A walk is always a nice gentle way to start a morning, and so began the day’s planned activity at Tau Pan. The tracker and guide began leading the guests down from the main deck and off on their stroll, when a large male lion suddenly appeared at the waterhole a few hundred metres below them. Whilst the guests were watching with binoculars, and the camp’s telescope, the car was quickly brought around for a change of activity, and the guests set off on the drive to see the lion. Obviously hearing what was up, and feeling a little camera shy, the lion then decided to leave the waterhole and head through the edge of the camp, leading the guide on a bit of a wild goose chase as the lion cut through the bush. After some tracking, and a brief sighting of him heading off through the landscape, the guests returned to the original plan of a walk and set off again – a little later than the norm!
A trip to the Piper Pan provided two excellent sightings – 9 lions including six youngsters were resting in the shade of a tree. Not too far away from them, seven wild dogs were seen moving off into the distance. A day or so later, and the dogs paid a visit to Tau Pan, also where three lions were seen (one male mating with one of the two lionesses).
Things must be getting unseasonably dry, as one morning, down at the Tau Pan waterhole, a brown hyena was seen drinking. Normally, these super shy and elusive predators are rarely seen in the summer months, but thirst must have forced a change of habit. A few days later, we were lucky enough to see another brown hyena – this time hunting – a highly unusual sighting.
