Every safari is tailormade for our valued guests. To be able to do so we always try to gather as much information as we can. A few weeks ago, Dollen (my tracker) and I had the honour of hosting 6 guests for 4 nights. Three of our guests had been to Bush Lodge before and had brought their friends to relive the wonderful experience they had had before so the pressure was on us to meet and exceed their expectations.

The plane from Johannesburg had just landed and I had straightened my signboard when I saw 2 very enthusiastic teenage boys make a beeline straight for me. They politely introduced themselves and within seconds we had caught on like fire. Once I had met everyone else, we made our way to baggage claim and soon after that headed for Bush Lodge. The drive to the lodge was quite an eventful one as we saw impala, zebra, giraffes and just when we thought it could not get any better, we saw a pride of lions with cubs! Seems like we were off to a good start, but little did we know this particular pride would be the highlight of our 4 nights together.

Our first drive proved to be as successful as our drive from the airport – we got to see a female leopard and her cubs and a rhino and her calf wallowing at a waterhole. We celebrated our successful day with a sundowner enjoyed with plenty of gin and tonics and Shirley Temples for the boys.

The next morning, we set out all bright and bushy-tailed and it wasn’t long before we came across fresh tracks of 3 lions. We tracked them for a while, and they seemed to have walked straight into a riverbed. I had just pulled my rifle out of its case to assist Dollen in tracking when I saw him beckon to me to come over. As I peered into the riverbed, I saw the 3 females lying down in the shade. After trying several times to manoeuvre our vehicle into our precious find and getting stuck in the process, we finally found them lying comfortably in the shade of a Tamboti thicket. Later, we found a lone male lion with an impala kill tucked away safely in the tall grass amongst spikey thorns. As the morning progressed it began to get hot so decided to head back to the lodge.

With everyone fully recovered from the jet lag, the next safaris were as successful as the previous ones. We found multiple white rhino and got to see elephants of all ages. Seeing elephants was on the list of one of my guests and seeing multiple baby elephants brought her so much pleasure. We also witnessed great animal interactions from lions stalking impala in our open fields to elephants flushing out a coalition of two sleeping lions at a dried-up waterhole.

The highlight of the trip must be watching the Styx Pride stalking a huge herd of buffalo. We had seen them earlier, resting on the side of the road not too far from the herd of about 80 – 100 buffalo. As the sun was still high and the temperatures were flaring, they seemed uninterested in the potential meals on 4 legs. We drove away from the scene to find a bull elephant feeding and a crash of 4 white rhino grazing not too far. Four of the Big 5 on one road!!! What are the chances?

By the time we were done with our new finds, the sun was beginning to set in the west. One of our boys made the call for us to go back and check on the lions and buffalo and a good call it was! As we approached, we saw the 3 females, slowly stalking the unsuspecting buffaloes in the tall grass. With the sun behind them and a breeze of wind blowing in a westerly direction away from them, they managed to get within 10 – 15 meters of the buffalo. While all this was going on the cubs had also decided to join in on the action. The tall grass gave the tiny hunters the perfect cover as they watched their mothers patiently wait for the right opportunity to pounce. Suddenly a couple of old bulls came in from behind the lions and they must have picked up on the scent of the hiding lions as they warned the rest of the herd. With their cover blown, two adult females rushed in for the kill but were met with an impenetrable wall of horns that quickly drove them back. The one female that remained with the cubs also started to move away from the very alert and irritable herd of buffalo but in a bid to lead the cubs away from this volatile situation, the cubs reacted too slowly.

In seconds the marauding herd of buffalo shifted their attention from the 3 females to the inexperienced cubs. It seemed like years of frustration from being persecuted by lions was about to be taken out on these poor cubs. As the herd rushed in the tiny cubs made a run to a nearby termite mound but that wasn’t high enough to prevent the hoard of buffalo from getting up there. There was much bellowing as the buffalo charged in and the helpless cubs scattered. One of them managed to scramble up a tree as everyone else ran for dear life. One cub, in particular, got cornered and I was certain he had been trampled but he had managed to sidestep as one of the buffalo tried to flip him and hit a calf with so much impact it tossed it straight into the air! We all were in awe as all this happened and as the buffalo circled the tree where the one cub had taken refuge, I could hear the pounding heartbeats of my guests. After 10 – 15 minutes the buffalo lost interest and began to move off and the scattered pride began to regroup. The one female called softly to the cub in the tree and after much coaxing, it jumped down to re-join the pride. We did a quick headcount before leaving and all lions were accounted for. Proof that cats certainly do have 9 lives!

To end off on a high note, we found a pack of twenty plus wild dogs on our last morning drive. Just what one of my boys had ordered! I couldn’t have asked to share these 4 nights with a better group of people.