to get going with 12km to cover and 20 minutes to get their before dark or face a fine. Frikkie decided we could not wait any longer. He turned around and slowly approached the lions who did not seem interested in getting out of our way. As the Toyota inched closer they relucantly started to stand. Frikkie had to sort of force our way through. As we drove by, the pissed off looking female below protested loudly. Frikkie told me to put up my window before she tried to pull me out of the car. As I rolled up the window the male flashed his teeth at us and he was less than 10 feet away. At that moment I could see Frikkie looking in the side mirror. Suddenly he yelled, "You bitch!" The grumpy female had decided to charge the back of the vehicle. Frikkie said he could just see her tail waving like crazy in the mirror as she charged the rear bumper. What a rush! Our incredible adventure just kept getting better. As we made our way back to camp, from the back seat Frikkie's wife Natasha in her sweet soft voice said, "Now I too can say I have survived a lion charge."  Everybody erupted into laughter.



The Bitch



Nice kitty

I'm just so sleepy

What's up?

King of Kruger