As promised here are some images of lions.  As with the elephants I had one lioness come right up to my car window, have a look at me and then just wander off…unlike with the elephants I did get a bit nervous about this particular episode.  But hey, stay calm and it mostly ends well!  (That is the theory at least)

            The lion “encounter” pretty much started with me lying in my tent at four in the morning, listening to the distant roar of a lion and the scratching, hissing and coughing of a honey badger and its cub inspecting my tent.  As the sun was peeking over the horizon, I was on my way to the nearest (worthwhile) water hole known to harbour a pride of lions.

As I parked the car beside the water, I spotted a lioness making her way down to the water edge for a drink.  The sun had just cleared the horizon (tops of the bushes) and I made my first image of the day (see left).  For most of the early part of the morning I watched the lions do mostly nothing but lie around in the vicinity of the water.  Now and then an individual would give in to a burst of madness and expend some energy, only to lie straight back down and doze off.

The lions only seemed to be inactive; they were in reality lying by the water waiting for their prey to come to them.  Time and time again, plains game would make their way to the water passing close by the waiting lions.  Stopping to listen, smell and look around after every painfully slow step.  Only to be spooked away from the water by some impatient tourist (in complete “Safari Gear” boots and all, even a curved hunting knife - God knows what they’ll ever need that for) yelling out to his companions in another vehicle “there’s nothing going on here shall we head back to the swimming pool!!!!!!” 

Needless to say I hung out of my window and made my feelings known-emphasized by equally dark looks from the lions.  –These inconsiderate people had been by the water hole for the whole of 3 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (You heard me!)  And had effectively ruined 3 hours of very subtle yet skilful manoeuvring by the lions. 

Of course they are in the minority, as most visitors do tend to have an interest in the natural world and also tend to show some common sense for the most part.  As for my noisy “Adventurer with the big knife”, you missed the male lion and repeated visits by a number of different elephant families!  - Anything interesting happen by the pool? -

And that is how you perfect the tripping technique.