Lions visit

Evening light catches the lion at the waterhole

During the last week we have had several very good sightings of lions at Leopard’s View.  Our first sighting was a week ago on Thursday 13^th September at 8.00 am.  We were re-laying the top floor of the game viewing tower (more news of that in the next blog), when we saw two lions walking across in front of the water hole.  They did not stop to drink and were intent on going somewhere in a hurry.  Two more lions followed them, but again were moving too fast for us to get any photos. 

Lion seen early yesterday morning

That same evening we saw one young male lion drinking at the waterhole and went down to take a closer look.

He had a limp in his back right leg and after drinking moved off into the river bed where there must have been at least two other lions from the very loud roaring that we heard.  The sound of a lion roaring at night must be the most evocative African sound and can literally send vibrations through the body.  We love to hear it and guests lucky enough to share the experience never forget it. 

This lion seemed to be suffering from a definite surfeit of food

Yesterday, we were treated to another fabulous lion sighting.  We first became aware of lion nearby at 4.00 am, when there were growls that could only have been made by a big cat, although at that time we were not sure if it was lion or leopard. 
 
A couple of hours later we found one male lion very close to the house and were glad we had not chosen that morning to take a walk as he was resting just 150 m away.  Later that afternoon about 5.00 pm the same male came to drink at the waterhole.  He took a very long drink and then lay down to rest.

The lion begins to walk along the road, back to the carcass
Lodge in the background

Not surprisingly, he had a very full belly and took several more drinks before walking off up the hill, and past our house back to where we had found him in the morning.  There he picked up part of a carcass that he had hidden in a thick bush and walked off.  We left him to enjoy the last of his meal, delighted to have had such a memorable sighting.   

We took this picture as he walked right past our vehicle on his way back to the carcass. He looks quite menacing compared to the picture below.

Lion at rest

Spring cometh

Since writing the last blog we have seen quite a drastic change in the weather.  The relatively cool winter’s days and nights suddenly changed in the space of a week and the temperatures soared until reaching a scorching 38.4 degrees about a week ago.  Winter had vanished in a flash and spring was heralded in by the blossom on the knob thorn trees around the lodge and throughout the bush here in Balule.



Knob thorn trees in bloom

Knob thorn trees, Acacia nigrescens, are particularly prevalent in our part of the Lowveld and we always look forward to the burst of flowers and their very distinctive, rather sweet perfume.  The tree is easy to spot in the bush because of the knobbly thorns on the trunk and branches, each knob with a very sharp thorn at the end of it. 

There is a traditional belief that the knobs on the tree can be crushed up and applied to a young girl’s chest to ensure she will later on be well-endowed in that area! 

Knob-thorn trees make up a very considerable part of the diet of giraffes, and they particularly like the flowers and fresh new leaves.  At this time of year they come very close to the decks of the lodge where we have several mature trees and can spend up to two hours browsing there.  It is a marvellous sight and our guests can sit within a few yards of these magnificent animals and enjoy the show.

Other local tree specimens in flower now include the Blue thorn, Acacia erubescens, with a similar yellow-white flower spike and a pair of very sharp hooked thorns.  We have been ‘hooked’ many times by these trees whilst walking through the bush.

  

Male Marico Sunbird

Female Marico Sunbird

The brilliant yellow, pea-like flowers of the Sjambok pod, Cassia abbreviata, make it very easy to identify and it was this feature that stood out amongst all the other trees as I was looking out over the bush from our viewing tower.  Its common name comes from the particularly long seed pods that have a passing resemblance to the “sjambok”, a long whip traditionally made from hippo hide.

An unusually early ‘first rain’ of 19mm last week has given Spring a real kick start and has contributed to the burst of new leaves and grass in the bush.  We are always delighted when the first rain comes but also hope that this is not a false alarm with no more rain for weeks, by which time the new grasses will have burned up.  Having lived in England for most of our lives we never thought we would welcome the rain, but it is the cause for real celebration here in the bush.  Let’s hope there will be plenty more to report on next time.