“Lions, lions, lions where have they all gone?” That was the one question all of us had on our minds. Being an unfenced reserve, allowing animals to roam freely, this means that there may be periods of time when we do not always see lions.

This all changed on the morning of 13th January. It was a clear blue skied day with a slight breeze cooling down the bush around us. The beautiful light shining through the trees gave us a feeling of excitement for what was to come. We were all on edge and hoping that the lions were back on the reserve. A message came in over the radio, “Tracks of a pride of lions have crossed onto the reserve, going north; one in the area following up”. The call sent shivers down my spine and the radio was quiet as all of us wondered if we heard correctly.

After a couple of seconds, I realised what had happened and I swiftly picked up the radio to ask if I could help out in the area. Soon we were 3 vehicles all working together to try and track down the lions. We searched far and wide, getting out of the vehicle almost every 5 minutes to make sure that we were still on the right track.

Coming around a turn I saw my tracker’s eyes widen and his arm lifted pointing with one finger. It all felt like it was in slow motion as he formed the long-forgotten word “LIONS!”. We almost jumped out of our seats with excitement. They were back, the Styx Pride is back home.

Everyone found their way through to the pride and had a good look as the 2 adult females and their 7 youngsters were sleeping in the shade of the trees trying to hide from the sun.

Moving on to the afternoon game drive we heard that the lion pride was still fast asleep in the same spot. We stayed away at first and moved through the reserve to have a look at what else there was to find. After sundowners we heard the loud alarm call of zebra in the distance and knew that we had to quickly make our way to go and find out what was happening. As we made our way, my heart started beating out of my chest with excitement.

We heard the growls echoing through the bush. As we moved closer, we saw the nine member Styx Pride clinging onto a big zebra that they must have pulled down only a couple of seconds before we got there as we could still see slight kicks and shakes from the zebra. It was over as soon as it started with the lions starting their feast and each one getting their share.

At this point the vehicle was as quiet as a mouse with everyone just staring in complete awe of what was happening in front of us. Not a word was spoken for a good couple of minutes and then my one guest mumbled that they don't look as sweet and cuddly as they do when they're just sleeping, and a scatter of laughter broke out across the vehicle.

Following up on the lions the next morning showed them lying around with massive bellies and a satisfied grin on their faces as they would try and get comfortable with the massive stomachs filled with the meat from the zebra.

We followed them as they moved to a nearby waterhole, had a drink and lay down in the shade of a big Jackalberry tree.

Moving along to Sunday morning, the 15th of January, we woke up to have the Styx Pride lounging around the waterhole in front of Selati Camp. Still digesting and working on getting the food into their systems.

We were all very excited to have the Styx Pride back and see that they are all healthy and alive and back at Sabi Sabi!