Africa...

Lions in camp!!! :eek: On the edge of my seat waiting for the next post!!!
 
At this point there was a pretty heavy mist rolling along the riverbed in waves, I looked across the river bed through the mist these three.....



... were just visible... !!

We had a short scramble from the fire pit area, this was right next to my hut so I ducked in and grabbed my camera and RIFE ;) Boet let Sarah know and I snapped off a few pics. As it all unfolded we think that the big cat in the middle (probably the mother of the other two, had been teaching them to hunt, we/the camp were what she was hunting. It also explains the commotion being made by the baboons all bloody night.

We had a couple of quick chats about the what ifs and when etc as they lingered at the tree line for a little. Basically if they hit the sand they would get the first shot across the bow ;) At the edge of the trees there they were 109yds away.

This is that first pic with a little photoshoppery to clear it up..



Once she started moving forward things seemed as though they may get a little more interesting.... ;)



Sarah appeared with an under/over 12ga and some rounds (No8 skeet loads). As if possible we would prefer to just send them on their way. Directly below us (in a small pond on the river) were a couple of buff heads (mine and another) plus my Kudu and Warthog heads. They place them here under wire and small fish strip the flesh and crud off ASAP. If the cats when to these they were guaranteed some No8s !!!

Watching them I got a lesson or two in lion behaviour... I was also told to keep watching her while she kept her back hips "cocked" as in the pic below as from here she could be up and away towards us easily...



As I watched the cats through the lens and binos it was apparent that they were watching EVERY movement in our camp (by now all the staff were well wound up and milling near the kitchen). Bearing in mind several of them have done a runner back into camp having come across these cats in the last few weeks out on the tracks. I knew that they had told me the cats had been in and around the camp during the night before, but I did think maybe they had overplayed this a bit (for safety reasons etc). While watching them I saw all three heads slowly turn and follow something, with out taking the camera them I asked who was walking down the path... Sarah (standing just behind me and a little freaked out) said it was Boet going to his quarters. They followed every step he took !

Some teeth...







... you can tell how young they is by the little biters... ;)

So when SHE started to come forward again to "the sand line"...



...we started think she was still considering having a go..!!

But it was like "she knew"...



...and yes, she IS staring straight at me, a very unusual feeling in itself !!!!!!!

Yep... right there next to me...



So we all sat there and watched each other for about 20 mins and then the big female moved back into the trees, the younger cats perceivably relaxed (as did we) when this happened...

I did think the Guinea Fowl were going to be in trouble (dumb dumb birds) and at one point he gave them a VERY long look !!!



The other two soon packed up and into the trees after mum, by this point that had been eyeing us off for over an hour.... !!!!

We settled a bit but left one of the camp staff watching the river (none of them wanted to move around at all as they were still a bit freaked, despite this being Africa and all that, this was the first time anyone here had seen these cats being so obvious about things, normally it was hearing them at night closer in or finding tracks (between the huts :eek: )in the mornings. We did go for a short walk behind the camp (180 degs from the river) in case they had crossed higher up and were moving in from behind.

A little later the guy watching the river called that they were out again, but further down stream...



.... it was also while they were here that we realised there were FOUR cats not the three we had seen, there was a second large female.

They then just hung around, they body language was totally different to what it had been when they were up close to us...







..... she wasted to be left alone but the young'n persisted till mum snarled and skulked away and into the middle of the river....



but the young one persisted again till told off...





The only good pic of all four out together. The young male was trying to play and it was all good till he tried to mount that big old cat and he got put well in his place.... ;) It all happened too quick for me to catch well though.





The clouds kept rolling across moving the exposure goal posts on me, but I persisted. Not always with great results, but it was worth trying.

All told they were hanging around (visible) for close to four hours !! While not relaxing too much, once they had moved downstream and fallen into "family mode" it was less tense than the first hour or so...!!

Once they were out of sight we went for a walk down the riverbed... yes, for someone not use to land based predators hanging around this did make the hair stand up on the back of my neck a bit as you truly KNOW they are not THAT far away.

The heads under wire getting "fish stripped" ...



Some tracks (taken down were the two cats were out in the middle of the riverbed)..





Looking back up toward camp...



and across from where they were in the morning...

 
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Great pictures Andy! Sometimes you have to work with what you're dealt, and you certainly did!

Momma is definitely open for business in this one

 
Yeah mate, that was the point when the heart started to pump a little more I can tell you...!!
 
It all reads like the adventure of a lifetime with excellent pics to bring it to life. Glad all went well! :)
 
Most Excellent Mate....What an opportunity to watch some of the best hunters watching some of the best hunters....BIG CATS!!!!
 
Fantastic pics and story! You really should consider writing a book! Seriously. Your writing and pics are better than some of the books I read about hunting in Africa and India when I was a teenager back in the late 50s. Back then, I read several books and innumerable Outdoor Life and Field and Stream articles about hunting in "the Dark Continent" and tiger hunting in India. Your narrative is as good or better than anything I read back then, and your pictures are even better!:thumbup:
 
Thanks very much guys, I do appreciate the kind words. It was, no doubt, a trip of a lifetime and I had a BALL !!!!!! I would go back again...and again...and again... ! Normally when I travel or hunt etc when I get home or start the trip back I am happy enough to do so and call it good. This time I would have VERY happily got back on the plane in Joburg and flown back to Moz and started it all again !!!!!!
 
Andy, it was like reading a book with excellent pictures and the story getting better and better. At the end it culminated with the pics making me feel my hair on my back :D
What was the load in your rifle at that time?
 
The same .300gn Woodleigh Hydro I had carried the rest of the trip mate. I am more than confident (seeing it on Kudu in particular) that it would have been more than adequate cat medicine as well.
 
Andy the Aussie said:
The same .300gn Woodleigh Hydro I had carried the rest of the trip mate. I am more than confident (seeing it on Kudu in particular) that it would have been more than adequate cat medicine as well.
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Sure it would've been, no doubts. And I recognize the bullet here
Africa%20Edit%20244_zps2tmjgefj.jpg


I was just wondering what was your load?
 
Sorry mate I missed the actual question, they are being pushed along by 77gns of Win760 ignited by a Federal LG Rifle Magnum Primer.
 
OH MAN! ANDY!!! That big cat looked like she had your number brother... or so she thought ;) Man, congrats of a beautiful trip and adventure--thanks again and again for sharing it with us!
 
Magnificent!!!!!:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Here I was worried that we had pressured you too much for pics/narrative. I thought that you might spend so much time trying to get the perfect pic that you'd forget to let go and enjoy the experience ..... Nothing to worry about, those cats certainly gave you ample time for pics and to calculate the distance to that boomstick of yours:D

Nothing like it back home, hey?..... I was led to believe that Razorbacks were actually aggressive enough to attack humans, especially in the dry season.... That true?
Thanks again, Andy, for sharing those parts of your life with us. I hope that you'll continue to post your local outings!
 
Yes mate, it was BRILLIANT, I can't step back from that at all !!!!!! It was tough balancing the camera and the "rifle" (by that I mean what was the priority), particularly in those first four days of buff hunting, it was HARD work and most of it spent with the rifle literally in hand. Those cats at the end (and the one that went us in the truck) really brought home that out on the ground (or the water !!) you are just part of the food chain, only the rifle and some reasoning ability changes your ranking.

Out here the only things that are a real threat are buff/bantang and crocs (all in the north). A big hog can be nasty and a bit aggressive but nothing too much in reality.

Still some more pis to follow. A few from Moz and then some live critter pics from Kruger, better pics but it was like being at a zoo after Moz.
 
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